chainsaw licence out of date?

[dig-dug-dan]

Hi. Beenlurking for some time, now its time to ask!

 

Did my chainsaw course before i even picked up a chainsaw as i wanted to be safe, and legal. Did that in 1995.

Certificate does not have an expiry on it, and never been asked for it (i am a landscaper not a tree surgeon)

I recently contacted my local council to ask if i could access some land to clear a fallen ash bough (for firewood). no charge to the council.

they asked for my licence, so i emailed a copy.

he said it was not accepted as it was out of date, and did not show cs30 and cs31.

my cert shows assessments 10 and 16.

I phoned nptc who said it was valid, just a change of numbers (6 months after i did the course!), and my insurance company said i was covered. He still wont accept this. he says NPTC are wrong, and he is right!

I queried if he checked all his tree work contractors , and thier employers,as i know some of them DO NOT have this new certificate

just wondered what you guys thought about all this. seems a bit unfair especially when its costing the council nothing, and i have insurance too!

[Dan Earp]

i know that if your a tree surgeon, refersher courses are a make or break at interview level. i believe its every 5yrs being the average between completing the course and refreshing. this i say from what ive only seen and heard.

 

In your case if nptc, being the governing body say's it fine then its fine. maybe you should get the person you asked at nptc to call this guy and explain or send an email saying your qual'd up and are good to go.

[MATTMOSS]

My understanding of the situation is that you are qualified! This is something I have looked into (refresher courses)and I was told that you would only need a refresher course if you have not used a saw for years and was totally out of practice.

If you pass your chainsaw test and you are a competent, regular user then why would you need a refresher course unless something drastic had changed?

Any other opinions?

M

[High Scale]

My understanding of the situation is that you are qualified! This is something I have looked into (refresher courses)and I was told that you would only need a refresher course if you have not used a saw for years and was totally out of practice.

If you pass your chainsaw test and you are a competent, regular user then why would you need a refresher course unless something drastic had changed?

Any other opinions?

M

 

It is recommended that you refresh every five years, note the word recommended.

 

In practice it is becoming more common for this to be a requirement.

[dig-dug-dan]

thats what i thought, although no one has ever said refresher trainings is required, nor does is say anything about it on my certificate!

[Dan Earp]

try speaking to the next person above the guy you spoke to before or get confirmation from nptc via email then sent it on to the guy

[Spruce Pirate]

Council guy is wrong - NPTC certificates do not CURRENTLY expire. The change of numbers does not affect their validity, it should be possible to find out which of the new numbers are equivalent to 10 & 16.

 

Refresher seems to be the big thing at the moment, I have two clients who insist that all operators are refreshed every three years. If you were to do a refresher course it would be in the equivalent units, probably 30 & 31, you should be able to get a refresher certificate to go with this.

 

I have heard that re-certification may be introduced, ie we would all have to re-sit our tickets every 5 years. In my view refresher is not a bad thing - especially for the more infrequent or part time users, but recertification is a totally different thing. I'd be interested to hear other peoples thoughts on this or if anyone else has heard anything.

[tree monkey]

where do you do refresher courses?

[agrimog]

as your certificate is not a legal document, how can it expire ?, it is only proof that on a certain day, an individual deemed you were safe and competent, in his opinion, to use a chainsaw.

[HCR]

as your certificate is not a legal document, how can it expire ?, it is only proof that on a certain day, an individual deemed you were safe and competent, in his opinion, to use a chainsaw.

 

Exactly.

 

I did mine in 1995 as well, and have the old unit numbers. I've also done refreshers since then so I have the new numbers too - not that they change the validity in any way.

 

The HSE recommends that regular users have a 5 year refresher period, and 3 years for those who use a saw less frequently. These are recommendations only but mean that (a) a potential employer could ask to see evidence to check that you have been keeping up with good practise and (b) in the event of something going horribly wrong a court might well take that sort of thing into consideration.