Pesticides are chemicals deliberately made to be toxic and introduced into the environment. They include weedkillers, rat poisons, fungicides and soil sterilants None of the above should be stored or disposed of on the Allotments.

When using these types of products suitable clothing must be worn and used.

Plotholders should contact their council waste management department for information on safe disposal of pesticides and fertilisers. Pesticides should never be included in household rubbish, burnt, placed in skips or poured into any kind of drainage system or watercourse.

Sharing tools is a good way of cutting costs. Lenders of tools have a duty of care to people loaning, borrowing and using tools. Plotholders using the tool bank must be given training before they are permitted to borrow tools.

Most power tools need specific safety and handling training, e.g. power chainsaws wood chippers, strimmers and lawn mowers with metal blades and tractors. Local colleges may offer short and accredited training courses or ask the supplier for advice. Do not purchase tools before you have addressed training needs. Always follow the manufactures instructions, if in doubt ask.

Storage, carrying and using garden tools must be used as per the manufactures instructions. If you are leaving tools on the Allotments please ensure they are on your plot, so that other plot holder cannot fall over them. There is NO insurance cover for tools

Ramshackle water tubs and overgrown ‘ad hoc’ ponds on plots give ponds a bad name: ponds that are planned and maintained properly pose a tiny risk, far outweighed by the numerous benefits to wildlife and enjoyment to people of all ages. Contact your Wildlife Trust, Froglife or The Pond Conservation Trust about construction and maintenance of wildlife ponds. Risks from ponds to children The people most at risk of drowning in ponds are children under three years of age. Risk from drowning decreases as a child’s age and understanding of danger increase. Children should of course be supervised on allotments at all times and especially near water. Building a pond on a site with a public right of way raises different issues to one with secure fencing.

A child is less likely to drown in a pond or water feature that has gradual sloping sides compared to a small one with steep sides. Sloping sides also prevent drowning of mammals that come to drink water. Aim to make ponds shallow and seasonal; 30-50cm at the deepest point is sufficient or biodiversity. Ponds should be allowed to dry out in the shallow margins in the summer. Margins will be more visible to children and biodiversity is greatest in warm shallows. In winter use a float to prevent icing-over, otherwise children may be tempted to walk on ice and pond-life will be starved of oxygen.

The Association will supply water troughs for it members. They will be positioned high enough to be out of reach of young children but care must be taken at all times when collecting water. If plot holders collect water from the river please be careful there are no safety buoys on the river edge.

These include: litter, low-level fruit netting, use of pesticides (especially when incorrect or inappropriate), open drains, slug pellets, mowing, strimming, broken glass and prestacked bonfires. Plot holders should ensure day-to-day activities on site cause the least possible risk to wild species of birds, animals and aquatic creatures. Certain wildlife, e.g. badgers, some birds of prey and reptiles, have specific legal protection concerning their management, contact English Nature for advice about protected species Rabbit snares are illegal unless the permission of the Association is obtained. Permitted snares must conform to sizes and shapes that will not endanger other animals – DEFRA can provide specifications.

Vermin infestation is a serious threat to public health; rats carry 70 diseases including Weil’s Disease (leptospirosis), which can cause human death via contaminated water. Practices that encourage infestation by vermin should be avoided and incidents dealt with immediately. Plotholders must be vigilant and report any signs of infestation, which include burrows, tracks, droppings and observing the vermin. Only proprietary vermin control products should be used. Pesticides should never be used to control vermin. Contact the Secretary for advice and to report problems.

Humans are at risk of infection from handling animal manure. Always wear gloves when handling any type of manure Fresh manure should be heaped for 6 months, giving time for e-coli bacteria to break down. It is the responsibility of the plotholders for basic hygiene and to check tetanus boosters are up to date.

Ensure your personal hygiene regimes are adequate especially when eating your lunch.

Allotment gardeners often spend long periods of time on their own on site: encourage them to take personal safety seriously whilst on the site and to tell another person where they are going and what time they will be back. There is no telephone box in the area and mobile signals are limited.

