The Voice of Scaffolding Since 2008 | U.K. Edition
My Kingdom For A Horse? As long as it’s made from scaffolding
An offshore petroleum engineer has carved a new take on the magnificence of the racehorse. And you could be forgiven for making a double take, perhaps not instantly recognising this fine equine specimen was actually made from old scaffolding boards.
Self taught artist Geoff Robinson, 62, from Barnstone, has spent the last two years carving a 2.4 metre tall horse from reclaimed wood discovered in his local area. Should the horse ever be named, ‘ecological’ would look good in any racing card, born from natural recycling.
In actual fact, this amazing piece was inspired by a real race horse as Geoff explained: “My daughter always had horses and after she moved away, she left lots of photographs at home. I have always had an interest in wood carvings, so I just decided to go for it and make it.”
And of course, this talented carver would never dream of actually buying wood for any of his sculptures also including an impressive emperor penguin. For environmental reasons it simply has to be scrap wood. His larger creation, however, is riding high in terms of local popularity. With an artistic bent running through the family it comes as no surprise to see his wife Silvana, creating an accompanying painting of the horse. She added:”His carvings are really amazing, he is very talented. You wouldn’t believe he would be able to make something so impressive out of the driftwood he finds.
“He starts off working on the wood not knowing what the final product will look like, but in the end, it is always beautiful.”
Geoff’s work may be slightly slower out of the stalls, but once the finishing line is crossed it’s every inch a clear winner. There is hope of entering his work into an exhibition, but selling the piece is also a possibility. Parting with such a fantastic beast might be easier said than done, though Geoff’s ethos is far more valuable.
“I think from an ecological side of things, it’s important that I always use reclaimed wood,” he added.
“I get a real sense of fulfilment from seeing these pieces come to life from nothing.”
A Frankie Dettori or Ryan Moore may not be able to saddle up the horse, but they would surely be just as admiring. And if they wanted a superb coffee table, then Geoff could do that as well.
We look forward to more scaffolding gems from this wonderful artist, solidly cantering to carving success.
Hero Scaffolders chase off London moped robbers targeting mum and child
Scaffolders are being named as heroes after CCTV shows them helping to chase off a moped gang of muggers who targeted a mum and child in broad daylight.
A gang of four men on a black moped and motorbike can be seen on the footage loitering on a corner on Sandpits Road in South West London. While two of the men drive down a side street, the remaining two approach the mother and young child who are crossing the street, hand-in-hand. One of the men dressed in black and wearing a motorbike helmet makes a grab towards the woman, who instantly pulls her child to safety, swinging the infant into her arms and running across the busy road to escape the men. As the two men begin to make there escape a red scaffold lorry pulls up and scaffolders jump out to give chase without a second thought of their own safety. These unidentified heroes have yet to be named but sources have told us they work for DSL Scaffolding Ltd off Willow Lane Estate, South London.CISRS Accreditation Renewals in Oman & Nepal for Safety & Access
Training specialists Safety & Access have announced that following recent stringent audits by CISRS their partner centres in Oman and Nepal have passed with flying colours.
Safety & Access say their partner STS have a fully accredited centre at Nizwa in Oman and have continued to expand their client base and course capability. A full range of courses are available through STS including Level 1 and 2 Scaffolder Skills training along with inspection and supervisor training.
The centre also saw the recent introduction of CPD courses for scaffolders wishing to renew their Level 2 qualification.
Additionally their strategic partnership with AECOR in Kathmandu, Nepal continues to go from strength to strength with hundreds of candidates attending CISRS courses each year.
The candidates primarily go on to find work in the Middle East to support their families in Nepal and this also offers a great facility to our clients across the Gulf to enable training at source.
The CISRS accredited Nottingham and North East Lincolnshire based training firm has international training facilities in the Middle East, South Korea & Nepal.
Teekay Offshore awards new contract to Bilfinger
Leading maintenance, modifications and operations specialist Bilfinger Salamis UK has been awarded a multi-million pound contract from Teekay Offshore, building on a positive first quarter for the industrial services firm.
The new three-year contract, with the option of two one-year extensions, continues a successful relationship between the companies, which began in 2014.
Bilfinger will deliver fabric maintenance services on Teekay’s four North Sea FPSOs – Petrojarl Foinaven, Petrojarl Banff, Voyageur Spirit and Hummingbird Spirit.
The award includes a range of services including surface preparation and coating application; insulation and cladding; fireproofing; scaffolding and access provision; vessel and tank cleaning; rope access, and environmental services.
Bilfinger Salamis UK’s Managing Director, Sandy Bonner, commented: “We are delighted to have secured this contract with Teekay Offshore as it further solidifies our position as a leading provider of Modifications, Maintenance and Operations (MMO) services in Northwest Europe.
