health and Safety Gone Mad

I heard it all this morning! Outside a shop the pavement was covered in piles of dog mess. It was in the door way and all under the windows. We crept in avoiding the mess and told the assistant. I said "you need a bucket of hot water out there it's disgusting."

" Can't do that for health and safety reasons." She said.
"Like what? Said I "just sluice it off the pavement and onto the street." "If someone slips on the water we would be liable." She says.

I asked what would happen if they slipped on the poo but she didn't answer. I pointed out that there was brilliant sunshine, no ice or snow and it would be dry in a few minutes.

"No we'll have to ring the council". In the meantime several people walked in bringing poo onto their carpet!

another assistant said she would clear it up as they didn't want poo on the carpet as it was only cleaned last weekend.

She actually went and put on rubber gloves and got wads of kitchen roll to try and clear the pavement. It was literally everywhere and everyone who walked past said "you need water and a brush for that mess."

It's unbelieveable how people put everything down to Health and Safety.

Re: health and Safety Gone Mad

The cretin who allowed their flipping animal to mess should have been ordered to clear it up!

Re: health and Safety Gone Mad

Loads of stuff blamed on health and safety has no truth at all and it seems an easy way for people to get out of doing things ..

http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/top10myths.htm

Re: health and Safety Gone Mad

I'm not sure its Health and Safety, but it may well be for legal reasons. Assuming the dogs mess was not the shop's fault, the shop is not responsible for it being there. However, if you intervene with it, you take responsibility for it. Thus if someone comes along and slips on it after you have tried to clean it (or slips on the water), you are liable for damages.

I believe its the same situation if it snows outside your house. Someone slips on the snow, its down to them. If someone slips on it after you have tried to clear it, you are liable.

Re: health and Safety Gone Mad

I have looked into this before and that is absolutely not true People use it to not bother clearing the snow as has been stated above by Cass.
Link to Government advice: https://www.gov.uk/clear-snow-road-path-cycleway

Re: health and Safety Gone Mad

"Under current legislation, householders and companies open themselves up to legal action if they try to clear a public pavement outside their property. If they leave the path in a treacherous condition, they cannot be sued."

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, the professional body representing 36,000 health and safety experts, gave warning that [clearing snow] could lead to legal action.

In guidance to its members, who advise businesses through*out the country, it said: “When clearing snow and ice, it is probably worth stopping at the boundaries of the property under your control.”

Clearing a public path “can lead to an action for damages against the company, e.g. if members of the public, assuming that the area is still clear of ice and thus safe to walk on, slip and injure themselves”.

Legal experts said home owners could fall victim to the same laws if they tried to clear an icy path but failed to do the job properly. John McQuater, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, admitted: “If you do nothing you cannot be liable. If you do something, you could be liable to a legal action.”

The Government may advise that this may not happen, but legally, if someone hurts themselves as a result of your actions, you are liable. Bearing in mind these days anyone will do anything for compensation. If you go to that link, it says "It’s unlikely that you’ll be sued or held responsible if someone is injured on a path or pavement if you’ve cleared it carefully."

The key word in the sentence is "unlikely". That does mean you won't be held responsible.

Re: health and Safety Gone Mad

If I was an assistant I wouldn't clean it up, why should I clear crap up?

Re: health and Safety Gone Mad

Isn't fowling like that a crime? CCTV, police, DNA, dog put down, owner locked up of hugely fined. Deterrant!

Re: health and Safety Gone Mad

Not the dogs fault if the owner doesnt clean up.. Send the dog on a training course and have the owner put down ..Much better deterrent.

Re: health and Safety Gone Mad

A couple of days ago, I had cause to go to an Asda, where there was a large foyer, with marble floors and entrances to smaller shop units like Greggs etc. There were stainless steel bollards to prevent traffic, or ram raids, to one of these a very large dog was tethered, and seemed very well behaved, I walked past and entered the complex. On exiting I became aware of an extremely unpleasant odour, the dog had done the biggest pile of poo on the marble floor I had ever seen, and folks were giving it a wide berth, and holding their noses, why do some folks take animals into environments likes this?