Most organisations are aware of the need to control hazards inside buildings, but what about outdoors? Bridget Leathley gives us a comprehensive overview of the key issues to consider.

Facilities teams with responsibilities for outdoor areas have a myriad of complex hazards to consider, including icy walkways, vehicles and overgrown trees. Some hazards relate to structures or equipment that have been built or installed, while others are natural features. This guide considers the problems, and suggest how to keep people safe outdoors, all year round.

The built environment

Where we have control over the built environment, we should design it to reduce hazards in use and future maintenance. Paths should have surfaces which remain non-slip when wet, and ideally when covered in ice. We should design pedestrian traffic routes to avoid trip hazards, making sure that steps are clearly marked, and slopes provided as alternatives. Barriers such as walls and fences should be built to withstand any pressures that might be applied, or else to fail safely without causing catastrophic harm. Routes should be designed to keep traffic away from structures that could be damaged by a collision, and drainage planning should direct water away from vehicle and pedestrian routes.

The natural environment

Some features of the natural environment can be planned. From a bare site, an organisation can decide on a planting scheme, considering the height to which plants, shrubs and trees might grow. However, sometimes a site inherits features, for example where a new industrial estate or shopping complex must be built around a tree with a preservation order, or a pond where any change would need an assessment of the environmental impact.

But without management, natural features will grow or spread at their own rate. Stinging nettles or bushes with thorns will be seeded without your input and might need to be managed to keep walkways safe for passers-by. Animals add to a complex picture, whether by direct contact (wasp stings, tick or horsefly bites) or by leaving hazardous waste (rats, cats or dogs).

Trees

In November 2024, a council was fined £500,000 after a dog walker died when the large limb of a tree fell on him in a council-managed park. A year earlier, another limb of the same tree had fallen, but the incident wasn’t followed up. In 2023, there were two notable prosecutions relating to trees. Another council was fined £280,000 after a child died in a school playground, and a care home was fined £400,000 after a child lost a leg when a tree on the property fell on her as she ran past.

The growth and decay of trees can be unpredictable, depending on weather, soil conditions, and interactions with animals, other plants and fungi. As well as the serious injuries from parts of trees falling, many more injuries occur when people trip over tree roots. Roots can disturb paths over a long period, or more quickly following heavy rain or where paths are poorly maintained.

While some tree pests are 5cm long wood-boring beetles, others are tiny insects such as aphids and spider mites. Determining which fungi or insects are harmful to a tree, and which benign is a specialist task. Some species are harmful to human health too. A moth species accidentally introduced to England in 2005 produces a voracious caterpillar which feeds on oak trees, leaving them more susceptible to disease. Contact can irritate the eyes and throat, in some cases leading to breathing difficulties and allergic reactions.

Changes in climate have allowed the oak moth and other pests to thrive in a new environment, while drier springs and wetter summers and increases in airborne nitrogen pollution make our trees more vulnerable to damage. Whether you have a single tree next to a car park, or hundreds of trees, make sure you’ve a plan in place.

Weather

Just as there is a requirement to inspect scaffolding every seven days and after ‘any event liable to have affected its stability’, so we need regular inspection processes for structures outside our buildings, and additional measures following ‘events’. If a wall is hit by a vehicle but appears intact, examine it for hidden damage; trees might need additional checks after high winds; following heavy rain the impact of overflowing drains or gutters should be assessed. Ponds might have barriers to keep people clear, but are these effective when water levels are higher than usual?

You might have to restrict access to areas with trees during some weather conditions. Trees are more vulnerable to wind when in full leaf, so the National Trust closes parts of the Chirk Castle estate when winds reach 40 mph in the summer, or 45 mph in the winter.

Flood water in the car park and overflow from gutters can seep into walls, weakening the mortar and making them unstable. Too much or too little moisture in the soil can make the foundations of built structures and trees unstable. We recognise the danger of ice and snow on paths, but paths are also slippery when covered in wet leaves or when the weather causes a rapid growth of moss and algae.

Approach

1. Identify the physical features

Make an inventory of your outdoors, just as you would for machinery, substances and tools indoors. If you have a handful of trees, you can identify each one individually on a plan. If you have lots, you might group them. Walls, drains, pedestrian and vehicle routes should all be identified. As well as the features that could be hazardous, list all the physical features you currently have to manage safety, such as handrails, lighting, drainage and signage.

2. Describe monitoring and maintenance

For each item on your inventory, describe how often it’s checked, who is responsible for checking, and how this is documented. The frequency of some tasks will vary with the time of year. For example, paving slabs might need to be jet washed in the spring and the autumn, while salting for ice is likely to be needed only in the winter. Even with a single tree, you need a management programme. If you have a lot of trees, zoning might be appropriate with trees near busy footpaths or car parks inspected more often than those in rarely accessed locations.

3. Assess and manage the task hazards

Make sure your risk assessments include tasks outside your buildings. For example, COSHH assessments for biocides or cleaning chemicals, and assessment of vibration, noise, mechanical and electrical hazards of powered equipment. Manage the risk from manual handling, work at height or work near unstable structures. Fire risk assessments should include diesel or petrol used or stored outside, the accumulation of grounds waste, and disposal of smoking materials.

Working in the sunshine increases a worker’s exposure to solar radiation as well as the possibility of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

Extreme cold makes people more susceptible to hand-arm vibration conditions as well as hypothermia, especially if they get wet.

4. Assess effectiveness of arrangements

When there is a ‘near miss’ such as a branch falling harmlessly from a tree when a location is empty, we must investigate and take follow-up action when indicated. Are we doing enough to protect people? We might decide to increase inspections, to change the type of inspection, or to exclude people from a location either permanently or in defined weather conditions.

Listen to the people carrying out the work to find out what challenges they face. Would new equipment help? Do some weather conditions make their work especially difficult? If we expect people to work in extremely cold or hot conditions, workloads need to be adjusted to take account of their welfare.

5. Review your processes

As with any process, you need to review it and look for continuous improvement. Investigate the causes of accidents and near misses outside, and make sure any plans are put into effect in good time.

The impact of climate change on pest species and weather patterns means that schedules of outdoor maintenance that were effective in the past might not be in the future. The National Trust have adapted their land management practices, and you might need to do the same.

The future

New technologies provide improved ways of managing hazards, outdoors as well as inside. Inspections after storms might be carried out by an experienced drone operator, looking at trees or structures from above, without the risk of injury. Thermal imaging can detect decay in trees that would be missed in a visual inspection. LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) can make accurate models of topography, buildings and natural features, including trees. Re-measuring with LiDAR will detect small shifts or deformation in structures which could indicate an increasing risk.

Proactive and adaptive grounds management, embracing new technologies while engaging workers is an essential part of our safety systems.
 

This is the third in our series on facilities management basics. You can read Bridget's article on Facilities management: Covering the basics here and her article Facilities management basics: Legionella and water management here.
 

With a first degree in computer science and psychology, Bridget Leathley started her working life in human factors, initially in IT and later in high-hazard industries. After completing an MSc in Occupational Health and Safety Management, she moved full-time into occupational health and safety consultancy, training and writing.