Can anyone help with current best practice for cutting grass on slopes and what is a slope, 15% 30%?

The Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) will sell you a 'template' Risk Assessment for this task (and many others) for the princely sum of £2 !

http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/record/tel240810.htm

HSE News Media centre Putting the record straight HSE responds to The Telegraph article HSE responds to The Telegraph article - "Castle under siege in a battle over health and safety"
24 August 2010
Dear Sir,

In response to your article on grass cutting at Carlisle Castle (24 August), I can confirm that there is no guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that prevents it.

Organisations, such as English Heritage, have a responsibility to look after the health and safety of their staff. But that doesn't mean that they can't mow lawns. HSE has not issued any new guidance on mowers recently in this sector.

Appropriate equipment should always be used. Three people died at work using mowing equipment last year, and a number of sit-on mowers turned over on steep slopes.

The risks are real, but with appropriate management of those risks, for example using a different type of mower, activities can continue.

A straightforward, sensible risk assessment would quickly show where real dangers lie, and what can be done to address them.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Walker
Head of Agriculture
Health and Safety Executive


HSE News Media centre Putting the record straight HSE responds to The Telegraph article HSE responds to The Telegraph article - "Castle under siege in a battle over health and safety"
24 August 2010
Dear Sir,

In response to your article on grass cutting at Carlisle Castle (24 August), I can confirm that there is no guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that prevents it.

Organisations, such as English Heritage, have a responsibility to look after the health and safety of their staff. But that doesn't mean that they can't mow lawns. HSE has not issued any new guidance on mowers recently in this sector.

Appropriate equipment should always be used. Three people died at work using mowing equipment last year, and a number of sit-on mowers turned over on steep slopes.

The risks are real, but with appropriate management of those risks, for example using a different type of mower, activities can continue.

A straightforward, sensible risk assessment would quickly show where real dangers lie, and what can be done to address them.

Yours faithfully,

Graeme Walker
Head of Agriculture
Health and Safety Executive

Crampons etc; We tried for a long time to come up with suitable foot grip but did not get any in the end that suited most conditions - in 2010 you may have better results than I did

Use of remote control cutting is coming in and mowers on ropes have been used on many an occasion

In most cases some sort of imaginative planting seems to sort many slopes out along with the idea of going back to nature

Mower on a rope - no thankyou! particularly when the mower can end up in the live carraigeway of the road below, on its side, with the dead-man's handle defeated and the blade still rotating.
We have T-shirts for that one............................