Kitchen Garden Forum

We have a communal lawnmower and a small 4 stroke rotavator (Honda) on site. In years gone by we have just let people use it as and when they wanted. But the dreaded health and safety question has raised it's head. Who is responsible, does the equipment need a safety certificate / record of servicing and who provides the PPE? Do we need insurance? So right now the kit is locked up and not being used. Have any other associations had this issue and if so how have they resolved it?

We had a similar problem with tools used on our local nature reserve some years ago. An assessor came from the insurance company to check them out and we then had to pay insurance (luckily, the Parish Council was responsible for it and paid it) before the tools could be used.

We had a woman banging on about the same thing at one of our meetings we made it clear that if you use any of the committees machine you do so at your own risk,we do have insurance but wether we are covered for machines I don’t know ? Health and safety stuff can be down loaded from the web ,servicing should be carried out even if it’s only once a year ,maybe if you got a disclaimer signed by any one using the machine but I don’t know how much it would help

I think if you have a disclaimer, in some way you are taking responsibility, by stating you are not responsible for a potential problem you are acknowledging that a problem might exist, and therefore that you should cover that problem, but you are choosing not to. Then you have COVID, but I think that problem is solved by just having some antiseptic product available to wipe down controls and handles etc

We made everyone pay a £1, so making all part owners.

I am not sure that stands up legally. If the committee or association organises that then they are surely overall responsible?

On ours you have to have the in house H&S training and sign to say you have had it before you can borrow the equipment. Mind you it makes no difference, one plot holder had the training including information about suitable clothing and shoes to wear when mowing and strumming and still turned up to use the machinery in skimpy shorts and flip flops.

Also because of Covid there should be no loaning out of machinery for general use.

I think training insurance and servicing with an appropriate safety certificate being issued is the only way

I think the no hire during COVID is a cop out. Wiping the equipment down with anti-bac wipes before and after hire is enough to be covid secure.