ESSEX-based maintenance company Ground Control is celebrating after winning an internationally recognised award for demonstrating high health and safety standards.

Ground Control has received the prestigious RoSPA President's Award after being awarded ten consecutive Gold Medals for its high standards and performance in health and safety.

The awards scheme is the longest-running of its kind in the UK, attracting 2,000 entrants from around the world every year.

“Winning the President’s Award is the culmination of our decade-long commitment to health and safety,” said Angelina Sooren, HSQE (health, safety, quality and environment) director at Ground Control.

“With over 6,000 employees and contractors working across a range of potentially hazardous areas such as arboriculture, landscape construction, fencing and pest control, this award reflects our on-going responsibility in investing in the safety of our people. Health and Safety is central to everything we do.

“Our teams deliver essential frontline services in open and dangerous environments such as working next to power and rail lines, keeping the country connected and moving. That’s why last year we spent £600,000 running 20,000 courses and assessments to ensure they’re trained to accurately risk assess and identify potential hazards they’ll face in the field – and to be able to formulate strategies to guarantee safety.”

Julia Small, RoSPA’s head of qualifications, said: “RoSPA wants every employee, wherever they are, to work safe in the knowledge that they will be going home unharmed and healthy at the end of every day.

“The RoSPA Award winners are vital to help achieve this goal, as by entering they are driving up standards and setting new benchmarks for organisations everywhere.”

Ground Conrol managing director, Marcus Watson, added: “I am extremely proud of the Ground Control team and, most importantly, the support they have received from our amazing HSQE team.

“Their combined dedication to continuously raising health and safety standards in the often risky but critical areas we work in, as such managing vegetation around power lines and railways, has kept our people safe over the last decade and led to this incredible achievement.”

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