Regional News - Yorkshire and the Humber
EventsJune 2006
On 8 March I was fortunate to be asked to assist on the ABE stand at the RB Semex Exhibition at the Royal Armouries Museum conference facility in Leeds, where I was joined by Kate Borrill from ABE HQ.
We had an excellent day and took the opportunity to meet with a lot of the delegates, including a smattering of ABE Members amongst them. Co-exhibitors included Roger Bullivant, Icopal Monarflex, Structherm, Helifix and Thermonex, as well our friends from LABC. The presentations were, as expected, highly informative and included sessions on Piling, Innovative Retaining Wall solutions, Engineering Waterproofing and of course, the "dreaded" Part L - in this instance, specifically in relation to the Concrete Response presented by the Concrete Centre.
Anyone who has not yet taken the opportunity to attend one of the half-day seminars should do so. They are free to attend and there is another to be held fairly close to our region in Bolton, on 17 May. I am still scheduled to be there as we go to press, so I should be pleased to meet any Members who care to pop along to the ABE stand and say hello.
On 28 March, I had a great afternoon in the company of a group of construction students at the Bradford College. My visit was organised by former HQ staff member Keith Roberts, who now works for the College. It was an excellent opportunity to meet prospective ABE members of the future and to explain to them exactly how much a Building Engineer does in the profession as a whole.
I should like to thank all the students who attended and for giving me the firm impression (false or otherwise) that they were very interested in what I had to say. It was just a pity that there were no females on the course - it's still going to be a male-dominated industry in the future it seems, at least in the Bradford area. There was no heckling (except from Keith of course) and all "hoodies" seemed to have been lowered as a mark of respect! But seriously, it was quite inspiring to see that a group of young people who were so enthusiastic about progressing their future careers and it quite warmed the cockles of this old fogey's heart, if I'm honest. I must do this exercise again, soon.
My thanks are due to Keith Roberts and his colleagues for inviting me and for their hospitality. If the offer stands again for next year, I should be most pleased to repeat the exercise. That goes also for any other colleges out there who may read this - we ought to do as much as possible to inspire budding Building Engineers wherever we are able.
Well, as promised last month, this is my last missive as Regional Representative for Yorkshire and the Humber. I have thoroughly enjoyed filling this post for the past two and a half years and along the way I have met some really inspiring characters who will remain my friends for life, especially amongst the ranks of the other Regional Representatives. My forthcoming duties as a Vice President are clearly going to make it impossible to do justice to both jobs.
I believe however, that we are now entering a most interesting period in the Association's history and I am honoured to be given the chance to take an active part in cementing/improving the ABE's standing in the profession over the coming four years.
I promise that I shall make every effort to attend regional events no matter how small, whenever I can and I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible around the region. May I take the opportunity to say a special thank you to Kate Borrill and the rest of the Events Team at HQ, who have done more than their fair share of organising regional events for us. Also, I need to thank Carol and Laura for being so polite and kind about the quality of my copy for the Journal every month. There have been occasions when it has had to be submitted hand-written and they never once complained about my handwriting!
I should like to thank all the other Reps for their comradeship and support in trying to get the regional system off the ground. We still have some way to go, but I do believe that we shall succeed eventually.
Finally, I should like to thank all those regional Members who have directly (and voluntarily) assisted in organising events "on-the-ground" for us - it would be stupid of me to give a list of names, as I'm bound to accidentally miss someone off and cause unintended offence - but you know who you are and I am greatly indebted to you all.
My warmest regards to all. See you around.....
Rhys Taylor
April 2006
I'm writing my copy
for the "Round-up" early this month. This is partly because I left it too late
for last month's deadline (due to high seasonal workload) and didn't want to
risk being late again; and partly because this seems like a good opportunity to
get this down on paper whilst it's still fresh in my mind.
I am sitting in a hotel room in Hull, having spent the day in Newcastle at a
jointly-run seminar on the forthcoming effects of the Regulatory Reform (Fire
Safety) Order, hereinafter colloquially referred to as the "RRO". I was asked a
few weeks ago to stand-in for Chief Executive David Gibson as the ABE's speaker
at the event, as David himself was not able to be there. And now, I'm in Hull
because I'm doing the same presentation again tomorrow morning.
