The Health And Safety Brigade Strikes Again!

and deny cancer sufferers funds, it would be laughable if it were not so sad, the Cancer Research UK charity shop in Cullompton, Devon store is run by 30 pensioner volunteers who have raised hundreds of thousands of pounds over the last 20 years, in 2006, when Cancer Research ceased to fund staff salaries, because it was not making enough profit, the pensioners each put in around £100 of their own money in to it since taking over the shop for ”every day expenses” and calculate they have made around £150,000 profit for the charity in that time, also it has become a ‘hub’ for the community where dozens of pensioners meet every day and pore through the items on sale,

now you would have thought that with most of them looking after themselves for all of their working lives they could just get on with what they wanted to do, help raise funds, but a member of the Health and Safety Executive visited the shop and outlined ten areas which needed to be monitored in order to fulfil insurance criteria, that is OK make the changes and carry on, but it gets worse, the volunteers were told they had to install a paid manager, at a cost of around £25,000 a year, or close the shop ”immediately because of health and safety risks”, the position, which would cost around £25,000 a year to subsidise, would ”swallow up” most of the shop’s £30,000-a-year in takings,

Terry Allen, 80, was among 30 pensioners who took over the running of the shop in Cullompton, Devon, in 2006, when Cancer Research ceased to fund staff salaries, Mr Allen, who is the secretary of Cullompton Friends of Cancer Research UK, said: ”We’re devastated over the decision, one person has fallen down in four years and they were quite happy to get up and walk home, but the charity contacted us to say it was frightened to death somebody would take legal action against us,' Mr Allen added: ”Staff now need to be instructed on how to use cleaning products properly, but these people have been using them for at least 50 years, it seems like common sense to me and other volunteers but somebody needs to assess it every so often and write a report about it in a management position,”

well there you have it, common sense and Health & Safety do not go hand in glove, surely all it needed was volunteers there to sign a legal disclaimer that they would not sue in the case of an accident? ops! I forgot that would do the Health & Safety brigade out of a job, just think how proud the people that closed this charity shop must feel when they wake up in the morning and review their triumph!