A Ross-on-Wye business received a royal visit this week (July 19).

Ross-on-Wye based business SafeLane Global protects people against explosive and hazardous material threats. They are experts in clearing landmines and explosive remnants of war. Their work on land and in marine environments has been creating safer spaces for over 30 years.

On Tuesday afternoon (July 19), Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, Princess Anne visited SafeLane’s Ross-on-Wye headquarters where staff and board members were presented to her; she also met with newly selected mayor of Ross Cllr Ed O’Driscoll.

HRH was presented with manual de-mining techniques, canine detection of explosives, viewed multiple items of ordnance that SafeLane has rendered safe, across land and marine environments from around the world.

To thank her for the visit, HRH was gifted a hamper of local produce, enabling the company to shine a light on neighbouring Herefordshire businesses. She was also presented with a silver plated anti-personnel bounding mine as a reminder of the lethal threats SafeLane clears daily.

SafeLane delivers a number of projects across the globe to counter the threat of explosive hazards. This has included live conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, to construction sites in Europe and the UK. They survey, detect, identify, protect, clear, mitigate, consult, and train to build safer communities across the world.

The company has been operational for over 30 years in 60 different nations, completed over of 30,000 projects, and currently has over 1,500 personnel and 120 working dogs on projects across four continents.

Last year the company concluded its longest project to date, to clear the Falkland Islands from landmines and won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.

Since 2009 they have worked with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministry of Defence, and Falkland Islands residents to clear the Islands in strategic phases, phase one was awarded to SafeLane.

On October 14, last year, clearance operations officially ended; the very last mine was found on October 10.

The award was presented by Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire, Mr. Edward Harley OBE. It was granted to SafeLane Global for outstanding short-term growth in overseas sales over the last three years.

The Queen’s Awards are globally recognised and are the most prestigious business award a company can win. To win an award is a direct validation of the professionalism every single member of a company’s staff displays in their roles on a daily basis.

Since March 2018, SafeLane has carried out large scale mine and unexploded ordnance clearance operations in Yemen, having trained and now mentoring and managing over 400 local national personnel. A total of 129,770 landmines, 7,360 improvised explosive devices, and 200,556 items of unexploded ordnance have been cleared to date.

Since the conflict in Ukraine began, SafeLane has provided equipment to the local explosive ordnance community and is poised to deliver explosive ordnance risk education to displaced Ukrainian people to protect them from the lethal threats that will litter their homeland when they can finally return.