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Charity chipping raises over £40,000

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Charity chipping raises over £40,000: The Jensen team at Machinery Imports were delighted to return for the third year to Wiltshire College and University Centre in February, supporting a fundraising activity that has reached over £40,000 since December!

Delivered each year at the Lackham campus, Wiltshire College and Jensen join forces with Dorothy House to chip over 3,500 unwanted Christmas trees collected throughout January from the Wiltshire and Swindon area.

Charity chipping raises over £40,000

Charity chipping raises over £40,000

Dorothy House is a charity which provides end of life care and support for patients with terminal illnesses across Wiltshire and North East Somerset.

In January, their volunteers collected more than 3,500 Christmas trees, delivering trees to the Lackham campus where a Jensen A540 woodchipper, loaned free of charge from local Jensen dealer T H WHITE Groundcare, was on hand to reduce them ready for upcycling.

The session was delivered by Bill Johnston, business manager for Jensen in the UK, partnered by Stuart Fry, area sales manager at T H WHITE Groundcare, who not only managed the chipping of the trees but also demonstrated and taught safe industry practice to students and apprentices on Lackham’s Horticulture and Landcaping courses.

The tracked A540 was the perfect woodchipper for the task, with a hugely powerful feed roller grip, wide infeed hopper and 8-inch chipping capacity – making light work of the bulky trees and reducing them into a fine chip quickly and efficiently at a rate of 18m3/h. The chippings were then loaded onto trailers ready for use on woodland trail paths throughout the campus, making sure they found a second life and avoiding waste.

The A540 Spider is considered by many to be the ‘ultimate tracked woodchipper’. Its independently controlled hydraulic tracks make it agile, compact and manoeuvrable on flat, sloping and awkward terrain, whilst retaining superb stability and exceptional ground clearance.

“Each year we are delighted to return and support this excellent fundraising initiative in partnership with Dorothy House and the team at Lackham” commented Bill.

“Not only do we help transform unwanted trees into something useful, we provide the students with valuable, practical experience in woodchipper use and safety, and help Dorothy House with their campaign which is always hugely successful and of great benefit in our wider community.”

Fran D’Argenio, Marketing Officer at the college, added, “Lackham’s Horticulture and Landscape Gardening apprentices and students benefited hugely from the workshop, chipping some 3,500 Christmas trees. The learners gained real hands-on experience and invaluable industry knowledge, as well as participating in a great effort for charity which raised over £40,000.”

Find out more about the Jensen A540 and the wider range of towed, tracked and PTO woodchippers available from Jensen at www.jensenchippers.co.uk

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Storm funding helps over 100 clubs

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Storm funding helps over 100 clubs: More than 100 sports clubs and organisations have already received grants from an emergency storm relief fund launched earlier this month.

Set up by Sport England to help those affected by storms Ciara and Dennis, the fund has seen grants of up to £5,000 being awarded across the country.

Many clubs and organisations are still unable to safely access their facilities and the grant scheme remains open, with Sport England promising a “quick decision process and access to cash for places in need”.

According to Sport England’s director of property, Charles Johnston, the funding is being used for decontamination, skip hire, equipment replacement and access repair.

“Floods can have a devastating impact on local sports organisations, causing damage to clubhouses and grounds and denying communities a chance to play sport, often for weeks and months on end,” he said.

“We’ve developed guidance on how clubs can take action to protect themselves from extreme weather conditions, which includes drought as well as flooding, and our flood relief fund is available to help clubs deal with the immediate impact.

“In the longer term, we will work with communities, as we have with Carlisle since they were devastated by the floods of recent years, to make their facilities more resilient to the effects of climate change.”

Playing fields and clubhouses are particularly vulnerable to flooding in England, as many of them are located on flood plains as a result of the cheaper, flatter land.

According to Dr Iain James, a specialist in sports flood recovery and design at TGMS Sports Surface Consultants, “more needs to be done” to cope with extreme weather.

“I have worked with many flooded clubs since 2007 and I see the devastation to sports clubs and their members, many of whom are volunteers,” he said.

“To those clubs affected I would reassure them that there is support there and with the right advice, decision making and funding it is possible to recover and to build resilience to flooding in the future.”

Clubs and organisations affected by flooding can apply for funding help through the portal. For more information, click here.

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Chesham Council Bowled Over

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Chesham Council Bowled Over: Throughout the Chesham Town Council district there are a large number of highly manicured grassed areas that need dedicated upkeep. 

Having previously used pedestrian mowers with collector boxes, Paul Isom the Parks and Premises Manager, decided they needed to become more efficient.  After speaking with their local dealer P A Turney and following numerous demonstrations they were bowled over by the ISEKI SXG326.