The RRO is massively-important in my view and the ABE is a member of the
Stakeholder Group responsible for bringing it through its gestation period and
into force later this year. It brings all aspects of general fire safety
together in to one (very large) piece of legislation and replaces or supplants
a number of other existing Acts and Regulations that overlap in significant
areas, to the general distress and confusion of the persons concerned. It also
places the emphasis onto Building Owners and Employers, to take responsibility
for the safety of the premises that they occupy and to undertaker a detailed
Risk Assessment for Fire Safety and furthermore, to keep that Risk Assessment
under regular review throughout the life of the building.
From a building designer's viewpoint, the RRO imposes a requirement to consider
the impact of any proposed "Building Works" upon the whole of a building or a
site - not just the area of that site in the immediate vicinity of the works.
As an example, Building Work in this context, may entail structural alterations
or perhaps just alterations to building services affecting just a small part of
a much larger building or complex. It will be a requirement to undertake a risk
assessment of the potential effect of those Building Works upon the whole of
the building or complex. The fire Risk Assessment will also have to interface
with the general provisions of the various sections of the Building
Regulations, including for example, the provisions of Part M for access/egress of
persons with mobility difficulties. In some cases, it may be that the knock-on
effects in terms of improvements to access/egress facilities extend right out
to the perimeter of the site.
The changes to the Regulations will effectively mean that the building owner
(as the "Responsible Person") will be forced to pay the additional cost of all
such "knock-on" effects upon the building.
On the way down to Hull from Newcastle, I was pleased to also attend an evening
event in the northern part of our Region. The event was held in a charming
village pub/restaurant in the hamlet of Potto, near Northallerton and although
the attendance was smaller than had been hoped, the presentation on forthcoming
changes to Parts L & F of the Building Regulations was very well received.
The speaker was Dr Gavin Dunn, ABE Professional and Technical Executive and he
proceeded to give a general background presentation on the forthcoming changes.
These again, are going to be far-reaching and it appears that despite some
lengthy interim periods being put in place, there will be significant pressure
placed upon building designers and building control officers to get up-to-speed
on the detailed ramifications of these revisions very quickly indeed. Gavin's
knowledge on this subject is thorough and Members would be well-advised to try
to attend one of his future presentations on this subject.
In closing, I should just like to make reference to something that could prove
to be a perverse link between the two sets of proposed changes represented by
the RRO and those in the new Part L (especially Part L2B). This was something
that came out of the two quite separate presentations on the subjects in
question during the course of today. It seems potentially likely that there
could be circumstances where the potential cost of "knock-on" effects of
compliance with the relevant regulations may mean that it could be more
cost-effective to move the business to new, more suitable premises than to
carry out alterations to an existing building. If anyone can fathom out what
the dickens I'm on about and can identify the particular references within the
proposed Regulations etc, I shall be pleased to put up an appropriate prize for
the most accurate reply.
Answers by e-mail please, to rhys.taylor@abe.org.uk
See you next month, for my final missive as Regional Representative.
Rhys Taylor
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Please accept my
apologies for a shorter report this month. It's nothing to do with my still
needing to sober up after the Christmas festivities (honest). However, it's
fair to say that it'll probably take me until after you receive this copy of
the Journal before I work off the extra pounds that seem to have accumulated
from out of nowhere. I hope that you all had a similarly festive season as did
I and my Family.
As I write, I am still about a week and a half away from an appointment to sit
down with the HQ Events and Marketing Team to discuss and agree a programme of
regional events for the coming year.
We do have a number of fresh ideas to tempt you all. One prospect under
consideration is for a seminar (or seminars if there's enough interest) on
Asbestos awareness, which could be a full-day or half-day paying event, or
simply a free evening event - or maybe a combination of all three in different
parts of the region over the course of the year. I would be very grateful for
anyone's views on this (preferably by e-mail to rhys.taylor@abe.org.uk). I know
that asbestos awareness is a little bit old-news in many ways, but it's about
to become current-news again with further revisions to legislation in the
offing. Also, we can never be complacent about this subject and I am a firm
believer that there is always something new to learn about most topics, don't
you?
