31 March 2006

Quarry industry asking teens to reassess risk in safety campaign

The Quarry Products Association (QPA), which represents over 90% of the aggregates industry, is hosting a conference which is the culmination of an 18 month research project into communicating the dangers of quarry trespass to teenagers. With around 1300 aggregate quarries in the UK, expansive and often isolated sites provide a lure for young people and even though the industry puts much effort into securing its premises, trespass and accidents still occur.

Although the QPA has been running its annual Play Safe...Stay Safe campaign for seven years, the materials the Association has produced are better suited to younger children. The QPA also makes efforts to communicate with parents on the dangers of the industry's operations. However, quarry managers across the industry have called for a new approach that helps target a teenage audience, as it is this group that is putting itself at risk with activities such as mountain biking, skateboarding and swimming on the wrong side of the quarry fence. The conference, being held in Loughborough on 28 March, will present the QPA's work on the project and seek the audience's input in shaping final resources designed to combat the trespass problem.

From the very start of the project, which secured support from the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, the QPA has enlisted the help of teenagers themselves in developing its new approach. Through the work of students from the Anthony Gell School in Derbyshire, Serlby Park School in Nottinghamshire, Frome College in Somerset and Tividale Community Arts College in the West Midlands, a huge variety of campaign materials have been developed highlighting potential dangers within quarries. These have ranged from documentary films and posters, to radio shows and adverts, Internet animations and even sculpture.

The QPA went on to enlist the support of Learning Analyst Roy Leighton who built on the work of the students to develop a set of teaching resources designed to be taken into school where the lure of local quarries is most acute. The teaching resources will challenge young people's approach to risk-taking and develop a more mature attitude to managing risk, particularly with regard to peer pressure.

It is hoped that the conference audience, formed from the industry, education, the emergency services and other agencies, will feed their views into the work undertaken so far and help the project team to produce a practical pack for industry before the crucial time of the school summer holidays.

Cedric Hollinsworth, Executive Director of the QPA and the conference Chairman, says that "having worked in this industry across a variety of locations for 25 years, I know only too well of the dangers that young people place themselves in by entering quarries. Although our workers are well trained to work in these environments, teenagers don't have the expertise on just how many hazards are at play. With falling rocks, deep, freezing cold lakes and even quicksand to name a few, young people are really treading the line between life and death if they cross the fence.

However, we know that wagging our fingers at young adults is a real turn off, so we've enjoyed working with the students in a new way, and value the insight they've given us into their motivations. With their input, the work of our Education Analyst and the contributions from the conference delegates, we look forward to producing a set of resources that moves us beyond posters and leaflets, and offers us a new way of engaging young people and keeping them safe."

ENDS

If you need any more information, please contact our Press office or return to the News homepage