“We have extensive experience of providing multi-disciplined deck crews and support services for FPSOs in the North Sea to clients including Chevron, Bluewater, Repsol, and Maersk, and previously Teekay.
“Bilfinger has developed a range of techniques and solutions to specifically suit the maintenance needs of FPSOs and late life offshore assets. For example, our Find and Fix offering with integrated inspection capability can be deployed to help rapidly reduce defect and anomaly backlog.”
Vice President, Head of UK Operations with Teekay Offshore Stig Morten Helland commented: “We are happy to have awarded this key contract to Bilfinger Salamis and look forward to a close and cooperative working relation, which will continue to ensure our FPSO assets are maintained to the highest standards, providing a safe and sustainable operation with high uptime and reliability to our clients.”
Scaffolding Association Move to Larger Offices After Boost In Membership Levels
The Scaffolding Association is celebrating its increasing membership levels by moving into larger office premises.
The Association is one of the largest of its kind in the UK with over 300 members and growing. It was established to represent scaffolding and access contractors, client organisations, manufacturers and consultants. Chief Executive of the Scaffolding Association Robert Candy said: “This continued growth is extremely encouraging and our success demonstrates the sector’s absolute commitment to achieving the very highest safety standards, something we’re passionate about. We’ve made significant progress in our efforts to drive standards across the industry. The fact that we have now moved to larger offices due to the latest membership figures makes it clear that we’ve created a business framework that scaffolding contractors and clients of all sizes can benefit from and help us in our quest for a safer, stronger and more professional industry.” “The last six months has seen us strengthen our campaigns and industry collaborations with organisations such as the SEC Group. We also submitted a response to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Working at Height Safety and in so doing have organised a panel discussion about it on the Keynote Stage (directly following Sir Clive Woodward’s inspirational Keynote speech) at the Safety & Health Expo in Excel on the 21st June.” The Scaffolding Association is a not-for-profit organisation that offers various levels of membership including Audited membership that exceeds PAS91. It works closely with trade, government and accreditation organisations to provide a robust support network designed to help its members deliver the very highest quality services across all processes.Bricklayers Find Clever and Funny Way Round ‘No Shorts’ Ruling
The weather has been pretty hot up and down the country in the UK in recent months it’s fair to say. In actual fact, pretty hot is putting it lightly to say the very least. Anyone that works outside would probably appreciate how some brickies felt when their boss told them not to wear shorts at work, even though it was a whopping 26 degrees Celsius. What would you do if you were told the same? In a hilarious twist, perhaps you should take a leaf out of those brickies books..
The brickies were told they were not permitted to wear shorts, even in weather so hot that it was uncomfortable for them to work in jeans and other work trousers. The brickies, who were based at a construction site in the town of Chertsey in Surrey, almost contemplated looking for other work until they found a way around the ruling with a truly ingenious, and let’s face it, funny move.
Brickies Find An Ingenious Loophole to the Ruling
Proving that there is more to brickies than meets the eye, they discovered a way round, what they saw as unfair rules, by using the gender equality regulations to their benefit. How did they do it?
The clever chaps turned up to work wearing a stunning array of women’s summer frocks and dresses. As well as using the gender equality regulations, they also took inspiration from stories involving schoolboys who have done similar at their school, where similar rules have been upheld about wearing shorts.
The fellas, who were working at Bellway Homes construction site, turned up wearing an assortment of dresses and skirts. Simon Miles wore a denim skirt belonging to his wife, stating that he was going to find another job and that many of his colleagues were really finding it uncomfortable and difficult to work in jeans. That was until he and the rest of his workmates realised that as there were female employees that worked in the office on site who obviously wore skirts and dresses, that they couldn’t possibly do anything if the brickies did the same.
Bricklayers Loved Their Skirts and Dresses
Adam Houdoire, one of Miles’ colleagues opted for a budget option of a supermarket £10 dress. Houdoire curiously said something we never thought a bricklayer would say about woman’s clothing – that he loved it and felt that it gave him a lot more freedom to work more comfortably than he would have been able to in jeans or other forms of trousers.
In a strange reversal of roles, Miles also noted that he had been wolf-whistled by a man, suggesting that he had never experienced that before. Joking aside, we feel that this funny little tale gives insight to a more serious issue. If bricklayers and other construction site employees have to work in hot climates and we want them to do the best work they can, does it not make sense to allow some leeway with regards to the health and safety regulations.
UK Represented at European Scaffolding Summit By NASC
Earlier this month NASC attended a European scaffolding summit that took place in Germany, representing the British scaffolding industry.
