24
JULY 2014 PRO INSTALLER
PRO NEWS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
SYNSEAL’S GO-KARTING
CHALLENGE IS A WINNER!
John Ogilvie
Presents
Network
VEKA’s AGM
Network VEKA members
heard from MD John Ogilvie
about the company’s
activities over the last
12 months, when he
presented the official
‘AGM’ at the FIT Show.
John explains: “This year’s AGM was
a much smaller affair than usual
because the Network VEKA Awards
Dinner Dance will be held - with all
the glitz and glamour you expect - on
20 September so as not to compete
with the FIT show Gala evening.
“We explained the new appointments to
the Board of Directors which, alongside
myself, now includes Independent Chairman John Moon, Glazerite Windows’ Jason
Thompson, Goliath Homeworld’s Steve
Hancox, Gary McCartan of Trent Valley
Windows, Malcolm Heaver from Heavers of
Bridport, Nigel Bird from Eddisbury Construction and VEKA’s Colin Torley. I look
forward to working with them all over the
months ahead.
‘Registrations are now
running at over £1million
per week, with cumulative
totals of more than
£830million fitted in
around 230,000 homes
“IBG registrations outperformed the previous year’s. Registrations are now running
at over £1million per week, with cumulative
totals of more than £830million fitted in
around 230,000 homes.
“Our DCLG-authorised Competent Persons
Scheme ‘Assure’ achieved UKAS accreditation in July, enabling Network VEKA to
certify installers wishing to install energy-efficient windows under the Green Deal.”
www.networkveka.co.uk
David Leng, Chief Executive of Synseal,
issued a fun Go-Karting Challenge to guests
at an orangery workshop conducted on
behalf of the Conservatory Outlet Dealer
Network, which was attended by 19 dealer
companies and jointly hosted by Greg
Kane, Conservatory Outlet MD recently.
Following a series of
technical presentations
detailing Synseal’s range
of structural orangery
solutions, the event venue
switched to the nearby
Kurburgring Go-Kart racing
circuit close to Synseal’s
35-acre HQ in Huthwaite,
Nottinghamshire.
With training on race track
safety procedures, basic kart
driving skills and competition
rules completed, all drivers
were issued with overalls,
gloves and helmets and with a
heady mix of noisy engine and
screeching tyres a strong sense
of competitive spirit soon took
grip.
Three experienced motorsport guest racers achieved lap
times of under 29 seconds – the
winning driver was Edward
Westbury of 5-Star Windows &
Conservatories with a lap time
of 28.001 seconds, who closely pipped his 5-Star colleague
Richard Manser into 2nd place
while Alan Pain of County took
3rd place ahead of Synseal’s
best-performing driver Phil Parry, Head of R&D, who clocked a
respectable 28.861 seconds.
www.synseal.com
SEMINAR FOCUS
ON ‘INDUSTRIAL
SCALE’ PARKING &
MOTORING OFFENCES
Fines for parking and
motoring offences
are being issued
on an “industrial”
scale as local authorities increasingly
turn to CCTV - and
it is proving to be a
legal, financial and
HR administrative
nightmare for fleet
decision-makers and
company car and van
drivers alike.
ACFO, the fleet-decision-makers’ organisation,
re cently held a seminar
entitled “Another Fine
Mess?” which featured
issues such as liabilities
facing employees and
employers when a local
authority issues a Penalty
Charge Notice or police
issue a Fixed Penalty Notice; the fine and appeal
process relating to parking in public car parks
and on private land; and
HR issues impacting on
employers and employees
when fines are levied.
The seminar sponsored
by Ford, was held as new
research revealed that local councils hit motorists
with parking fines worth
around £255 million in
2013.
The report, compiled
followed Freedom of
Information requests by
civil liberty campaign
group Big Brother Watch,
claimed the money had
been generated from the
issuing of Penalty Charge
Notices for parking and
motoring misdemeanours
in the five years to 1st
March, 2013.
ACFO director John
Pryor, who had helped arrange the seminar, said:
“In many areas, parking restrictions can be
confusing and appear
inconsistent, while the use
of CCTV by local councils
further adds to the complexity as drivers may not
immediately know that
they have been ‘caught’
with any potential offence
only coming to light many
days later when notification is received.”
Following publication
of the Big Brother Watch
report, Local Government
Minister Brandon Lewis
(pictured) said: “It is clear
that CCTV is being used
to raise money in industrial volumes for town halls,
breaking the constitutional principle that fines
should not be used as a
source of revenue.”
The Government held a
consultation last year on
local authority parking
including the banning of
CCTV for parking enforcement. It has yet to publish
its plans following conclusion of the consultation.