I would like if I may, to also put out the request once again for anyone else's
ideas for events in the region. I have said before that it would be good to
have someone present a paper or two from within the regional membership, but I
still await someone to contact me on this score.
Please don't rely upon someone else writing in with ideas or think that your
ideas will not be taken seriously etc. That will not be the case I can promise.
All and any good ideas will be given full consideration and if at all possible,
we'll try to accommodate them in the programme. Do drop me a line, please.
Finally, and for your information, I was invited to attend as an observer at a
recent Presidential Team meeting at HQ. It was encouraging to note that one of
the principal items on the agenda for the meeting was the current state of the
Regions. I had the opportunity to put my own views on this in general terms and
also, specifically with regard to Yorkshire and the Humber Region. We all know
that there is much room for improvement in this respect, despite the progress
that has already been made and I look forward to taking an active part in the
process to improve services to all Members.
See you next month,
Rhys
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May I give my warm thanks to colleagues for such a good turnout at the
Rockingham Arms in Wentworth on 13 September. We were treated to not only a
very good presentation (not too long, very well illustrated etc) but also the
customary Rockingham Arms Pie and Pea supper. I have promised not to dwell on
the incorrect specification for the viscosity of the (allegedly) mushy peas but
to concentrate instead, on the fact that so many Regional Members missed out on
the grub. I think it's fair to say that we shall return again as soon as is
decently possible.
Our presenter for the evening was Mike Hart of Rockwool, who for an hour
enthralled us on the (potentially very dry) subject of European and National
Legislation relating to fire and Fire Management Strategies. The presentation
then rather naturally progressed into the Regulatory Reform Order on Fire
Safety. This part of his presentation reinforced the need placed on all
'Employers and Responsible Persons' where more than five persons are in a
workplace, to ensure that a fire risk assessment and fire directive are in
place.
I think that it is fair to say that those of us (myself included) who rather
shamefully hover around the periphery of matters relating to fire protection
sometimes get too blasé as to the true scale of the problem. Aside from the
personal tragedy of injuries and worse, merely the financial cost of fires in
this country amounts to about £40 million per week due to arson alone!
Mike's presentation included a truly shocking series of photographs, showing
horror stories of inadequate/dangerous passive fire protection measures, such
as fire stopping and the like. It was rounded-off with a short video taken
under laboratory conditions and demonstrating the rather shocking deficiencies
of composite panels filled with Polyurethane foam (PUR) as opposed to those
filled with mineral fibre. The PUR filled panel not only failed to meet the
minimum fire protection time requirement, but took light in such a spectacular
fashion that the laboratory fire suppression systems were unable to cope and
the local Fire Brigade had to be summoned!
Graphic presentations of this kind, backed by the speaker's obvious thorough
knowledge of the subject are always easy to listen to and to absorb and the
important points tend to stay with the audience for far longer than from an
endless series' of PowerPoint slides of just text. May I take the opportunity
to thank Mike Hart for a superb evening and also, to thank Ian Gough at HQ for
making the contact in the first instance. Thanks similarly to the staff at HQ
for arranging the evening for us. If any Members who were unable to attend
would like to arrange a repeat presentation in other areas or perhaps at your
office, I shall be pleased to pass on Mike's details if you will please contact
me (details at the beginning of "Regional Round-Up").
By the time you read this, the Annual Conference at York will be but a recent
memory (and possibly a hangover, with a bit of luck) but it may not be too late
to get yourself booked onto the Parts L & F Roadshow, also to be held at
York on 10 November. As I have said in past issues of the Journal, previous
events of this type have usually been very well attended (up to 100 delegates)
and the speakers and subject matter are well worth the effort and the fee.
Finally, at the time of going to press with this copy I did not have final
confirmation of the details of the speaker/topic for the event on 13 December
in Scunthorpe. However, you should receive a flyer through the mail in plenty
of time before that date, so I hope to see a load of you there.
