PERSIMMON, the UK's leading housebuilder has appointed Steve Acaster as group health and safety director based at the group's York HQ .

Mr Acaster, 40, who joined the organisation in 1998, will report directly to the group's main board and will head up a team of eight specialist safety advisers.

The team provides full management support on health and safety issues to all 30 group subsidiaries, including training, project planning, audit and review, policy advisory service, accident investigation and liaison with the Health and Safety Executive.

Independent external advisers make detailed site inspections to ensure that all construction activity is safe during the process of building more than 13,000 homes per year.

THE Helmsley Group, the Pocklington-based property investment company, has appointed James Craven as group surveyor in its commercial lending and property syndication division.

The firm has been behind a number of York's most prestigious office and residential developments, including new premises for Card Protection Plan, Norwich Union, Allied Dunbar and the University of York, as well as luxury apartments in the city centre. Mr Craven, 26, will be responsible for developing relations with Helmsley's wealthy client base throughout the UK with interests in the York property market. He will also be involved in the agreement of short-and long-term loans as well as bridging finance to individuals and small property developers.

Before joining The Helmsley Group, Mr Craven worked at Knight Frank in London for 18 months and previously at Donaldson surveyors and valuers in Leeds for two years. He holds a degree in estate management and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Surveyors.

LANGLEYS solicitors in York has appointed Stuart Hanley to head up its clinical negligence and personal injury department.

Mr Hanley, 33, a practising lawyer since 1990, specialises in the subject and has spent the last four years in Yorkshire, coming to Langleys from Hartley & Worstenholme in Pontefract. He is a member of the Law Society's clinical negligence and personal injury panels.

YORK-based chartered accountants and business advisors Clive Owen & Co has welcomed newly-qualified chartered accountant Marie Glendinning to its ranks. She joins from a medium-sized firm in Glasgow where she worked as an audit senior.

Marie qualified as a chartered accountant last year, becoming a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS), having previously studied a BA in Accountancy and Finance at Strathclyde University. Her experience in the preparation of year-end accounts, financial forecasts, management accounts and VAT returns will benefit many of the firm's clients.

Miss Glendinning said: "I am delighted to be joining Clive Owen & Co at such an exciting time."

Updated: 08:56 Tuesday, April 23, 2002