Asphalt Reinforcement Services was among the winners of a prestigious health and safety award at last Thursday’s Road Surface Treatments Association annual conference.

The Bedfordshire based company received first prize for Workforce Involvement, for ensuring that all of its operatives are trained and qualified to NVQ level 2 status. Judges noted that the firm paid particular attention to improving the trust and confidence of operatives asked to demonstrate their professional competence.

“We were absolutely delighted to win the award,” said Asphalt Reinforcement Services’ managing director Howard Cooke. “We worked hard to engage with our workforce and win their trust when assessing their skills and raising awareness of health and safety.

“Everyone knows why we wear personal protective equipment on site, but we encourage our operatives to articulate the benefits of doing so when working towards the qualification,” he added.

Mr Cooke chairs the RSTA’s Geosynthetic & Steel Mesh sector group and is the first person to become a qualified NVQ assessor for installing the specialist applications.

Other companies to win awards at the RSTA conference were Bituchem Building Products – which won the Behavioural Safety category for operative and supervisor safety inductions – and a collaboration between Stirling Lloyd, LMS Highways and Connect Plus which won the Innovation category for a crack and joint repair system used on the M25.

“All entrants should be congratulated on the significant efforts they are making within their businesses to improve the standards of health and safety,” said award judge Joy Jones.

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