Pictured above: Hayley Barsby, head of housing,
Mansfield District Council (left), with school children from St
Peter's Primary School and Dan Platten, health and safety advisor,
William Davis (centre) and Pearl Day, headteacher, St Peter's
Primary School (right)
In a bid to persuade the children of Mansfield to play safe
during the school summer holidays, a team of health & safety
professionals from Loughborough-based contractor and developer,
William Davis Ltd visited its second school in the County in less
than a week to highlight the hazards of playing on a construction
site.
St Peter's C of E Primary School on Bellamy Road in Mansfield,
is the latest school to benefit from this important message, which
is especially timely as William Davis together with Mansfield
District Council have begun building 43 new homes on four sites
adjacent the school.
During a full school assembly, the children aged from four (4)
to eleven (11) were given a fun but factual presentation by Dan
Platten, Health & Safety Advisor with William Davis,
demonstrating the many risks of playing and even walking through a
building site.
Dan said: "William Davis and Mansfield District Council are
building a number of new homes around St Peter's School and with
school holidays now upon us building sites are potentially a great
playground, full of adventure.
"We aim to educate the children in a friendly, interactive way,
that by playing on a working building site, however much fun it
looks, is potentially life threatening."
On hand to reinforce this message and help launch the William
Davis Safety on Site Poster Campaign, was Hayley Barsby, Head of
Housing at Mansfield District Council who said: "These are the
first Council properties to be built in Mansfield in around 30
years and working with William Davis, we are determined to ensure
that the construction passes smoothly and most importantly,
safely.
"It was an absolute pleasure to meet the staff and pupils from
St Peter's School. I am confident they received the message loud
and clear that building sites can be dangerous places and should be
avoided."
Pearl Day, Headteacher at St Peter's added: "St Peter's Primary
School welcomed Dan's visit. The safety and well-being of
pupils is one of our primary concerns and it is essential that
children are made aware of the dangers of playing on a building
site."
Winners of the poster campaign will be announced at the start of
the new term in September, giving the youngsters plenty of time to
put their design skills in to action and paint brushes to paper.
The best designs will be turned into a large poster and displayed
on the site hoarding boards to act as a constant warning to any
child tempted to play on site.
The £5 million project on the Bellamy Road Estate which
has been part funded by the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA),
is due to commence shortly. When complete it will provide 43 new
family homes on the Colston, Shelston and Syerstone areas of the
estate and will replace a series of outdated flats, which were
previously demolished to make way for the three and four bedroomed
homes, available for rent.