Play It Safe This Summer – Beware Building Sites Bite

Hull City Council is asking children in Hull to play safely over the long summer holiday and not be tempted by the many building sites which are at the forefront of the city’s regeneration.

Building companies take all reasonable steps to ensure that only authorised people are allowed onto a site when construction work is being carried out, and health and safety is embedded in the industry’s culture.

Nevertheless every year in the UK children are injured, and even die, as a result of accidents on building sites. Thankfully there have been no casualties in Hull, and we want to keep it that way.

Cllr John Black, Portfolio Holder for Housing said, “Children tend to be drawn to building sites as exciting places to play and are unaware of the potentially life threatening dangers they pose, therefore we want to send a strong message out that “building sites bite” and are no go areas for children.

“Across the city, the council and our partners offer a wide range of play, sporting and other recreational activities for children during the school holidays, and these can be checked out on the Council’s website www.hullcc.gov.uk/events and via the Council’s area teams’ Facebook pages.”

Building sites are prevalent across Hull because the Council is half way through the city’s biggest housing regeneration programme for more than 50 years, which will offer people a wider choice of quality affordable homes to rent or buy. As Hull works to become a world class visitor destination, there are many other major projects under construction including: The Venue; the completion of the University Technical College, and work in the Fruit Market area.

Newington St Andrews has already been the focus of major demolition and new building. 667 new homes have already been completed and a further 754 new homes committed. The new build programme is complemented by a refurbishment programme involving frontage improvements and external cladding for privately owned homes in the area.

To the north of the city, there are 177 new affordable homes for rent under construction. 52 homes have been completed and a programme to refurbish 2,000 homes with external cladding to improve energy efficiency is well underway.

Over in east Hull, major demolition of non-traditional housing on Ings and in the Preston Road area, and construction work there is on target to deliver approximately 1780 new homes, with 556 completed to date. Additionally, major improvement works, including energy efficiency, is being carried out to other homes in the area.

At Wawne View, Kingswood, work is due to start this summer to build 747 new homes for sale and affordable rent.

Councillor Black concluded: “The housing regeneration programme is big, bold and exciting and already we are seeing hope it is contribution to transforming neighbourhoods across the city.”