Gate Safe - five years of making gates safe

With a further five deaths and eight 'near miss' accidents since the original fatalities in 2010 and industry experts claiming that over 90% of automated gates potentially pose a serious safety risk, Gate Safe has launched a petition. The campaign encourages government to consider the introduction of planning permission consent (which would require the gate to be fitted by a suitably trained professional installer) in a bid to regulate all new automated gate installations, putting an end to the creation of any further unsafe gates.

Further initiatives planned to support the official fifth anniversary include: the roll out of the innovative interactive Safe Gate Visualiser; the launch of a series of guidance documents designed to provide 'safe gate' guidance to a range of specialist audiences; the roll out of a series of blogs written by Gate Safe and various guest bloggers; the launch of a new video; a dedicated media relations drive and the launch of an awards scheme designed to identify examples of best practice within the installer community.

The original Gate Safe Summit, back in September 2010 represented a pioneering step designed to bring together representatives from a broad cross section of companies and generic trade / safety organisations, which Gate Safe identified as all having a role to play in calling for the introduction of tighter guidance pertaining to automated gate safety. Since then Gate Safe has joined forces with eleven* powerful organisations / opinion former bodies to enlist their support in communicating with their respective audiences to drive home the importance of adopting the appropriate protocol to deliver a safe and legally compliant gate.

Commenting on the anniversary, Gate Safe founder Richard Jackson says, “Although we are proud of a number of important achievements, which includes the origination of the very first accredited training course specifically designed to provide guidance on the safety requirements for an automated gate, we are certainly not resting on our laurels and believe that there is still much to be done to prevent any further accidents or fatalities occurring. Whilst we are not suggesting that planning permission is the only route to achieving this, we do believe that the introduction of a more formal procedure for anyone wanting to install a powered gate will go some way to reducing the number of illegal and unsafe gates fitted by what can only be termed 'cowboy' installers. We will be working with our Patron, Madeleine Moon MP to see how best we can leverage support for this petition. In the meantime, we are hopeful that with the continued support of our supporters as well as the introduction of our user friendly Safe Gate interactive tool, we can use the fifth anniversary milestone as a means to reignite public / media interest in the importance of automated gate safety.”

Anyone interested in lending their support to the Gate Safe petition can do so by clicking on the following link: Petition.

Gate Safe Key Milestones:

• September 2010: Original pioneers of automated gate safety promotion: hosted the Gate Safe Summit 23 September 2010; delivery of a petition to Downing Street October 2010; hosted the first Gate Safe Steering group meeting January 2011 and 'commended by the HSE for pioneering approach to improving standards in automated gate safety
• August 2012: Launch of first dedicated automated gate training course in 2012, which remains the only course with external accreditation (from IOSH). The Gate Safe register (found on the Gate Safe website www.gate-safe.org) now features over 500 trained installers nationwide
• Summer 2015: Gate Safe presence at a number of key industry events including The Electric Event (ECA annual event); Flat Living Live
• Summer 2015: Development of the innovative Safe Gate Visualiser - an interactive guide to help achieve a safe automated gate installation, due for launch September 2015
• August 2015: Gate Safe posted an online petition, requesting consideration is given to the introduction of planning permission consent for any new automated gate installation
• September 2015: Roll out of a series of sector specific guides, 'in plain English' to provide guidance on how to understand what is required to make a safe automated gate
• September 2015: Gate Safe celebrates the official support of: Electrical Safety Council; Electrical Contractors' Association; Safety Assessment Federation; RoSPA; School SafetyMARK; Secured by Design; Trade Skills 4 U (no1 provider of electrical qualifications); International Institute of Risk and Safety Management; Risk UK (security and fire management publication) and ECS (Electrotechnical Certification Scheme) and Institution Occupational Safety and Health
• In addition Gate Safe has developed 'plain english' wording pertaining to the agreed safety protocol for automated gates, to support the existing British Standards for fencing and gates
• The charity also launched the first independent audit service and Gate Safe has now completed over 100 unbiased audits for a range of applications

Gate Safe's official supporters are:

Electrical Safety Council; Electrical Contractors' Association; Safety Assessment Federation; RoSPA; School SafetyMARK; Secured by Design; Trade Skills 4 U (no1 provider of electrical qualifications) ; International Institute of Risk and Safety Management; Risk UK (security and fire management publication) and ECS (Electrotechnical Certification Scheme) and Institution Occupational Safety and Health.