Please beware of the weather conditions the grass can be very slippery in the wet. In the summer the allotments receive a lot of sun so protection should be used.

It is advisable that you wear proper foot protection along with a hat and gloves.

Along the southern boundary the ground falls away to the river flood plane extra care must me taken when working on the edge of the allotment plots and when the grass is being cut on the bank as one may slip.

There is no law preventing bonfires. ‘Smokeless zones’ refer to domestic chimneys only. The Environmental Protection Act (1990), however, prohibits a statutory nuisance being caused by smoke. Please check your bonfires for wildlife before lighting and check the weather conditions all bonfires are to be on the plot holders plot only. Do not leave a fire unattended.

On the north of the allotments there is a hedgerow and a large tree the Association will be erecting a rabbit proof fence in this area care should be taken when walking on the path.

On the south side we have the River Dee this is fenced and has a gate in the corner with a barbed wire top this is a distance from each plot but care must be taken.

It is important you lift heavy items (max 20Kg) in the correct way if you are no sure how to lift please ask the Secretary.

This document must be read in conjunction with the Plot Holders Agreement, Association Constitution and our insurance policy all found on www.dentdale.com/allotments . Further copies are available on request to the Secretary.

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Risk assessments are simple framework allowing us to identify risks, assess their relative severity and develop a strategy for dealing with them. In the rare case of legal action by an injured party, a written record of risk assessment and account of action taken to reduce risks could be significant.

Responsibility for management duties (including risk assessment) falls to the Dent Allotment Association. The Association will ensure individual Plotholders are aware of their own duty of care as part of their tenancy agreement and the system for reporting health and safety matters. Any reporting system, however minimal, should be recorded in detail in writing, to prevent inaccurate expectations from either party.

Terminology can seem daunting but, thankfully, risk assessment is not rocket science. Knowing the difference between a hazard and a risk is helpful before you start. A hazard is something with the potential to cause harm. That potential is always there, e.g. a bonfire will always have the potential to spread and cause damage and sparks from the fire could burn people or animals. A risk is the likelihood that the harm a particular hazard can cause will happen, e.g. a bonfire will always be hazardous but as long as it is lit away from property, only appropriate materials are burnt, there is a means of extinguishing it nearby and people and animals are kept at a distance, the actual risk from the hazard remains low. Risk will increase if one or more bonfires are lit regularly or if these precautions are ignored.

The key to risk assessment is to remove the risk completely or to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. Reduction levels are defined by the grading system in the risk assessment. With a small allotment budget, risk reduction is usually more achievable than completely removing the risks.

Risk assessments will be carried out at least twice per year (January and June). Ground hazards, e.g. broken glass on derelict plots, may be hidden by summer weed and grass growth, and therefore one of the risk assessments should be carried out in the winter.

Plot inspections: checks that Plotholders are complying with their tenancy agreement and that vacant plots are fit to be leased. Plotholders will be informed in advance of the date of the risk assessment and level of access required on each plot. A full report will be published.

Risk assessment cannot be carried out from memory: it must be done afresh onsite using set forms. All assessors should wear stout footwear:

We will walk around the external boundary, enter through the front gate and work our way around the internal boundary, the communal areas and each plot. As we go, we will tick off the items on the Allotment Site Hazards Checklist.

We will calculate the degree of risk and record the recommended remedial action required to remove or minimise the risk. All findings will be noted and reported back to the members..

Some risks are more significant than others: a bonfire left unattended by a plotholder to ‘burn out’ at the end of the day is a more significant risk than sharp tools securely stored. We will recognise the difference between significant and minor risks, and allocate time to addressing these accordingly.

Once completed, the form will be discussed at the next committee meeting, who will then decide how to deal with the identified risks

We will determine who is responsible for carrying out remedial action for each identified risk.

We will prioritise risks that are the Association responsibility to manage. Giving immediate priority to ‘very high’ and ‘high’ risks and deal with these first, i.e. those that have scored 80 - 100 using the Risk Calculation Sheet.

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