Lanes shortlisted for national health and safety awards
Businesses operated by Lanes Group plc have been shortlisted for two prestigious Safety and Health Excellence Awards.
Broadband civils and fibre specialist Lanes Infrastructure has been shortlisted for the Best Health and Safety in Construction Award.
Lanes Group Health and Safety Manager Donya Seyadi has reached the shortlist for the Rising Star Award.
The Safety and Health Excellence Awards, known as the SHE Awards, recognise exemplar standards, performance and innovation in health, safety and wellbeing across all UK industries.
Lanes Group is the UK’s largest independent drainage and wastewater service specialist.
Lanes Infrastructure (Lanes-i) delivers excavation and installation services for the broadband industry, and is majority owned by Lanes Group.
Its clients include City Fibre, for which it is installing fibre ducting in four city regions across South East England.
The company has pledged to set new safety and quality standards in broadband civils, adopting award-winning practices developed to support Lanes’ water utility customers.
Lanes-i Managing Director David Roberts said: “Being shortlisted for a SHE Award is testament to the hard work and creativity of our health and safety team in developing a strong and sustainable safety culture.
“We very much believe health, safety and wellbeing are central to our commercial success, an approach borne out by our success in winning new contracts in the short time we have been operational.”
Lanes-i has committed to invest significantly more than competitors in employing health and safety advisors who are embedded within each installation area, rather than working between them.
The company also operates bespoke service vans with equipment storage designed to minimise manual handling and external display screens to communicate safety messages to operatives and the public.
It has an excellent health and safety record, with an accident frequency rate of 0.14, less than 10% of the 2020 average of 2.0 for the construction industry, and has not had a reportable incident since trading began in June 2020.
Donya Seyadi is the Health and Safety Manager for Lanes Utilities, the wastewater network maintenance partner for Thames Water, the UK’s largest water company.
She joined the business as a customer coordinator in 2018, then became one of the company’s first trainee health and safety advisors in March 2019, completing her training in February 2020.
Working alongside the Head of HSQE and Security, Kris Taylor, she has played a leading part in devising and implementing Lanes Utilities’ successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to maintain services and safeguard more than 1,000 personnel.
This has involved collaborating with HR colleagues to develop an internal COVID-19 track and trace system, devising social distancing procedures for every depot, and heading up an innovative communications plan that makes use of internally-produces cartoon advice videos.
She was also shortlisted for the Water Industry Awards 2021 Woman of the Year Award.
Lanes Director Andy Brierly said: “Donya is a force of nature, an excellent health and safety manager, and an inspirational leader. Her enthusiasm is infectious and her ability to manage multiple projects and get things done is awesome.
“We’re all massively pleased that she’s gained this recognition because it’s richly deserved. It also reflects our approach at Lanes Utilities. We nurture and encourage talented people and we’d love more people like Donya to join us.”
The winners of the SHE Awards will be announced during a digital event on Wednesday 13th October.
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