The report showed vehicles travelling over the speed limit had been a topic of discussion at meetings across the council, and a specific notification about it had been sent out by the chief executive to all staff.
The report showed vehicles travelling over the speed limit had been a topic of discussion at meetings across the council, and a specific notification about it had been sent out by the chief executive to all staff.
Thames-Coromandel District Council staff have “dramatically” reduced their speed in vehicles with figures showing a drop of nearly 500% in reported “events” between May and June.
The statistics formed part of a health and safety report which showed “over-speed data” had recorded just over 50 events in June compared to 300 in May.
“We have seen a dramatic reduction in the number of over-speed events in May; this is a result of speeding being a topic of discussion at team toolbox meetings,” the report stated.
“Managers are encouraged to provide feedback to their staff, and it is hoped the reduction trend continues.”
The report showed speeding had been a topic of discussion at meetings across the council, and a specific notification about it had been sent out by the chief executive to all staff.
Employers can track speed by installing GPS devices in vehicles.
Figures showed the majority of speeding drivers were travelling between 10 and 15km/h over the speed limit.
The table showed over-speed data between November 2023 and June 2024 with numbers increasing from 125 events in January to just over 200 in February, 270 in March and April, then 300 in May.
Thames-Coromandel District Council's over-speed data from November 2023 to June 2024.
While there had been a reduction in speeding, concerns were raised about personal confrontation incidents with 41 reported in the year to June 30.
The report stated the installation of physical barriers, CCTV and panic alarms was under way with “significant effort put into personal confrontation hazard during this reporting period”.
Scenario-based training had been developed to ensure staff were pre-prepared and a training programme would be delivered to all business units by the end of the fourth quarter in 2024.
Where significant personal confrontation incidents had occurred during the reporting period, an individual debrief session had been undertaken with the staff members including the offering of appropriate support, and a learnings and training session held with their teams to reiterate appropriate response to confrontation.
The council’s health and safety team were developing mental wellbeing support in the form of a new reporting tool which required managers to engage with staff and have open discussions around what they did well and how they were doing in general.
Staff were encouraged to seek help and support through their team leaders or health and safety team while the council offered a free counselling service.
Personal confrontation was one of “nine nasty hazards” identified as significant in terms of resources and attention, to reduce their impact and occurrence.
They also included working at height, work-related health hazards and impairment, asset failure, work in the vicinity of energised amenities, slips, trips and falls, ignition sources, and events and activities on council property.
A new health and safety committee would be formed with terms of reference being developed. The idea is to have management and worker representation, focussing on proactive health and safety being undertaken, learnings from incidents and investigations, and considerations around health and safety improvements.
