With health and safety experts about to carry out a series of inspections across the district, there could not be a better time for local warehouse and transport companies to get some free advice.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has just published a new guide aimed at managers and supervisors which could also prove invaluable to workers and health and safety representatives.

“Nationally, there were around 10,000 work-related accidents reported in the storage, warehousing and road haulage industries last year, but this new guide will help people reduce their health and safety risks,” said Cllr Sherrie Green, Cabinet Member for Community Health.

“This guide could prove invaluable in helping reduce risks, and the financial and health costs of accidents. It provides advice on how to focus attention on the main causes of injury and ill-health, and offers suggested preventative actions.

“This is timely information as Suffolk Coastal will be carrying out inspections with the HSE of some premises in our district over the next couple of weeks. We hope not to find any major problems but I would recommend that companies look at the guide to make sure they are doing all they can to prevent accidents,” added Cllr Green.

The HSE guidance tackles all the common causes of accidents, the main five being slips and trips, manual handling, falls from heights, being hit by a falling or moving object, and injuries linked to vehicles and lift trucks.

A free short version of the guide, warehousing and storage: keep it safe, can be downloaded from www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg412.pdf while the full guide, warehousing and storage: a guide to health and safety, is available for £14.50 from bookshops or from www.hsebooks.com or by calling 01787 881165. A wide range of free advice on health and safety at work can be found on www.hse.gov.uk

The link-up between Suffolk Coastal’s health and safety team and the HSE is just the latest of the innovative partnership that is helping to make the county an even safer place for workers and residents.

Suffolk district and borough councils and the HSE signed up to a flexible warrant scheme that allows inspectors to work across geographical and enforcement boundaries to deliver a better health and safety service in Suffolk.

“This agreement has meant that inspectors from the different partner agencies can work more flexibly across previous strict boundaries and intervene wherever they see a serious health and safety risk in the county,” said Cllr Green.

The flexible warrant agreement means that inspectors, whether they are from a council or the HSE, can intervene when and where they see serious health and safety risks at any work premises.