Chesham Council Bowled Over

“The SXG326 ride on mower collected with the same striped finish as the pedestrian mower with the added benefit of completing it in a fraction of the time.  Its powerful 21hp engine means the mower easily tackles varied terrain whilst completing the jobs quickly with its generous 54” width of cut.  The large 600litre hopper saves us valuable hours by limiting the amount of times you need to stop mowing in order to empty the collector.

Collection of autumn leaves by the SXG326 has been a god send, we are all relieved we no longer have to do all the tiresome work of raking.  We couldn’t believe how well the collector picks these up, especially when it’s been raining and everything is sodden and heavy.

Wildflower meadow areas have increased in parks in recent years which does cut down the cutting cycles required throughout the year but the final cut and collect at the end of each Summer can be hard work.  We however set the SXG326 on the highest height of cut and it mows it all down and collects with no issues, that’s when you realise how effective this piece of kit really is!

Above all this and what really surprised us was how brilliant it was at collecting up all the goose poo around the parks, this is such an unexpected but now invaluable bonus! It makes the parks a much nicer place for the general public to visit whilst also making our lives easier with less cleaning to do,” explained Paul.

As the Parks and Premises Manager at Chesham Town Council, Paul Isom looks after all the parks, opens spaces, woodland plus the theatre, townhall, gym and other public facilities along with his team of 7 staff and Deputy Manager.  As part of the maintenance fleet they also have an outfront flail mower, compact tractor, triple mower for all the non pristine grass verges and tractor with flail for the larger parkland areas.   “Having the ISEKI on the fleet with its multitude of uses assists in allowing us the ability to contract out our services to nearby towns and parishes.

Nothing seems too much trouble for our local dealer P A Turney, Joshua Walker ensures any questions or issues are dealt with the same day where possible.  You cannot ask for more than that.

Having purchased the SXG326 purely to cut and collect the massive amount of parks and manicured verges which are required to be rolled and striped throughout the town, I cannot believe how much more versatile this mower is.  I would not hesitate to recommend this product to another person looking for a reliable mower with an outstanding finish left every time.”

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Golf Club Fined Over Death

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Golf Club Fined Over Death: Golf clubs are being advised to check health and safety claims of their staff with former employers after a Leicestershire club was fined £150k following the death of its course manager.

The golf club in question accepted the course manager’s incorrect assertion that he was chainsaw-trained, and did not check this with his previous employers. Sadly, it was while carrying out chainsaw work that he died.

A councillor who was involved in the prosecution said that organisations run by volunteers, such as private members’ golf clubs “have the same health and safety responsibilities to their employees as any other business”.

According to The Hinckley Times, Leicester Crown Court fined Hinckley Golf Club about £75,000 for breaches of health and safety law. The club also has to cover court costs, which ran into thousands of pounds.

As was reported in 2013, Douglas Johnstone died after being hit on the head by a tree branch. He was working late at the golf club clearing a fallen tree from the green when the accident happened.

In 2015 a jury recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Mr Johnstone, known as Dougie, was working alone and using a chainsaw without wearing a helmet. The falling branch inflicted a fatal brain injury.

“Sentencing, Judge Martin Hurst said the accident happened against a background of a systemic failure to deal with health and safety at the club,” reports the paper.

“He said the club had since taken substantial steps to voluntarily improve its health and safety arrangements, adding: ‘The other side of the coin is that the steps now taken demonstrate the woeful state of health and safety before’.

“During an 11-day trial, the jury was told Mr Johnstone was not qualified to use the motorised saw, although club officials believed he was, according to his job application. He had exaggerated his credentials.

“The court heard Mr Johnstone was carrying out the chainsaw work unaccompanied, after other ground workers had gone home for the day, as darkness closed in.

“The 56-year-old died alone and his body was found beside the tree, near the 14th hole, the following morning, on December 28, 2013.

“The jury took seven-and-a-half hours of deliberations to find the golf club guilty of three health and safety offences, between January and December 2013.

“The judge said during sentencing he agreed Hinckley Golf Club was a “highly regarded local institution”, with no previous health and safety convictions.

“He accepted a submission from defence counsel James Maxwell-Scott QC that any financial penalties should not affect the future existence of the 18-hole club.

“He criticised it for not making calls to confirm Mr Johnstone’s qualifications and experience with his two previous employers at Wentworth and Pinner golf courses.

“During the trial, Timothy Raggatt QC, prosecuting for Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, said: ‘There’s no suggestion anyone wanted or anticipated the death would happen’.

