Voluntary tower crane register by September

The voluntary register of tower cranes should be available by the end of the summer and will contain information about cranes currently in use, but will not list all tower cranes.

Construction Plant-hire Association chief executive Colin Wood said his organisation was working with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on the register. He said the HSE was constructing a website to display the information, but added: "To list every crane in the yard, as well as those on site, would be unmanageable."

He said the register is designed to give the general public confidence that the crane on a site next to their house or work had been correctly erected and tested.

Information on a crane (owner, through examination certificate, date of next examination and so on) will be put on the register as a crane is erected on a site and removed when it is taken down.

"This is the way we want it to work," Wood said, adding that the general public was not interested in a dismantled crane hire company's yard.

He expects the website to be available in July or August and said his members should be able to fill in the relevant details within a couple of days.