Trucks reversing without a banksman

Trucks attending the preliminary site works by Telford Homes plc at the base of Ennerdale House are showing a blatant disregard for the "rules" of how all construction traffic is supposed to behave.

The context

• Any vehicle reversing is supposed to have a properly trained banksman supervising that reversing. (See What is a bankman? at the end of this blog post)
  
• Any site which is not properly secured remains open to the PUBLIC - and that currently includes all the area at the base of Ennerdale House at present.
  

Fortunately members of MERA are hanging out of their windows with their cameras and camcorders capturing what has been happening. You can see more photos in Traffic Management at Ennerdale House on our MERA Flickr Account.

9th June 2010

The route of the truck entering Ennerdale Car Park - 9.45am on 9th June 2010
Photographed by MERA from Ennerdale House

Today, a truck has been visiting the site works at the base of Ennerdale House. This is NOT a secure site. Despite hoardings being erected it is still completely open and consequently can be crossed by children who may not be seen by a driver (and also cannot be seen by others now the hoarding is up)

• The first truck arrived at 7.45am prior to 8.00am which is the earliest time that ANY construction traffic should be present on or near the site according to the terms dictated by the planning conditions
• To date repeated visits have been made by the truck today with no banksman in evidence on any of the times it was seen.
• This breaches the proposed arrangements as per the construction management plan and all accepted standards for the management of site traffic within a residential / public area.
  

The video below shows how the truck enters the open site and manouvres without any banksman in evidence at any time

Truck reversing - with no banksman - in Ennerdale Car Park

This practice has been drawn to the attention of Andy Osborne, the Project Manager for EastendHomes and Jeremy Brett of Telford Homes who is in overall charge of the construction site.

We are also sending a link to this post to the Planning Department at Tower Hamlets Council.

What is a Banksman?

In simple terms a banksman is the person responsible for directing the operations of large vehicles or machinery on a building site.

Use of a Banksman ensures that an organisation meets its legal requirements and reduces the risk of costly accidents when carrying out common, but dangerous, reversing manoeuvres.

A Banksman is responsible for

• The safe passage of reversing vehicles in confined spaces
• Identification of areas of danger within sites
• Knowing the HSE and Road Transport Industry Training Board recommended code of signals
• Guiding large goods vehicles, both rigid and articulated, using the code of signals to HSE Guide Notes HSG136 standard

If you have any queries please contact MERA
If you have a comments please leave it below