A SERIES of safety away days for contractors have been hailed as a success by ICI.

The events broke new ground with three half days attended by a total of more than 100 different representatives from the business's key contractors who service the Northwich Sites' plants.

The away days also included those contractors who work with Northwich Sites' other residents like Zeneca and Brunner Mond.

Organiser, Peter Downes, site civil engineer and contracts manager said: "What we are aiming to do is involve contractors from all the sites' resident businesses so that they are all operating to common safety and best practice standards.

"If you can maintain the same standards it reduces the chances of confusion and problems between us and the contractors."

The away days concentrate on getting the contractors' representatives to examine why accidents might have occurred in the past and then on carrying out risk assessments to prevent similar circumstances in the future.

Mr Downes said: "We need everybody working on site to have the same attitudes and behaviour towards staying safe in the workplace and events such as this, which we believe are the first in ICI to be organised specifically for contractors, will make that happen."

Another key man insetting up the away days was site civil engineer and contracts manager, Steve Hough.

He summed up the thinking behind the initiative saying: "We want people, both our own and the contractors, to leave work at the end of the day in the same condition in which they came into it."

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