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H & S in a marina


lesrollins

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Well, yes, just like any other company/organisation that has workers and or the public on their premisses. It boils down to they have to assess any and all risks, document it, and put in place what mitigation of the risk they think appropriate. The acceptability and effectiveness of such mitigation will only be adjudicated upon when a serious incident occurs.

 

I doubt anyone can say much more unless they know the reason for the question and then get the full facts.

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As a marina is a place of work it will be controlled by all workplace H&S legislation. This includes (but is not limited to):

 

HASAWA, Management regs, PPE regs, Manual handling regs, PUWER, LOLER, RIDDOR, Working time regs, etc. etc.

 

I suspect you have a specific reason for asking this question. You will get a much more specific answer if you give us that reason.

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Hello can anyone tell me if there are any set rules and regulations regarding health and safety in a marina. Is there a certain criteria that the marina as to adhere to regarding health and safety.

Thanks

Here's what CRT have to say on the subject:

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/business-and-trade/inland-marina-development-guide/design/safety

 

Edited to say: This document also has links to other organisations that provide safety advice.

Edited by PaulG
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My experience is that there are extremes of difference between marinas, the good ones have for example, decent roads & pathways suitable for disabled ,Jetties that are safe and secure to walk on Life rings and fire extinguishers. The worst are atrocious

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We spent a winter at Hartford Marina a few years ago, the pontoon leading to our mooring had a list of about 15°. On the boat just up from us lived a man who walked on crutches. One night he slipped and went into the water. There were no safety ladders and he was in the water for about 15 minutes before someone heard him and got him out.

 

As far as I know, he made no complaint to the authorities, only to the Marina, but within a few days they sorted the listing pontoon and shortly after started fitting ladders.

 

However, I am surprised how few marinas seem to have safety ladders. When we stayed in Salthouse Dock there were some ladders but not every pontoon and seemed to be badly placed. The one on our berth was inaccessible once the boat was moored.

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We visited a Marina which was selling boats all the way along a pontoon, it was directly open to the public with no warning signs about being carefull on the pontoon walkway which was full of green slime and extremely slippy.

 

Common sense tells people to tread carefully but in this case I think it was an accident waiting to happen especially as people were walking with their grand kids on it.

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We spent a winter at Hartford Marina a few years ago, the pontoon leading to our mooring had a list of about 15°. On the boat just up from us lived a man who walked on crutches. One night he slipped and went into the water. There were no safety ladders and he was in the water for about 15 minutes before someone heard him and got him out.

As far as I know, he made no complaint to the authorities, only to the Marina, but within a few days they sorted the listing pontoon and shortly after started fitting ladders.

However, I am surprised how few marinas seem to have safety ladders. When we stayed in Salthouse Dock there were some ladders but not every pontoon and seemed to be badly placed. The one on our berth was inaccessible once the boat was moored.

. If it worry,s you fit your own ladder, why does everyone expect people to do everything for them, I fell off a slippery jetty in the middle of the winter last year in full winter clothing when I got out I stripped off in the laundry room chucked my cloths in the tumble dryer rushed back to my boat and sat by the fire until warm, I did,not complain or moan or try and blame I just went and got my pressure washer the next day and cleaned the slippery green shite of the jetty, it seems that no one wants to take responsibility for there own actions any more and just moan and complain and ultimately hope someone will compensate them, we are heading in a very sad and pathetic direction I'm sorry to say
  • Greenie 3
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Hello can anyone tell me if there are any set rules and regulations regarding health and safety in a marina. Is there a certain criteria that the marina as to adhere to regarding health and safety.

Thanks

 

Yes. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (as amended) and all of the regulations made under the act, insofar as they are applicable to the activities carried out at the marina.

 

The marina owner also owes a duty of care to anybody who might be affected by the acts and omissions - including customers, contractors and members of the public.

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Although I understand Crafty's comments, it is also true that if someone pays a fee to moor in a marina, which offers a certain standard, and a contract which spells out the responsibilies of both sides, they are well within their rights to expect that standard to be upheld. Balance is needed though, because if someone does slip on a wet leaf, this is not really something that should be blamed on the marina. Health and Safety is over the top sometimes. If I drop off school kids in the school van, they have to walk to the school to door 1 not door 2, as a risk assessment has only been done to door 1, even if common sense is saying that on that partucular day, door 2 would actually be safer....

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As several marinas have official residential moorings and are in effect landlords ,does this mean they have a duty of care to the residential moorers ?

 

14 skipper

They have a duty of care to everyone on site. Even arguably to those people who shouldn't be there.

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. If it worry,s you fit your own ladder, why does everyone expect people to do everything for them, I fell off a slippery jetty in the middle of the winter last year in full winter clothing when I got out I stripped off in the laundry room chucked my cloths in the tumble dryer rushed back to my boat and sat by the fire until warm, I did,not complain or moan or try and blame I just went and got my pressure washer the next day and cleaned the slippery green shite of the jetty, it seems that no one wants to take responsibility for there own actions any more and just moan and complain and ultimately hope someone will compensate them, we are heading in a very sad and pathetic direction I'm sorry to say

The reason is simple. The responsibility for assessing risk and thereby reducing risk falls on the person best placed to do so. In the case of a marina, that responsibility must fall on the owner or operator. Anything else just doesn't work. Customers/service users or whatever you want to call them are rarely in the best position to make that judgement. Leaving it to each individual customer to attend to safety issues as they see fit is likely to lead to all kinds of heath-robinson solutions and may also lead to immediate neighbours and others being put at more risk (say, if they swept all their slippery leaves to the bit of pontoon right outside someone else boat).

