The drowning of a 12 year old girl in the River Irwell, Greater Manchester, together with two men in their 20s being pulled from the sea off Torquay in a 24 hour period last week, has caused Police to warn of the dangers of playing or swimming in rivers, lakes and reservoirs.

With high temperatures recently, please check your site fencing, signage, safety devices and security arrangements at both operational and non-operational sites.

The MPA (Mineral Products Association) also recommend you check your public safety risk assessments are up to date for both operational and non-operational sites.

Eight members of the public drowned in UK quarry lakes last year (none of them CEMEX owned) seven of which were in disused sites not in industry ownership. Most of these deaths occurred during periods of warm weather.

Please also do not forget the MPA Stay Safe video is viewable on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkRzpvPVdds

and the Facebook page Stay Safe Stay Out of Quarries: https://www.facebook.com/StaySafeStayOutOfQuarries which provides news on campaigns, incidents, links to videos and other resources.

Please share this with colleagues, family, friends and your children’s/grandchildren’s school via your own social media and talking to them about this.  If we all do our bit to raise awareness it will help.