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Developer warns Newcastle kids over building site safety

17th September 2010 Print
We don’t play on your playground so don’t play on ours’

Safety experts from house builder Miller Homes found themselves playing hopscotch and hula hoop to help hammer home the importance of building site hazards to youngsters at a Newcastle school.

The ‘We don’t play on your playground – so please don’t play on ours’ session was devised to help under 11s understand that Miller Homes’ latest development at Greenvale Park, just off Stamfordham Road in Newcastle, is not a play area.

More than 100 pupils aged between six and 11, from Hilton Primary School in Newcastle, were treated to dressing up activities, a site safety DVD and site safety quizzes mixed with playground games to get a feel of what is involved in house building and safety on a construction site.

Pupils were also handed high vis arm bands so they can be seen in the dark evenings or when walking home from school.

Miller Homes’ health, safety and environment officer Trevor Olver said: “We enjoy working closely with communities near our sites, especially if there is an educational and safety aspect. We like to make our health and safety sessions fun and visual so children can really understand our messages.

“With our new Greenvale Park development being located so close to Hilton Primary School, we felt it was very important to build relationships with the school and look after the children’s safety whilst building work is under construction.

“It is so important for new housing developments to work together with the community, so people know what to expect over the build stages and so children are aware to be cautious.”

As all house types on the development are Miller Homes North East’s first Code Level 3 homes to be built in the region, as part of the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes to be zero-carbon by 2016, the students were also given a talk on sustainable housing and were handed materials such as bricks, timber and solar panelling.

Hilton Primary School deputy head teacher Simon Ward said: “We are always keen to develop as many links within our community as possible and ensuring our students’ welfare and safety in and around the school campus is top of our agenda. Miller Homes’ site safety session fits well into our lessons on community, and the talk helped their understanding of this. The children really enjoyed the fun element to the session that Miller devised, it was a great way to educate and inform them about living in a safe and environmentally friendly way.”

Greenvale Park will be a popular 93-house development with a mix of two and three bedroom family homes that homebuyers could start moving into by early next year.

For further information visit the Miller Homes website: millerhomes.co.uk

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We don’t play on your playground so don’t play on ours’