Spider among the poppies: access, safety and lift selection lessons for projects
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Hire Safe Solutions supplied a free Hinowa Lightlift 33.17 spider lift and operator to install a remembrance poppy cascade at St Mary’s Church, Widnes, after volunteers lacked suitable high-reach access. A narrow entrance gate and confined churchyard ruled out conventional platforms, so the team used the compact, tracked spider with a working height of nearly 33 metres to reach the top of the tower. Operator Spencer Sumner positioned the lift to guide heavy-duty netting carrying over 15,000 hand-knitted and crocheted poppies down the stonework while fixing it to avoid snagging.
Technical Brief
- Hinowa Lightlift 33.17 selection was driven by compact chassis geometry compatible with a narrow entrance gate.
- Tracked spider configuration reduced point loads on historic churchyard surfaces compared with wheeled truck-mounts.
- Fixings were installed progressively from the platform to minimise manual work-at-height on the masonry itself.
- Single trained mobile engineer/operator from Hire Safe Solutions limited personnel exposure within the fall-risk zone.
- Restricted churchyard environment necessitated precise slew and outreach control to avoid contact with gravestones and boundaries.
- Use of purpose-designed MEWP rather than ad hoc ladders or scaffolds aligns with UK work-at-height safety expectations.
Our Take
A near-33-metre working height machine being run out of a regional base like Hire Safe Solutions’ Runcorn depot suggests contractors are increasingly comfortable mobilising high-spec access gear from secondary hubs rather than major cities, which can shorten response times for church and civic-structure inspections.
The age spread of contributors (from 2 to 92 years) around St Mary’s Church indicates that public-facing safety and outreach elements are being woven into access projects, which in our safety-tagged coverage tends to help operators secure repeat work with local authorities and diocesan estates teams.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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