Door Industry Journal - Winter 2015

Also online at: www.d ijonline.co.uk 112 THE door industry journal winter 2015 powered gates NEW HSE SAFETY GUIDANCE ON DOMESTIC POWERED GATES WELCOMED BY DHF The Door & Hardware Federation (DHF) has welcomed new guidance to householders on the safety of powered domestic driveway gates. The Health & Safety Executive is recommending that owners of domestic gates should have regular checks made on their gates to ensure they are safe. These checks should be carried out by competent contractors, says the HSE. Householders are also being advised by the HSE that anyone carrying out any repairs, checks or adjustments to powered gates are subject to health and safety legislation. Legally, the contractor must ensure the gate is left in a safe condition following any maintenance or repair work that is carried out to ensure no-one is put at risk. The DHF Powered Gate Group comprises Britain’s leading manufacturers, suppliers, installers and maintainers of powered automatic gates and gate automation equipment. It insists that its trained installers and maintainers meet their legal obligations and do not carry out work on domestic gates if they are unable to leave the gates in a safe condition. Michael Skelding, general manager and secretary of the DHF, said: “We warmly welcome this clarification of the legal issues surrounding the repair and maintenance of domestic gates. Existing guidance to domestic powered gate owners could have led them to believe that it was acceptable for them to ask a maintainer to fix their gate but to refuse a safety upgrade. “Now gate maintainers can demonstrate to the customer that leaving a gate in a dangerous state is not an option because it leaves the maintainer liable for prosecution under health and safety legislation.” The new HSE guidance on domestic powered gate safety was very timely because it was published prior to Gate Safety Week held by the DHF Powered Gate Group between 12th and 15th October. Campaigners declared a week of action in a bid to dramatically improve the safety of automated gates in the UK. In recent years, three children and three adults have been killed in powered gate accidents. It is estimated there are around 225,000 automated domestic gates in service in the UK, yet the industry says just 10 per cent of these are safe to use. The key messages of Gate Safety Week were: • Properly installed and maintained automated gates are perfectly safe to use; • It is the duty of all those responsible for automated gates - owners, maintainers, installers - to ensure gates are safe to use. There is comprehensive guidance for security professionals, gate owners and those responsible for specifying, managing and maintaining automatic gates on the Gate Safety Week website (www.gatesafetyweek.org.uk) . Gate Customer Reward Scheme 2015 In January 2015 Ellard arranged their first customer reward scheme for gate customers, a group of successful winners have recently returned from a long weekend away in Italy. Taking in the sights and delights of Milan and Turin with an afternoon spent at the headquarters of Ellard’s gate automation supplier. Due to the resounding success of the trip a similar incentive will go ahead in the New Year. Dave Lewis Ellard’s managing director commented about the incentive: “We are still developing our customer base and the incentive was designed to encourage those customers who do not single to increase their purchases with Ellard. The products are growing in popularity and gaining a reputation for reliability at competitive prices. Ellard’s renowned after sales service and technical support is also greatly appreciated. We will look at other incentive schemes in the future as the result of this inaugural event was extremely well received.” A correctly installed and well maintained powered gate is perfectly safe to use.