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We have just been through the process of agreeing a contract for a new £20m build in London and during the course of that process, quite rightly, Health and Safety was given absolute priority. We made our first appointment the CDM Co-Coordinator; briefed him; arranged workshops and meetings to ensure that everyone got the idea that this is paramount to us and have discharged our duties to the letter under current legislation. We have assessed competencies; produced health and safety plans; read policy documents and reviewed reams of information. You might now think that I am about to rant about the destruction of trees and the paperwork mountain, but quite honestly a tree or two is worth it in my view.

What does concern me is that now everyone has produced, reviewed and filed a significant number of beautifully prepared and bound documents, they will (subconsciously at least) tick health and safety off their to-do list. I’m sure that everyone concerned will protest to the contrary. However, I can’t help but think that the paperwork is only of use when something awful happens and it is used as a shield against the HSE or the lawyers. Such is the quantity of information that no-one person, or group of people can possibly have regard to anything more than the principles during a busy construction project.

It brings to mind a recent site visit where upon entering the site; I had to first provide a lot of information to a guard (through an unnervingly robust hatch) before passing through electronic barriers which required my fingerprints to be scanned.

After this I was then asked to wait in a lobby until the briefing room became available. Whilst stood there I looked at the Health and Safety information on the walls around me. In total, I estimated that there were about sixty A4 sheets of photographs and text outlining accidents of various types and what one might learn so as to avoid a recurrence. They were all very interesting I’m sure, but even though I had twenty minutes to kill, I didn’t get through the half of them. It begs the question as to the purpose of these documents. Why should we expect a worker paid by the hour, or on a price, to even glance at them is anyone’s guess. In fact there were so many, they looked like a kind of macabre wallpaper so served very little purpose at all other than to provide the main contractor with the defence that he did put up the information warning people not to cut their hands off when the HSE come knocking. To cap it all, when I got to the briefing room, I was given my hard hat, hi-vis, spectacles and gloves to wear whilst strolling around in my brogues! I’m sure that I should probably have been told of the hazards and to keep my hands to myself, but they were busy and I had to rely on my common sense to avoid these. You’ll be glad to know that I suffered no ill-effects.

What I have concluded on this is that whilst I appreciate in this litigious environment that we need to have our paperwork straight, there really is no replacement for someone in authority (it used to be a large, brusque site agent) going around and kicking people off site that weren’t dressed appropriately or acting responsibly - that’s something that would definitely reduce accidents and injuries rather than reducing the likelihood of a successful prosecution.

Is it me or are there more reviews of the decade this time around than ever before? Is it because everyone is reviewing the noughties in the hope that this will somehow commit them to history, along with all the woes of the last couple of years?  I suspect so. It reveals a kind of modern superstition but I don’t think the reviewers would admit to it. Between reviews of the decade and the Come Dine with Me competitions on www.propertyweek.com and www.building.co.uk I think that I might want to forget the last bit of the noughties too!
It’s a bit like the approach that people take in the New Year when they come up with enormously optimistic resolutions that they know they won’t keep, simply because of a date on the calendar! If you want to lose weight, start running, and give up smoking– just do it! It doesn’t make it any easier because it’s January. In fact it’s probably harder.
So to prove what a hypocrite I am - what are my resolutions for Chancerygate? Well, I’d like to say that they include things like “take more holidays, work fewer hours,...” However, I think the best that Chancerygate can do is carry on and push the business forward with a great team of people. Thinking about it, this sounds like what Chancerygate have doing for the last six months, so perhaps I’m not such a hypocrite and started my New Year resolutions last June!

After all the hard work and meetings over the summer Chancerygate are finally in and unpacking. Its remarkable how much there is to consider and there have been times when I wondered if it was the best decision I ever made to revamp the website and move the office to London simultaneously.  Luckily, everyone at Chancerygate has been putting in herculean efforts to ensure that it all went smoothly and this really shows in the final result.  The new office in Hay’s Mews looks brilliant and is in a great location. I know that everyone at Chancerygate is really enthused about being based in the West End. The move has also been making life easier for a couple of weeks now for both Alastair and I, as we have been able to organise meetings in London without writing off half the day. The only problem has been in not revealing the location to our contacts until the last minute.

The new website and logo are something that we are all very pleased with and it reflects our enthusiasm going forward. We went through a few designers at the outset and had a bit of a competition to gauge their abilities, which turned out to be time well spent. We chose to work with Propeller Design at the end of that process and they have not let us down on any aspect. Their ability to interpret my ramblings into what you see on this site and our new literature should not be underestimated. They can be found at www.propellerdesign.co.uk