CityMark

CityMark is one of the many projects that the City of London Corporation are focusing on to reduce the number of people Killed or Seriously Injured by Heavy Good Vehicles.

Studies by Transport for London (TFL) showed that trucks, heavy good vehicles and vans were more likely to be involved in fatal or serious injury collisions with pedestrians and cyclists than other vehicles. So they and many other partners got together to ensure more work could be done to prevent this. From this Construction Logistics for Community Safety Standard (CLOCS) and Freight Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) were developed.

CLOCS is a national Standard that requires "all stakeholders in construction to take responsibility for health & safety beyond the hoardings".

It demands collaborative action to prevent fatal or serious collisions between vehicles going to and from sites and pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. While FORS is a voluntary accreditation scheme for fleet operators which aims to raise the level of quality within fleet operations, and to demonstrate which operators are achieving exemplary levels of best practice in safety, efficiency, and environmental protection.

Developed in 2017 in partnership with 16 industry stakeholders and representatives CityMark aimed to understand the level of compliance across all the construction projects in the City of London (Square Mile).

The higher the level of compliance assurance, the less risks to people walking and cycling on the City's Streets.

All construction projects in the Square Mile are members of the Considerate Contractors Scheme (CCS) and CityMark forms an addition to that scheme. It brings the scheme up to date with CLOCS and FORS. Which if implemented correctly and enforced at every tier of the supply chain - would encouraging best practice, safer drivers and compliant vehicles.

So CityMark monitors compliance with these safety standards and by doing so builds the bigger picture of where the potential risks exit, and ensuring these risks are mitigated. In addition, the scheme awards sites demonstrating compliance and best practice so that this can be shared with other developments to better protect the community. There are 4 awards categories: Client/Principal Contractor Award, Site Compliance and Assurance Team or Traffic Marshal Team Award, Contractor Logistics Award and The Construction Logistics Planning Award.

The first CityMark award was presented to BAM Construction by Christopher Hayward, the Chairman of the City of London’s Planning and Transportation Committee in 2017, who said:

“I am delighted to present this inaugural CityMark award to the Site Compliance Assurance Team at BAM. Banksmen are often unrecognised members of construction sites, however, you look after the safety of pedestrians and cyclists when goods vehicles are entering or leaving a site and are often the first point of call for checking FORS compliance at sites.”

CityMark is the first initiative to understand the levels of FORS and CLOCS implementation across construction supply chains. The level of implementation is critical to delivering the benefits of both schemes.