More farmers using free safety check service when digging
© Tim Scrivener More farmers are checking for underground pipes and cables before they dig to ensure their work is safe, according to new research.
The number of searches by farmers using the website LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD) has grown for the third consecutive year.
The free service allows people to check where pipes and cables are before they carry out any work.
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This includes hundreds of thousands of kilometres of underground and overhead pipelines and cables, used for electricity, gas, fuel, water and fibre optic internet.
There were 3,446 searches made through the LSBUD portal in 2020 for work on agricultural land, a 63% increase on the 2,118 searches made in 2019. In 2018, there were 1,493 searches by farmers.
The latest figures from LSBUD’s Digging up Britain 2021 report suggest there is a growing awareness among farmers about checking what is under the ground before they dig.
Last year was a big year for excavation work within the agriculture sector, likely as a result of the environmental stewardship grants available to farmers for tree planting and hedging, as well as for other projects such as buildings and resurfacing gateways and tracks, the report says.
In addition, the washout autumn of 2019 may have prompted farmers to carry out more ditching and drainage work to sort out their wet fields in 2020.
Searches for deep agricultural groundworks increased by 166%. Searches for ditch works and field drainage increased by 55%.
Other activities such as fencing, hedge planting and sub soiling also prompted searches.
LSBUD’s data identified a further 4,199 searches related to woodland – 676 for tree planting (a 67% increase), 1,170 for tree removal and 319 for lopping and topping.
Search before you dig
Richard Broome, managing director of LSBUD, said: “With so much additional activity taking place on agricultural land, it’s great to see that farmers are increasingly on board with the message to search before they dig.”
LSBUD collated the data by analysing the record 3,078,670 search enquiries that passed through its portal in 2020. The overall number of searches going through the portal was a 9% increase on the previous year and accounted for 77% of all the digging which takes place in Britain.
Mr Broome added: “Last year was a year to write off for many, but we’re pleased to see that farmers are continuing to get behind our safe digging message, protecting themselves and their communities from harm, flooding, cutting off broadband, and a myriad of other consequences that can come with hitting an underground pipe or cable.”