Lanes Utilities in line to win prestigious water industry safety award

Lanes Utilities has been shortlisted for the SBWWI Health and Safety Award 2014.

The Society of British Water and Wastewater Industries Awards recognise companies that aim to deliver and exceed industry expectations by encouraging and developing best practice.

The winners of three awards – for Health and Safety, Innovation and People – will be announced the society’s annual luncheon in Leamington Spa on Wednesday 8 October.

Lanes Utilities, part of the Lanes Group, submitted evidence of a range of initiatives developed in the last 12 months to promote excellence in health and safety.

These included a new digital point of works risk assessment tool, which allows health and safety to be closely monitored in real time, and invites engineers to recommend ways to improve safety each time they complete a job.

Lanes Utilities, which operates the UK’s largest wastewater network maintenance contract for Thames Water, has also introduced a system of annual re-induction for all staff, a first for the wastewater services sector.

Sarah Hurcomb, Health Safety Quality and Environment Manager for Lanes Utilities, said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted for an SBWWI award. There are a lot of examples of good practice in safety in the water industry, so to have been selected is a positive step for us.

“We are constantly looking to improve our health and safety strategy and processes, so being able to benchmark ourselves against the industry’s best like this is an excellent opportunity for us.”

Lanes Utilities carries out 220,000 job transactions per year for Thames Water, including unblocking 120,000 drains. The contract’s accident frequency rate and accident incident rate are both currently zero.