News

Tower’s cladding “went up like a matchstick”

ban on combustible cladding

Shocked witnesses have described seeing people jump from as high as the 15th floor of Grenfell Tower in London as flames engulfed the building last night. Over 200 firefighters attended the 27-storey building near Ladbroke Grove just after 1.15am as fire tore through the block of flats.The cause of the fire is still unknown but according to witness accounts there …

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Festool Launches Cycle Challenge to Promote Lung Health to UK Trades

festool cycle challenge

Festool, the supplier of high-end power tools and accessories, has launched a new Cycle Challenge to raise money for the British Lung Foundation (BLF) and to promote lung health to UK tradespeople. The Cycle Challenge will feature two static Wattbikes that will join Festool’s impressive UK roadshow on its European leg in July. Members of the trade will have the …

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Roofing Company Fined After Safety Failings

Construction boss jailed

A roofing company has been sentenced for safety failings related to working at height. Brighton Magistrates Court heard how numerous concerns were raised by members of the public about work being carried out by G & S Roofing Limited. The company twice ignored written advice to address the issue of working at height in an unsafe manner. In August 2016, …

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Win an Aviva half mask from Scott Safety

Win an Aviva half mask

Skill Builder has teamed up with Scott Safety to give away five of the company’s brand new Aviva half masks as tested by Skill Builder in this video. The new AVIVA 40 single filter half mask includes innovative design elements such as a hybrid reflex face seal, an easy-to-use leak check mechanism and goggle ‘pinch’. AVIVA 40 is suitable for a variety of applications including paint …

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Row breaks out over beard ban

beard ban

Unite, the UK construction union has condemned a decree by outsourced housing maintenance company Mears, which bans workers from having beards as ‘penny pinching stupidity’. Members of Unite employed on social housing maintenance work in the culturally diverse borough of Tower Hamlets, were said to be told at a ‘tool box talk’ that beards were now banned. Unite has subsequently …

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Rudridge employees set to cycle in memory of colleague

Rudridge employees

Two Rudridge employees are gearing up for the challenge of a lifetime to raise cash in memory of a much-missed colleague. Paul Duke and Peter Burrell, from the civil and engineering groundwork specialists, will cycle from Paris to Geneva this September to raise money for the Stroke Association. Their route, which covers over 320 miles, will include hairpin bends and …

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Social media success for Roughneck products

Social media success

Olympia Tools, the company behind the Roughneck brand of hand tools and workwear, says it has seen a surge in demand for its products thanks to social media. Two of the distributor’s products featured in posts that subsequently went viral, attracting interest from a global audience. The first product to prove a social media success was the Roughneck Tri Vice; …

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Firms Sentenced Following Excavation Deaths

Hazegood Construction Ltd

Two companies have been fined a total of £700,000 and a director has received a suspended prison sentence following the fatal crushing of four workers.

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Worker breaks back fitting solar panels

Worker breaks back

Eco NRG Solutions Ltd and its director Jon Luke Antoniou have been fined after a worker fell from height at a farm in Cornwall. Taunton Magistrates Court heard how Lewis Harding, 28, had been fitting solar panels on a fragile roof at Venn Farm on the 19 May 2015. He fell more than three metres through a fragile skylight and broke …

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Checkatrade highlights benefits of apprenticeships to school leavers and tradespeople

Checkatrade highlights

In millions of households across the UK, teenagers (and their parents), face an anxious few weeks as the GCSE examinations get underway. Sitting on average 15 exams in a range of subjects, as well as facing exam pressure, school leavers also must contend with making some big decisions regarding their future. Options post-16 include staying on at school, going to …

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CCF crowns trade Superhero

tim bryant

Insulation and interior building products distributor CCF, has announced Tim Bryant of T Byrant Builders, as the winner of its Trade Superhero competition and a trip to New York City this month. Tim was crowned victorious after an independent panel of judges read about his superhero efforts to fix a drain in time for a children’s Christingle Service, and freeing …

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Groundworker killed by reversing vehicle

Construction boss jailed

A construction company and its groundwork contractor have been fined after a worker was killed by a reversing vehicle. Exeter Crown Court heard how an employee of Steve Hoskin Construction Limited (SHCL) was working for the groundwork contractor at a construction site in Dawlish, Devon when he was crushed by a reversing telescopic material handler. John Small, 47-years old, was …

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Labour right to link housing and skills says FMB

ITC Concepts

The Labour Party’s proposal to link up housing and skills policy would be the right approach for a post-Brexit UK, the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has said in response to the publication of the Labour Party’s manifesto. Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said: “Labour’s pledge to integrate housing and skills policy is the right approach to tackling …

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Crossrail Creates 6 Hard-Hitting Health & Safety Video Resource

Crossrail health & safety videos

Crossrail is encouraging construction firms large and small to make use of a series of videos that have been created for the Crossrail project which focus on some of the health impacts and safety risks faced by construction workers. The six films use different fictional scenarios to depict realistic situations, which could happen when basic health and safety controls are …

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