Dales Folk
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A £20,000 fine? Not a lot of people know that!
Not a lot of people know that the actor Michael Caine never said "Not a lot of people know that." The quote attributed to him was actually used by the late Peter Sellers as the message on his answer phone, mimicking Caine's cockney accent.
If that seems a somewhat arcane way to start, I urge local business people to get to know the acronym CDM pretty fast. Very few have even heard of it, never mind understand its implications, but such ignorance could turn them into criminals - and cost them up to £20,000.
CDM stands for Construction, Design and Management and it is one of the 2,000 new laws this Government has introduced every year for 10 years.
It is - I shudder to say - part of New Labour's "elf n safety" obsession and it dictates a whole new set of laws any builder or civil engineer must obey on any construction project which takes more than six weeks.
I don't pretend to understand half of it, but neither does most of the construction industry. Stan Norkett does and he warns: "These regulations have been in force for a year, but - as in many of this Government's initiatives - there were not enough trained inspectors to enforce them. Well, there are now and should one inspect a building project where the CDM regulations are not in place, the site could be closed and the builder end up with a £20,000 fine and a criminal record."
Stan, aged 60, knows a lot about the pain and cost of accidents. As a 17-year-old, he was in a motorcycle accident which cost him part of his right arm and half his right leg, which had to be amputated when gangrene set in.
As a result, he whizzes round his offices in a converted barn at Sunhill, Fleets, near Hetton, in a powered wheelchair. And, although his disability was a result of a road accident, he has seen many more men hurt in his 40-plus-year career in the building industry, which has a bad record on health and safety.
"We kill more people than the SAS," he says, making a grim joke of a sad statistic. "Having seen many men disabled like me in avoidable building site accidents, I began to get involved in health and safety work some years ago. I know the subject has become something of a joke, with bans on conkers and pantomime weapons, but it is deadly serious for a man who loses an arm or a leg and can never work again. I know better than most what years of pain can do to a person."
Stan is a Londoner who had the great good fortune to marry a Dales lass from Airton, whom he met while she was a student in London. They were both doing charity work with drug addicts at their local church, where wife-to-be Rosemary handed out free "sticky" buns. She has been known as Stix ever since.
Exactly 10 years ago, on an Easter visit to her parents, they decided to move north and set up Stan J Norkett Ltd as health and safety advisers. They quickly won some prestigious clients: Harewood House in Wharfedale, home of Earl Harewood, and Broughton Hall Business Park, the hugely successful project launched by Broughton Hall owner Roger Tempest.
Business park manager David Aynesworth says: "Health and safety has become a nightmare of new rules and regulations. Stan has been invaluable in helping us wind our way through these new CDM laws."
David is well known in Craven for his charity work, which includes his own Punch and Judy show. He is so impressed with Stan Norkett's work that he has added a health and safety puppet to the show.
That might make children chortle - but these new laws are no laughing matter for anyone who builds or manages property. There are criminal convictions and hefty fines lurking in the small print.
10:47am Friday 28th March 2008
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CommentPosted by: Sue Preston, YORK on 3:38pm Fri 28 Mar 08
Sorry, but there are so many incorrect statements in this article I feel that I should make a comment. CDM regulations have been in force for over 14 years and have been merley updated in the past 12months! There is nothing 'new' about the general requirements at all. Anyone who hasn't been aware of, and adhering to, these regulations before now can not have possibly been actively working in the Construction Industry for over 14years. Contrary to the statement in this article, the vast majority of us in the Construction Industry are fully aware of, and do understand, CDM Regulations.
PS As the CDM regs have been in place for 14 years it was the Tories that devised and made them law - not the New Labour...
Sorry, but there are so many incorrect statements in this article I feel that I should make a comment. CDM regulations have been in force for over 14 years and have been merley updated in the past 12months! There is nothing 'new' about the general requirements at all. Anyone who hasn't been aware of, and adhering to, these regulations before now can not have possibly been actively working in the Construction Industry for over 14years. Contrary to the statement in this article, the vast majority of us in the Construction Industry are fully aware of, and do understand, CDM Regulations.
PS As the CDM regs have been in place for 14 years it was the Tories that devised and made them law - not the New Labour...
Posted by: Sam Linton, Skipton on 1:15pm Fri 4 Apr 08
Sorry, but Sue you are wrong.
The CDM Regulations 1994 were completely revoked not "ammended"
The CDM Regulations were in force from 1994 (CDM 1994). These regulations were revoked in 2007. Unfortunately the new regulations that were to replace CDM 1994 were called CDM 2007. Whilst they are trying to tackle the same issues they are a new set of regulations and should have been called something else such as The Construction Regulations.
Whilst it is great that you are fully aware of CDM and are adhering to them you would be surprised at the amount of people that clearly don't know much about CDM
Sorry, but Sue you are wrong.
The CDM Regulations 1994 were completely revoked not "ammended"
The CDM Regulations were in force from 1994 (CDM 1994). These regulations were revoked in 2007. Unfortunately the new regulations that were to replace CDM 1994 were called CDM 2007. Whilst they are trying to tackle the same issues they are a new set of regulations and should have been called something else such as The Construction Regulations.
Whilst it is great that you are fully aware of CDM and are adhering to them you would be surprised at the amount of people that clearly don't know much about CDM
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