A NORTH Tawton firm has won two prestigious health and safety awards for the third year running.
Taw Valley Creamery, which is part of Glanbia Cheese, has received a gold award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and the British Safety Council award.
Deputy manager Elwyn Atkins said he was extremely pleased because it was a reflection of the operation of the whole site.
'Everyone here is working towards health and safety and I feel quite passionate that people come to work to have some fun, make a difference and go home with some wages not a broken arm,' he said.
Mr Atkins said the awards were well respected and getting the hat trick was a 'great achievement.'
'We had to demonstrate continuous improvements in health and safety over a four-year period to win the gold award,' he said. 'RoSPA looks at the number of accidents and severity of them.
'We employ 125 people and last year we had 27 accidents — only two of which resulted in injuries where people were off work.'
The deputy manager said the company had a very pro-active approach.
'Most of the work we do is risk assessment,' he said. 'We change things before they have a chance to cause an accident. We have a very active health and safety committee.'
He said good housekeeping and good training were the components of good health and safety practices at work.
To win the British Safety Council award the company's performance had to be at least 25 per cent better than the average within the food industry.
Mr Atkins said Taw Valley Creamery intended to keep up the good work and hopefully continue winning awards.
Other recent successes for the company were three first prize wins at the Royal Bath and West Show including the finest mature cheddar in show.