John Maguire of award sponsor Narrow Aisle Flexi (centre) presented the inaugural FLTA Safe Site Award to (L to R) Gary Wood, Andrew Ashcroft, Kevin Stilling and Shaun Humphreys of Sellafield Ltd.

Nuclear clean-up and waste management operator Sellafield Limited has won the Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA)'s inaugural safe site award for sharing best practice and for its "strenuous efforts" to improve workplace safety.

The FLTA has released a statement praising the former British Nuclear Group subsidiary for making its 3.5km² (864.9 acre) site on the West Cumbrian coast safer for its 300-plus forklift operators. Jungheinrich, Linde and other brand forklifts are used at the site each day, moving nuclear and conventional loads up to 32 tonnes.

FLT chief executive David Ellison says Sellafield responded to several "near misses" in 2006 by implementing an improvement plan to ensure high standards in supervisor training, operator assessment and overall traffic management.

Ellison adds that by sharing a case study of its day-to-day site operations at the association's safety conference on 27 September 2007, the company has contributed to the spread of best practice.

"That is the spirit of our [inaugural] Safe Site Award and Sellafield is a very deserving first winner."

Over the past two years, the number of incidents at the Sellafield site with the potential for injury dropped from an average four per month to just one in six months.

The company credits maintenance authority and principal lifting engineer Mike Palmer, safety adviser Kevin Stilling and the forklift operators for the safety improvement.

Palmer, in his engineering operations support role, advised on forklift operations.

"As well as the injury from incidents, there was also the potential for equipment to be damaged," he explains. "One of the main things we did to bring the change was to try and raise awareness.

"The forklift operators needed to take greater ownership and not be afraid to change if conditions or equipment were not right to do certain jobs. We wanted the improvements to come from the [forklift] teams and they have delivered brilliantly."

Palmer says the forklift operators lacked confidence in the particular Sellafield work environment.
"It wasn't that standards were very low, but more that they had gradually become relaxed over a number of years."

Changes were made slowly and gradually, Palmer says.

The company improved site safety by sending team leaders and supervisors for training, examining internal procedures and "tightening things up".

"There has been a massive improvement and the team are all justifiably proud of their achievements," Palmer notes.

• The FLTA is looking for nominations for next year's Safe Site Award. If your organisation has made significant improvements to safety through changes to its site design, conditions or practices, email mail@fork-truck.org.uk or call +44 125 638 1441.