Magazine - Calderdale Parks and Street Scene NRoSO Training Day

By Mark Dempsey in Local Authority on 2nd Jul 2007 11:00

Calderdale Council Parks and Street Staff have recently taken part in a training event to upgrade their awareness of potential water contamination issues, update of LERAPS (Local Environmental Risk Assessment of Pesticides) and correct nozzle Selection.

Other subjects covered on the course were growth regulators, pesticide calibration and Health and Safety legislation.

The training was provided by Geoff Wilson Training of York, who has established links with Calderdale Parks and Street scene by supplying machinery and equipment and also training Calderdale staff to various NPTC standards for a number of years.

The event was held at Wellholme Park Bowling club Brighouse which is a Civic Trust Green Flag Park, currently involved on a national basis with comprehensive trials on the use of grass growth regulators on fine turf and composting trials on amenity grassland areas within the park.

The venue at Wellholme provides a classroom within a park setting. 10 Staff attended the course, of which 8 are members of NRoSO (National Register of Spray Operators). It is good that Calderdale Council and its staff can show such a commitment to the NRoSO scheme. The course had a value of 8 Continual Professional Points which spray operators need to accrue on a rolling programme over a 3 year period.


NRoSO is part of the voluntary initiative which has been set up by various bodies in agriculture and pesticide users in agriculture and Local government, to try and encourage responsible use of pesticides by providing training events and keeping all spray operators to date with new legislation and application techniques.

Currently there are approximately 22,500 NRoSO spray operators in the UK mainly in the agricultural sector with only 150 signed up from the amenity sector with 12 of those being Calderdale staff.

Mark Dempsey was very pleased with how the day went, the pace and course content covered by Geoff was just right, very informative and relevant for all those who attended and actively contributed to the day proceedings.

Read more articles in Local Authority, by Mark Dempsey or from July 2007.