AM welcomes introduction of ambassadors for farm safety

NEIL Hamilton, AM for Mid & West Wales and UKIP Leader in Wales, has welcomed the introduction of ambassadors to highlight health and safety on farms in Wales.

Mr Hamilton, a member of the Senedd’s Rural Affairs committee, said he was pleased to see more support being offered to farmers.
He said:

“It is vitally important for people working on our farms to be supported and I am delighted two new Farm Safety Ambassadors have been appointed to help reduce the risk of accidents on Welsh farms.

“I fully back any moves to help reduce the unacceptable number of deaths and serious accidents which happen on farms all over Wales every year.

“I am dismayed to hear that you are now more than six times more likely to be killed on a farm than on a building site. Whilst it is good to see in the last 20 years that industries such as construction have greatly improved their safety records, it is tragic that farming has not kept pace.

“I welcome these appointments. Our industrious farmers, who work long and often tiring hours, richly deserve this support.”

The new Ambassadors will promote the work of the Wales Farm Safety Partnership, a collaboration of key agricultural stakeholder organisations working together to help drive down the unacceptable number of serious accidents and deaths that occur on farms across Wales each year.

The Wales Farm Safety Partnership was last year awarded £46,000 by the Welsh Government to highlight the dangers associated with farming and to provide health and safety advice and guidance to farmers.
388 people have been killed while at work on British farms in the last ten years while thousands more have suffered serious injuries and work related ill health.

The two new Farm Safety Ambassadors are Glyn Davies and Aled Elidyr Edwards. Both have extensive farming experience and are keen to impart their knowledge to other farm businesses in a bid to make Welsh farms safer and reduce the risk of accidents.
Glyn is a Farming Connect health & safety mentor and Aled, a farmer and presenter on the S4C farming series Ffermio.