Pochin appoints Oakes for health and safety role

Pochin Construction has appointed Claire Oakes as its new safety, health and environmental manager.

Oakes has replaced John Stelfox, who retired from the role at the end of 2009 after 30 years of service at Pochin.

She has over 15 years experience within health and safety in the construction industry and will be responsible for implementing and overseeing health and safety management procedures on all of Pochin's active construction sites across the country, as well as creating a more streamlined system for environmental procedures.

Oakes said: "The nature of health and safety management can mean that a lot of time is taken up responding reactively to urgent issues and problems on site. However my long-term plan at Pochin's is to establish monthly workshops for staff in order to improve worker engagement. I hope to use these workshops to offer training sessions and update the team on new health and safety procedures, so that these can be then rolled out across Pochin's active sites more efficiently. I look forward to getting to know the extensive team at Pochin's and relish the challenges that lie ahead."

Antony Pochin, business strategy director for Pochin Construction, added: "Claire has a great deal of experience within the health and safety sector, and also sits on the committee for the North West Construction Safety Group. This first-hand knowledge of issues relating to health and safety in construction industry coupled with her extensive experience will be a great asset to Pochin's."

Although Stelfox has retired from his position as safety, health and environmental manager, he will be returning to Pochin's on a consultancy basis to carry out the completion of the company's ISO 14001 certification. ISO 14001 is an internationally accepted standard that sets out how an organisation are to go about putting in place an effective Environmental Management System.

Pochin said: "John has been a staple member of the team since 1979 and during that time has worked tirelessly towards achieving Pochin's objective of zero accidents in the workplace. Although John will be returning on a consultancy basis, we wish him all the best when he officially begins his well-earned retirement, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank John, on behalf of Pochin's PLC, for all his hard work and dedication over the years."