Pro Installer April 2020 - Issue 85 | Page 15

APRIL 2020 | 15 News Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk GGF LAUNCHES THINK GLASS CAMPAIGN Helping Consumers Understand the Lifestyle Benefits of Glass SBD in action The DOCOs in Northern Ire- land have around 150 develop- ments on-going at any particular time at various stages from con- cept to completion. Many will be in Belfast or Northern Ireland’s second city Londonderry/Derry whilst others are in other cities and towns and rural areas. Developments of social hous- ing could involve a short row of houses or a small estate of mixed houses and apartments creat- ing two or three new streets on infill sites between established homes or where old homes have been demolished to make way for new ones. Neatly presented with smart, secure front doors and windows, mostly with liv- ing rooms that overlook front boundary railings and residents’ parked vehicles beyond, they additionally benefit from being well illuminated by lights to the front and rear of their property and modern street lighting. Some homes built on sites in potential policing problem areas may have especially heavy and thick glass fronted windows. At the other end of the social housing scale are large phased developments, built over sever- al years on greenfield sites for a number of different housing associations – creating brand new and emerging communities. Some developments run into thousands of homes. Other DOCO work also in- volves building in security to hospitals and schools as well as places of work and relaxation like sports and leisure centres. Some are completely new de- velopments, others involve new buildings on existing sites and refurbishing existing buildings. Some of the DOCOs largest and longest-running projects have been in the health sector amounting to many hundreds of millions of pounds of build- ing development. Key features here include secured entrances, access controls to buildings and lock-down shutters on doors and windows. Other projects have included improving street security, such as the strategic use of bollards, improving park security by lowering perimeter fencing to provide greater visibility and a less fortified approach to a public space, and enhancing the security of listed buildings with the use of internal panels of glass to achieve the added security provided by double-glazing. Pete Connolly, who is a training consultant with SBD, said: “Many of these developments show SBD at its best. It’s about delivering thoughtful, safe designed homes for people to live in for genera- tions to come. However, they are unlikely to ever be aware that the police had been involved in the development of their homes and in street design to make their local community safer.” Kenny McHugh, who was the Lead Designing Out Crime Officer for PSNI from 2005 – 2016 before he left to work for SBD where he is Membership Lead, said: “It is great to see SBD continuing to grow and go from strength to strength. “Over the last 15 years, I have been privileged to visit every corner of Northern Ireland to see at first hand how applying SBD crime prevention principles builds safer communities. It’s fan- tastic work and makes a differ- ence to so many people’s lives. “Not only does SBD help create secure surroundings, but also we help achieve secure homes and buildings with robust products like doors and windows that meet SBD’s Police Preferred Spec- ification. Many of our local door and window manufacturers have become SBD member companies and have invested heavily in product testing and certification to ensure they meet our security standards.” Kenny, whose strategic role now sees him working with PSNI, Police Scotland and An Garda Síochána, recalled that he once asked a clerk of works of a local housing association what his thoughts were about SBD. “He replied that whilst being sceptical to begin with, residents quickly started to say how happy they were with their new homes and how safe they felt. This led to a decline in residents requesting transfers to other areas. “There were other benefits for housing associations too with reduced repair and maintenance costs because windows and doors had been tested and certified to ensure they were quality prod- ucts. It’s a win, win for us all, he told me, with residents safer in their homes and in the communi- ties that they live in – a testament to what working in partnership with SBD can achieve.” Chris Sloan, of PSNI, said: “As a policing service we are committed to preventing crime and reducing harm through responsive, visible, accessible and victim-focused policing. By working in partnership with our stakeholders we can contribute to the development of safer spaces within Northern Ireland. “Our continued investment in dedicated specialist Designing Out Crime Officers reinforces the PSNI commitment to designing out crime at a local and strategic level. “The increases in architec- tural design requests including SBD on major, specialist and local developments are a clear indica- tor of the success and hard work of the prevention team.” www.securedbydesign.com The Glass and Glazing Fed- eration (GGF) has launched a new consumer PR campaign called “Think Glass” to increase awareness of the lifestyle benefits of glass to homeowners. The online platform for the new campaign is the GGF’s award winning consumer advice website MyGlazing.com which attracts over 200k unique visitors per year. James Lee, GGF Director of External Affairs commented on the new campaign, “This is a very exciting and unique campaign that has been in our planning for over six months. The GGF and Refresh PR will be using the full range of information within the GGF technical library. We will also be working closely with glass experts in the manufacturing sector to communicate to millions of home- owners how glass and its technol- ogy can improve their lifestyles.” The GGF’s broad aims of the campaign are: • To integrate and repurpose the GGF’s broad messages and technical information on fire safety, safety and energy efficiency to educate and inform consumers on the different types of glass and how they benefit their everyday lifestyles. • To underline the GGF and its Members as the leading authorities in glass. • To create and increase great- er awareness of the GGF and its Members to con- sumers via MyGlazing.com, the GGF’s award winning website. • To drive more traffic to MyGlazing.com and to sub- sequently reach the GGF’s consumer facing members on MyGlazing.com. www.ggf.org.uk James Lee, GGF Director of External Affairs