Rhys Taylor
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I think that I have
said in previous entries for the journal, that one of the problems in writing
this piece is the need to predict what may be relevant in 3-4 weeks' time. So,
by the time you read this, it may be totally irrelevant for me to record that
as I write Michael Vaughan's lads are 289 for 5 in the first innings of the
final Ashes Test. My apologies to those readers who are not devotees of the
summer game.
Also by the time you read this our first event of our own 'season' will have
taken place with the evening presentation by Rockwool, at the Rockingham Arms,
Wentworth. Coming up we have a series of varied events in York, Harrogate and
Scunthorpe, which include further free events, one of which will be Michael
Cassidy's Presidential Seminar 'Sustainability - a Building Engineer's
checklist' and an update to the Building Regulations on 31 October.
However, and with due respect to our President, the flagship event for our
region will be the Annual Conference from 1-4 November. It's a great honour for
the region to be awarded this prestigious event and is surely a reflection of
the regard in which our members throughout Yorkshire and the Humber are held.
(Oh dear, now it's 290 for 6).
I must though, repeat my request made a few months ago in this column, in
asking for a big turnout from local members at the conference. Even if you
cannot make the commitment for the full week (and I know how difficult that
really can be) just come along for the odd day - you won't be disappointed as
the quality of the speakers is always very high. If you can get along for the
Conference Dinner on Thursday evening, all the better. If regional members will
make themselves known to me I shall be pleased to command (and finance) a
raiding party to the bar.
On a different note, I have just spent a most interesting day at HQ on the
seminar 'Certificate in Party Wall Studies' that is presented by our friends
from the Faculty of Party Wall Surveyors. Like many private practice
colleagues, I have been involved in several Party Wall etc Act cases, but the
principal thought in my mind this evening is how much I thought I knew,
compared with how much I actually knew! If you are active in this field I can
heartily recommend this course to you.
(Oops, 297 for 7).
I think it's time I packed in writing this journal entry - I seem to be
distracting Mike's lads. Perhaps if I stop this and go down to the hotel bar,
it'll help their concentration......
See you next month
Rhys Taylor
Sorry there's not much
in my report this month - like everyone else I speak to, the office seems to be
extraordinarliy busy at the moment, with the phone ringing virtually off the
hook every day. this is not, I promise you, a complaint as it's good to know
that our industry is still churning out work opportunities for us all.
One downside of this, however, is that the apparent number of less-capable
building contractors working in the general marketplace seems to balloon out of
proportion, when theres a lot of work about.
Also, customers seem, as usual, to be relating good value to cheapest price in
choosing their appointed builder, with predictable consequences.
Whilst not mentioning any names, of course, in the past two weeks I have been
brought into two building sites with potentially dangerous situations arising;
one of which has now incurred the (justifiable) interest of the Health and
Safety Executive. In the latter case allegedly experienced contractors carried
out deep excavations close (very) to two existing structures with the result
that one structure has collapsed and the other has clear evidence of
significant movement. This was despite the service and agreement of notices etc
under the provisions of the Party Wall etc Act 1996.
Perhaps as professionals we should be actively persuading clients to invite us
to take a more active role in helping them choose their contractor(s).
Certainly, domestic clients are very much lay persons and thus particularly
susceptible to being unduly impressed by a clever sales pitch and a very
competitive price. I should be pleased to hear from any members with direct
experience and thoughts on this topic. In closing, however, I should like to
pass on a quotation that I found on the sales literature of my company's
insurance brokers, messrs Griffiths and Armour. This quotation was by a chap
called John Ruskin - described by some as "...the greatest Victorian bar
Victoria, was an artist, scientist, poet, environmentalist, philosopher, and
the pre-eminent art critic of his time" and there is a museum bearing his
name situated in Sheffield - hence my interest being based in South Yorkshire
myself.
The quotation reads:
"There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a
little worse and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone
is this man's lawful prey"
Nuff Said. See you next month.
Rhys Taylor