MERA's "spy in the sky" has an excellent view of all the SITE TRAFFIC on the Telford Homes development on Eastendhomes' Eric & Treby Estate.
The site traffic is giving our spy lots of practice at photographing and videoing. The "spy in the sky"'s latest effort is a slideshow demonstrating how trucks regularly reverse without a banksman (see below).
Note the pedestrian who is behind the truck as it starts to reverse without a banksman.
Also note that this truck is removing contaminated soil from the site - an operation which is supposed to be strictly regulated to avoid creating health and safety issues for local residents. We are not impressed with the operation to date.
We're also photographing trucks
1) driving across the site with loads which have not been secured in any way - missing local residents' cars by very little. This is the dumper truck moving around site fencing - which was bouncing around within millimetres of residents' cars. This is EXTREMELY UNSAFE.
2) driving the WRONG WAY up Southern Grove causing all sorts of problems for other traffic
2) exiting the site the wrong way - turning left into Southern Grove and exiting on to Mile End Road (A11) at a point not agreed with or approved by Transport for London for site traffic
Today, the MERA Secretary today witnessed a cement truck employ a female passer-by as a "banksman" (the person who is qualified to supervise reversing trucks).
MERA is currently thinking of starting a residents' sweepstake for how many incidents of breaches of the Traffic Access Management Plan it can log before the end of this contract!
Except of course there is no approved Traffic Management Plan at the moment because the Construction Management Plan (which includes it) was REFUSED.
Why was that? Could it be because the details about site traffic management were so INADEQUATE?
In the meantime, site traffic continues to behave as it pleases.......and we continue to photograph it. We'll be sending copies to the relevant agencies who monitor health and safety on construction sites.
In the meantime we'll be asking Mr Irvine exactly what is the point of planning conditions to protect the residents if they don't do anything of the sort.
Plus we're also in correspondence with the Health & Safety Executive.
Maybe our local councillors for Mile End East - who of course are also members of the Eastendhomes Board - would also like to follow up on this?
Thanks for sharing this post. I think traffic is a big issues nowadays . Every people have there own duty for his/her health safety.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very odd comment coming from a company which ought to know better!
ReplyDeleteThe developers and the companies they employ to build have a legal responsibility for health and safety in terms of complete 100% compliance with all the statutory law relating to running construction sites and the planning permission which requires their behaviour to minimise risk to local residents
People shouldn't think any more than they usually do about their own health and safety if the developers behave in a way which they are required to do.
You guys are unbelievable! I was just reading this page and can't believe how little tolerance you give to the workers constructing your neighbourhood. I live in Australia and work in the construction industry myself and I find it almost amusing reading about the English general public (you guys) making it harder than it should be (and probably more expensive) for the construction worker of England to make a dollar... sorry, pound. How do you people get anything done with soooo many complaints!? From an outsiders point of view, it seems you are not happy until everybody acts like 6 year olds, lol! I love the one where construction equipment is left perfectly safe parked on the side of the road and labeled as "Childrens Playgound Equipment". Serious? Don't kids have mothers over there?? I think you all need to relax a little and get a bit more sun on your face. Perhaps give each other a little more tolerance and grow a little more common sense... is it still common over there? English whingers...lmao! Have a happy day... from a happy fellow Australian construction worker, Pete.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you're not aware that these were not enclosed construction sites - these were several small construction sites, often left with the gates wide open, in the middle of a densely populated housing estate with a lot of children.
DeleteThe point is that these contractors were behaving in a way which suggested that they had little or no awareness of any children living on this estate. We had very large construction vehicles manouvering through the streets of the estate without adequate precautions being taken. These were also left parked and unattended on streets.
Only after a number of protests and the involvement of the London branch of the Health and Safety Executive did we get to situation where the behaviour of workmen improved and Telfords started observing all the planning conditions laid down by the Council and the health and safety regulations required of all construction workforces. Are you suggesting that these should have been ignored?
Of course kids have mothers. But those kids and mothers also face the stress of living in an area with far too little green space for play. Are you suggesting that either small children should stay inside all day (the safe option) or play outside in areas where the mother can't see them (the risky option)? You'd be right - those in reality were the only real options for far too many mothers during the extremely long construction period.