 

It would be nice to think that all individuals behave entirely altruistically. and are only concerned with the greater good of humanity, but sadly, we aren't.

 

Also, pushing the responisibility back to the individuals affected allows business owners to wash their hands of dealing with pesky (and costly) H&S measures. We would end up with workplaces reverting to the Victorian factory model. Are you aware of how many people were killed and maimed annually at work prior to current H&S legislation being enacted? Usually in entirely preventable ways and down to greedy and selfish bosses.

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. If it worry,s you fit your own ladder, why does everyone expect people to do everything for them, I fell off a slippery jetty in the middle of the winter last year in full winter clothing when I got out I stripped off in the laundry room chucked my cloths in the tumble dryer rushed back to my boat and sat by the fire until warm, I did,not complain or moan or try and blame I just went and got my pressure washer the next day and cleaned the slippery green shite of the jetty, it seems that no one wants to take responsibility for there own actions any more and just moan and complain and ultimately hope someone will compensate them, we are heading in a very sad and pathetic direction I'm sorry to say

Cant believe your serious with that post

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If there's one thing that gets me going, it's when people blame "elfin safety" for what is really a liability insurance issue.

H&S guidance and legislation is drafted by experts who know what they are on about, and very often it is implemented by those who also know what they are on about (guess whose boat has just passed its BSS exam).

 

Trouble is, the lawyers who deal with liability, and the accountants who pay for it, do not have that expert knowledge, and the "man in the street" is often too lazy to think about the consequences of non-compliance or is incapable of doing so.

 

Modern H&S has saved many, many lives and if a bit of red tape and inconvenience is the price of those lives, so be it.

  • Greenie 2
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If there's one thing that gets me going, it's when people blame "elfin safety" for what is really a liability insurance issue.

H&S guidance and legislation is drafted by experts who know what they are on about, and very often it is implemented by those who also know what they are on about (guess whose boat has just passed its BSS exam).

 

Trouble is, the lawyers who deal with liability, and the accountants who pay for it, do not have that expert knowledge, and the "man in the street" is often too lazy to think about the consequences of non-compliance or is incapable of doing so.

 

Modern H&S has saved many, many lives and if a bit of red tape and inconvenience is the price of those lives, so be it.

I totally agree.

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Thank you for your replies.

I have been in the marina for just over a year and feel that it as been allowed to become " a little worn " The pontoon/jetty comprises of wooden boards with small lathes on every other board. Some boards have been replaced and the lathes are being replaced with thin anti slip strips. There is and hand rail along the pontoon/jetty. The boards are very slippery when wet and the lathes cause a trip hazard. My boat is moored at one of the furthest points from the car park due to its length. Close to my boat is a yard which is let out by the marina to a couple of businesses which as a locked gate to allow access to the sheds. This area also contains the elsan point. I have asked for a key to the gate to allow easy access rather than risk of injury whilst the jetty is having its work done. And looking at some of the boards which have deteriated over years rather than months I am not sure how long the work may take. I know certain people who have health problems that have got keys to the gate but they have insisted no more keys will be given out. I have a loss of left leg which I have had since the age of 17 I have never claimed any disability and worked all my life but sometimes there are certain situations that are a little more difficult than compared with an able bodied person. I know that able bodied people have also slipped and one girl actually fell into the canal but wether she slipped or misjudged I am not sure. The only answer I got was that in certain words if the marina is not suitable we will be sorry to see you go

  • Greenie 1
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Cant believe your serious with that post

what part are you struggling to believe? It's quite simple really I take responsibility for my own actions and don't try to blame my bad judgements or mistakes on someone else, if your mooring is a bit dodgy you can stay and improve it,or move on until you find what you want, or the modern choice stay there moaning, then try and sue someone when you fall over the thing you have been moaning about for the last year
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. You work and make a living from H and S I,m guessing, I was brought up by my nan, who survived for 100 years,saw two world wars the coming of the motor car, mans first flight, and loads of other things that make you proud to be a human, all those things happened completely unhindered and unaffected by H and S, all I see in your modern H and S world is a noose slowly tightening around the neck of the human animal, a classic example that we all see is mans lack of ability to cross an empty road unless the green man flashes and bleeps to allow it, kids have learnt not to touch the fire by burning there fingers for years and years, but not for much longer because they are so wrapped in cotton wool they will never be allowed to burn there finger, it's all just dumbing down the human being until we are just brain dead tax paying zombies that only jump when we are told to, sorry but I will carry on making my own decisions for as long as I possibly can thanks,

Its hard to believe we had two thirds of the world under our control,nowadays you couldn't find enough Englishmen to invade the Isle of Man

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