Business Manager’s Report

half. Athird of folk said they would hit the roof if their partner ran out of petrol and 86 per cent said they would be really embarrassed by the mistake. Nigel Charlesworth of Green Flag said: ‘’It’s surprising so many people are still running out of petrol, when most modern cars have indicators that warn we are running low. "Filling up with the wrong fuel is more common than you would think, as this research shows. It’s a costly mistake so, even if we are in a rush, we should pay attention at the service station." "More than 20,000 Green Flag call outs each year are down to motorists running out of fuel.

UK, East Anglia. Fuel dream collapses

June 12 2006 - Abusinessman's dream of tapping the green oilfields of East Anglia has been shattered by government bureaucracy.

Biodiesel company Global Commodities, based in Shipdham, near Dereham, is being put into liquidation, with chairman Dennis Thouless blaming excessive regulation for crippling production.

Five years ago Mr Thouless ploughed thousands of pounds into setting up Global Commodities and quickly established a network supplying fuel derived from cooking oil across the UK and Germany. His vision appeared to be on track when the company opened a plant in Shipdham last November expanding its production capacity to 350 million litres. But cracks had already started to appear when the company was fined almost £30,000 by the Environment Agency for causing pollution and breaking Environment Agency (EA) operating regulations.

The company released a statement confirming the closure of both its Hull and Shipdham plants and the loss of 13 jobs. Mr Thouless said: “It is with deep regret that I have to announce the closure of Global Commodities. “I am devastated. This is a massive blow to the future of the bio-diesel industry and will have a huge effect on me. “I am 72 years old and I have put the last five years of my life into the company and have ploughed a substantial amount of my money into the business.

He placed the blame for the company's downfall firmly at the feet of draconian regulations by the EA. “This was the first biodiesel plant in the United Kingdom, this was a research and development unit, we had permission to trade 24/7 from Breckland Council. However the bureaucrats at the EAwould only allow us to manufacture between 8am and 6pm,” he said. Mr Thouless also said the EA's insistence that he notify them every time the company altered production was not feasible company working in a new field.

“The Environment Agency's attitude has been disgusting,” he said. “It makes it impossible to run a viable business.”

The company has been unsuccessful in attracting new investment over the past six weeks and Ensors Chartered Accountants were asked to begin proceedings to put the company into liquidation. The business is being put up for sale as a going concern.

UK, HSE publishes revamped guidance to simplify risk assessments

July 11 2006 - The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) urged businesses to spend less time dotting 'i's and crossing 't's and more time on putting practical actions into effect. To help companies do this HSE has issued a revamped risk assessment guide featuring examples that spell out, in plain English, what is and what is not - expected.

Launching the guidance, HSE's Deputy Chief Executive, Jonathan Rees, said: "We want to save lives, not tie businesses up in red tape - good risk assessment is the way to achieve this. Risk assessment is at the heart of sensible health and safety. We believe it should be a practical way of protecting people from real harm and suffering, not a bureaucratic back-covering exercise. On its own paperwork never saved a life, it needs to be a means to an end, resulting in actions that protect people in practice. "I hope that this new, more straightforward guidance will help managers understand what's expected of them and get more focus on the kind of risks that cause real harm and suffering - the ones that killed 220 workers last year and resulted in 35 million working days being lost. This guide takes the user through the process step-by-step with the minimum of fuss to achieve this aim." The guidance Five Steps to Risk Assessment, which was first published in 1993, has been revised and simplified to make it even easier for normal business people, not just health and safety experts, to use. It also places greater emphasis on making sure that decisions are actually put into practice.

The 11-page booklet, which is also available free online at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk, provides advice and tips on five key elements to an effective risk assessment: identifying the hazards; deciding who might be harmed and how; evaluating the risks and deciding on precautions; recording findings and implementing them; and finally ensuring they are reviewed at regular intervals. This is supported by four examples of what a risk assessment might look like. The examples help emphasise that risk assessment need not be difficult and the paperwork need not be long and complicated. For most, bullet points work very well. Copies of Five Steps to Risk Assessment, INDG163(rev2), are available from:

HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2WA Tel: 01787-881165 or Fax: 01787-313995. Priced publications are also available from good booksellers. Alternatively the leaflet can be downloaded free from the HSE website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk

UK, Southport. Son dies in petrol fireball horror in his back garden

June 22 2006 - ADIYenthusiast became a human fire-ball after his cigarette ignited petrol he was using to clean equipment.

Christopher Warrington suffered 90% burns in the accident in his back garden in Hoylake. He had been fitting a kitchen with his father when he decided to use petrol from a lawnmower to clean grease from old cooker parts. But his cigarette sparked a blaze that spread up towards his throat.

He called for an ambulance himself and was rushed to hospital. Mr Warrington, 30, from Proctor Road, was transferred to the specialist burns unit at Whiston hospital and died two days later. Mr Warrington's father, Peter, 49, said: "I'd just gone out for a bit to pick something up from a DIYshop. "When I got back there were ambulances and