Health & safety at its best in Stranraer

28 April 2008

A workshop facility in Stranraer shared by Dumfries & Galloway Council’s Combined Services division and its fleet services provider, Fraikin, has come first in a national Health, Safety and Environmental audit.

The audit is carried out across Fraikin’s 20 branches which span the length and breadth of the UK, supporting a fleet of more than 14,000 commercial vehicles. As part of the audit, each location is assessed routinely throughout a 12 month period, with the workshop in Commerce Road, located on Stranraer’s Blackpark Industrial Estate, achieving an audit score of 96 per cent. The team in Stranraer was also praised for completing 100 per cent of the issues found during the previous year’s audit.

Ian Jamieson, General Manager for Fraikin’s contract with Dumfries & Galloway Council, explains: “Our strategic alliance with the Council has seen monitoring systems developed which incorporate engineers from both organisations championing a certain area of Health & Safety and guaranteeing all checks carried out are completed and logged.

“Health & Safety is paramount, especially as it can sometimes be easy at busy times to lose sight of the importance of maintaining high legal standards and making sure that every effort is taken to ensure the safety of ourselves, our colleagues and the local community. Winning this award in Stranraer is testament to the whole team, who have proven achieving the highest standards is possible,” he says.

Peter Duncan, Chairman of Dumfries & Galloway Council’s Resources Committee, adds: “This is a great achievement that the whole Council can be proud of.  It demonstrates that partnership working can improve quality whilst delivering best value for taxpayers. I congratulate management and staff on this success.”

The agreement between the Council and Fraikin has served to set new standards in partnership working within the private sector, with both organisations operating out of dedicated vehicle maintenance facilities in both Dumfries and Stranraer.

The Combined Services fleet encompasses over 700 items of plant and equipment, with Fraikin responsible for managing approximately 300 of these, ranging from street sweepers and grounds maintenance vehicles through to 26 tonne refuse collection and recycling trucks.

Mr Jamieson says: “In the past, we have shared workshops with council staff on other sites, but over the past two years we have taken the concept of partnership working to a whole new level. Our engineers are working side-by-side with Combined Services’ own technical staff, sharing not only the workshop and equipment, but also offices, roles and responsibilities.

“There are no lines drawn down the middle of the sites either, and work bays and equipment are utilised equally by both teams. Similarly, in the administration office, staff from both organisations sit together and work as a joined-up unit,” he concludes.

The Fraikin Health, Safety & Environment Award follows just six months after Transport News magazine awarded Dumfries & Galloway Council with its award for ‘Scottish Local Authority of the Year 2008’. During an award presentation held in front of 600 senior figures from the commercial vehicle and road transport industry, the magazine’s Editor, Alistair Vallance described the parternship between Fraikin and Dumfries & Galloway Council as being “a prime example of modern, joined up thinking which creates a major step forward for public services in Scotland.”