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Hoists & Lifts Regulations.
To date 158 registered premises in the Borough have been found to contain hoists
or lifts. The total number of such appliances is 219 of which 103 are hand-operated and
116 power-driven.
The matter of enclosing the liftway of hand-operated crate hoists has continued
during the year. Many owners have procrastinated in the hope and expectation that
representations to the Minister for exemption from these requirements would be successful.
This has not proved to be the case and three years after the Regulations became
enforceable many of these appliances still await enclosure.
Part III — Accidents
The number of accidents has remained almost static, a total of 33 compared with
34 in the previous year. As before all accidents were investigated for cause and possible
contravention. In no case was a contravention found to be a contributory factor to the
accident.
The majority of accidents, fortunately, proved to be minor mishaps and ranged
from electric shock to scalds. Falls, slips, and trips formed the majority category whilst
minor injury from handling goods followed. As usual injury from the use of tools,
especially knives, figured high on the list.
No case required formal action but in three instances informal advice was given
and accepted. One involved injury from use of a caustic substance in cleaning waste pipes
whilst another concerned maintenance of electrical appliances. The third instance arose
from an operator of a rotary copying-machine sustaining an injured hand due apparently
to ill-fitting rubber gloves and ill-advised maintenance with a guard plate removed.
Part IV — Prosecutions
Two summonses were issued during the year under the Act relating to incidents
recorded at the end of 1970. Both referred to failure to guard gravity feed slicing machines
and occurred in different branches of the same multiple retail food shop. A conviction
and a fine of £10 plus £5 costs was secured in each case. Legal action was only resorted
to, after repeated warnings over a lengthy period had failed to secure a permanent fitting
of satisfactory guards.
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