“Mr Raggatt said if it was Mr Johnstone’s decision to work alone and without safety equipment, there were obligations of employers to protect employees, even against themselves.

“The defence argued the club took reasonable health and safety steps, although club officials had accepted, on face value, Mr Johnstone’s incorrect assertion he was chainsaw-trained.

“Councillor Kevin Morrell, executive member for environmental services at Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, said after the sentencing: ‘This case serves as a reminder to any organisation run by volunteers that they have the same health and safety responsibilities to their employees as any other business.

“’Employees are entitled to be safe at work, whoever they work for, and the protection and safety of all employees should be paramount to every employer, no matter their position in the organisation’s hierarchy’.”

Hinckley Golf Club issued a statement on behalf of the chairman Barry Ayre.

It said: “We express our regret at the death of Mr Johnstone, and, of course, our sympathies go out to his family and friends.

“We accept the sentence of the judge and are now looking to move forward from this tragedy.”

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Club’s Anger Over Pitch Damage

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Club’s Anger Over Pitch Damage: A council “must be held responsible” after race cars drove over a brand new football pitch costing thousands of pounds, an Irish League club has said.

Ballymena United said it was “saddened” at the incident during a stock car race at the Ballymena Showgrounds on Friday.

The venue is owned by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, which recently laid a new pitch after a major investment.

It said it was “deeply disappointed” by the incident.

The council spokesman said that “measures put in place to protect the new surface were inadequate” and that remedial work was being carried out on the pitch on Saturday.

The incident happened during a Ballymena Raceway stock car event on Friday night. The council leases the stadium to both the football club and Ballymena Raceway.

Ballymena United’s vice-chairman Don Stirling told BBC News NI that “stock cars have every right to be there” but the two sports are “just not compatible”.

“I honestly don’t know what the solution is, but the council have to be held responsible,” he said.

“They can’t keep cars off the pitch because if they veer off the track they have nowhere to go.

“They put down truck tyres (on Friday night) but they would have need massive tractor tyres to stop cars coming on the pitch.”

Mr Stirling said the new pitch had cost £250,000 and that the club had agreed to postpone any home games until 6 October so the new pitch could bed in.

“They’ve spent over £250,000 of ratepayers’ money on it, there’s a new sprinkler system as well. They can’t have cars driving over it.

“Ballymena United have one of the best facilities in Northern Ireland outside of Windsor Park – we just don’t have the bit in the middle you play on.

“In the past, referees have come close to calling off matches because there are tracks all over the pitch. Even oil spills.”

Tension between the stock car races and football club previously emerged in January, when Ballymena United manager David Jeffrey accused race organisers of a lack of respect after the pitch was damaged during a New Year’s Day event.

However, Aubrey Arbuthnot, who runs Ballymena Raceway, told BBC News NI he was “fed up” with criticism directed at the race events and that he had done as much as he could to keep cars off the pitch.

“All I want is fair play. I’m a ratepayer, not like some of the people sounding off in the press,” he said.

“We had 12 races last night. These cars race door handle to door handle. There’s up to 60 cars racing. Only two cars went off the track in separate incidents.”

Mr Arbuthnot said the council had organised and placed about 70 tyres around the track and around sprinkler heads and that he had insisted no personnel go on the pitch.

“Usually I have a clerk of the course and two photographers on the pitch. I didn’t even have a fire extinguisher on the pitch.

“I laid down the law to the drivers about what would happen if they went on the pitch. The driver who went off, he was spun off by someone else – he’s completely innocent.

“If I had found out who put him off, I would have put him out the gate. That’s how seriously I’ve been taking it.

“But it’s our first night back in and they’re hammering us.”

He added that he was unable to organise race meetings for three months during the racing season because of work going on at the Showgrounds.

“That’s a number of meetings I couldn’t hold. That’s a loss of revenue.

“Our season runs from about Easter to the first weekend of October. There’s only about five meetings that clash with the football season. That’s all. They just don’t want a stockcar around the place.”

‘Matter of urgency’

He added: “I’ve seen comments that I had been offered an alternative venue. That’s nonsense. You think I would have turned that down? If the council offered me another venue, I’d be out tomorrow.”

A spokesperson for the council: “We are deeply disappointed by last night’s incident and fully appreciate and understand the frustration around this.

“Ballymena Showgrounds is a multi-use facility, enjoyed by a wide range of local sporting organisations.

“The measures put in place to protect the new surface at the venue were inadequate for last night’s event.

“Remedial works are being carried out on the pitch today.

“As the owners of the venue, we are fully committed to doing all that we can to safeguard the new pitch, and we are considering a range of measures to minimise the risk of damage to the surface as a matter of urgency.”

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