Campaign for Real Risk
- Trespassers won’t be prosecuted: do you have a right of access to the beach? - 25th March, 2024
- Why do boomers like minions? - 6th November, 2022
- Are you a true Isle of Wight local? - 30th October, 2022
The Health and Safety Commission launches a campaign – no surprises there. But this one’s a bit different. It’s under the provocative title ‘Get a Life‘ and invites us to
…focus on real risks ” those that cause real harm and suffering ” and stop concentrating effort on trivial risks and petty health and safety…
The Ranger is delighted with this approach, and the common-sense advice given on the HSE website to try to put this into practice. Far too often he is faced with a complainant asking for unreasonably onerous precautions to be taken to ameliorate some tiny hazard. People need to learn that RISK is not the same as DANGER.
A dangerous pastime – or is it a risky one?
Of course, it is dangerous to walk along the top of an unprotected cliff, as The Ranger recently did on a very exhilarating windy day at Binnel Bay on the Isle of Wight (see image above). But what is the risk? Actually, not much, if you take sensible precautions. For that reason, there are no fences at Binnel. However, elsewhere, where the cliff is unstable and the danger is not in itself obvious, the risk of an incident is much higher and areas are quite regularly fenced off. Hundreds of thousands of people enjoy this delightful unspoilt coastline every year. Of the very few that do fall off, the majority, sadly, do so either deliberately, or in the process of undertaking an activity so obviously risky that no amount of fencing or safety warning signs would have detered them in the first place. The Ranger is very pleased with the continuing development of the point of view that we are entitled to be exposed to a proportionate amount of danger, in order to appreciate the benefits of a natural environment.