BUSINESSES across the town will be inspected this month to make sure they are hitting health and safety standards.
Crawley Borough Council has joined forces with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to promote and encourage safe working practices.
And in a bold new move, Crawley’s Environmental Health Team will also take enforcement action wherever necessary in premises normally dealt with by the HSE.
Flexible warrants now allow inspectors from local authorities to check sites traditionally covered by the HSE.
The new countywide initiative, named CASE (Common Approach to Sussex Enterprise), will focus mainly on businesses in industrial sites where there is a higher risk of accidents or ill health.
The priority areas will include work transport, manual handling, work at heights and asbestos.
Crawley Council’s Tony Baldock, Regulatory Services Group Manager. Said: “It’s a great new move to ensure Local authorities across Sussex work effectively with the HSE to make sure workplace hazards are monitored and controlled.
“Businesses across the town will have received a letter from the HSE and they really ought to be looking at their health and safety measures to make sure they’re sufficient.
“We will be offering advice and support during our visits but if we think health and safety standards are particularly poor then we won’t hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action.”
For more health and safety information log on to http://www.crawley.gov.uk/healthsafety or further information can be found on the Health and Safety Executive’s website http://www.hse.gov.uk/ or by calling HSE’s Infoline on 0845 345 0055
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