The UEG with the SBS organised a special panel-based discussion meeting and invited NASC to send representatives to Cologne, who flew out to take part. NASC is one of the founding members of the UEG, which is a trade body that oversees national scaffolding organisations throughout Europe. While the SBS was founded as a support for the EU to give SMEs based and operating in the EU representation when it comes to the process of meeting standards in the European and international markets. The summit was divided into two different panel discussions. While the first dealt with the review of CEN TC 53 standards, the second focused on utilising the Erasmus Plus programme to exchange trainees in the scaffolding industry. There was also working group meeting help by the UEG to push ahead with the establishment of a standard in common risk assessment. The piece of documentation, which will be a supplement to the practical guideline for supply/provision and the operation of protective and working scaffolds (UEG 2016) and will be published by the organisation in the very near future. According to the managing director of NASC, Robin James, the discussion summit highlighted even more so why the UEG is important as a forum for discussing matters relating to the European scaffolding industry. The event and past events like it, which was attended by European delegates from all over the continent, is supported financially by SBS. James noted “A number of national scaffolding organisations across Europe are looking to join UEG. Associate membership is also strong, with supplier organisations from all over Europe looking to be part of a body which represents the European scaffolding industry.” Introductory comments were made by Dagmara Chodzicka-Merken (EU Legal & Policy Officer), Christel Davidson (SBS Director), Martine Angele (UEG President) and was introduced by the UEG and SBS expert, Christoph-Ludwig Bugler. National organisations in countries such as Sweden, France, Norway and Germany all had representatives in attendance at this panel and there was a strong encouragement for those representatives to continue the discussions within their own national committees, as the CEN meetings and decisions they make are relevant and affect anyone working within the European scaffolding sector. From this discussion panel, it was clearer than ever that the UEG has a very crucial role in the facilitation of discussion and debate relating to CEN TC 53 standards. During the second panel there were examples given of the opportunities scaffolding trainees had to participate in training exchanges in different countries throughout Europe. It highlighted the success of the informal agreements of trainee exchanges happening at the moment between Germany and Switzerland and Germany and Norway, in the hope that as this initiative benefits those trainees in the industry, that it would continue to expand. It was clear from the discussion that the UK is a location that is in high demand for this kind of exchange arrangement. The introduction for the discussion was made by the ZDH representative Dr Christian Sperle of ZDH (Zentralverband des Deutschen Handwerks) who spoke of his disappointment and the negative aspects of Brexit. In attendance for this panel was British, Norwegian and German representatives, alongside the NASC Director of Training & CISRS Manager, David Mosley, who spoke positively and passionately about the training that takes place in the British scaffolding industry. He was assisted, of course, by a translator. Birgid Becker (Deutschlandfunk) did a fine job of chairing the panel, with ease and respect. After the conclusion of the event, all delegates in attendance from a variety of different European organisations enjoyed some local food and hospitality and participated in some fine networking.Generation UK Provide Altrad Futuro System Scaffold For The 16th International Architecture Exhibition 2018 In Venice
Generation UK are pleased to have provided all the scaffolding equipment for the British Councils 16th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. The Venice Biennale is renowned for setting new global trends and launching the international careers of many pioneering artists and architects. With up to 500,000 international visitors each year, the Venice Biennale is one of the longest-running cultural festivals in the world.
The International Architecture Exhibition set a theme of “Freespace” for the festival, which has led to the construction of a new public gathering space; called “Island”. Generation UK knew that to make this years festival a roaring success, the best option was to supply Altrad Futuro System Scaffold. Futuro is faster and safer to erect compared to conventional tube and fitting and its 8-connection point make the system extremely adaptable for any project; perfect to showcase at the International Architecture Exhibition!
Generation UK also had the help of other Altrad sister companies in the production of making this project possible. Altrad DESSA designed the plans for the Futuro to be erected, Altrad Germany made the equipment and Altrad Italia made the whole project possible by helping with logistics. With Venice being a floating city it was especially important to ensure the Futuro could reach the end destination.
Visitors approaching “Island” at the British Pavilion will find the building covered with Generation UK Futuro system scaffold, supporting a wooden platform at roof-level. As well as a Futuro staircase running the length of one side of the building, leading up to an elevated piazza, a place to meet or to relax amongst the tree-tops of the Giardini, open to the sky with views across the Lagoon.
Generation UK are pleased to have been apart of such an iconic festival and praises The British Council with its success in presenting “Island”. The exhibition will run from 26th May to 25th November 2018.
For more information on how Generation can help you with your projects please get in touch!
Rilmac Scaffolding Bags Major University Of Warwick Project
