C&D Consultancy to help 20 young people into employment

We are very pleased to announce that through a collaboration with Groundwork Greater Nottingham and support from the Big Lottery-fund Talent Match programme, C&D Consultancy is going to deliver specialist courses in asbestos awareness and NVQ Level 1 in Demolition to a group of young people in Derby and Nottingham.

The training targets 18-24-year-olds who have been out of work, training, or education for more than 12 months and who typically have a number of barriers to overcome.

Speaking to the Express & Star, our very own John Woodward commented,

"Our sector is crying out for young talent to come through the ranks and this is an ideal opportunity to get people to think about a career in this industry ... We have joined forces with the National Demolition Training Group, Groundwork and Talent Match to deliver these courses in the East Midlands and the first ones will cater for 20 people. If these are successful, we’ll look to hold more."

Matt Hanrahan, Employment and Enterprising Development Worker at Talent Match, added,

"The courses are a greater taster to the world of demolition and, importantly, gives our participants the opportunity to gain employment in a sector that is thriving and full of opportunities ... C&D Consultancy were chosen due to their expertise, track record in this specific industry and the style of their trainers, which gets the best out of people."

Source: Express & Star

Working well together

Following on from C&D’s recent success at the World Demolition Awards in the Collaboration category and a similar training day earlier in the year, we are pleased to announce yet another great example of how a number of agencies working together can make a very positive difference.

In this instance, C&D have teamed up with the Health and Safety Executive, the Working Well Together charity, and the National Demolition Training Group to provide a number of free sessions of Asbestos Awareness training sessions to local small businesses and the self-employed. We will be providing the training, the HSE and WWT the publicity, and the NDTG have kindly agreed to provide the UKATA approved certification.

The very good news is that all the sessions are now booking well with over a week to go. This means that nearly 30 people will benefit from gaining this knowledge, which hopefully will prevent them from suffering from a truly horrible disease in the future.

Well done to all of us!

Working well together

Following on from C&D’s recent success at the World Demolition Awards in the Collaboration category, we are pleased to announce yet another great example of how a number of agencies working together can make a very positive difference.

Follow this link to our training site to see how collaboration can be so important...

Birkenhead Demolition & Asbestos Awareness course now fully booked

As announced over on our training site, the Demolition & Asbestos Awareness course being held in Birkenhead is now fully booked. However, good news comes in the form of another session being held on Sunday, March 1st.

Again, places are limited so book now by emailing mike@demolishdismantle.co.uk

Saturday training to become a regular option in Liverpool

Following many requests for odd places on a Saturday training course C&D have decided that we will now be running a NDTG certificated Demolition & Asbestos Awareness course on one Saturday each month in the Liverpool area with the first of those courses on Saturday 01 November with Mike Kehoe MIDE as trainer.

C&D have run open Saturday courses on a monthly basis in Birmingham and London for the last 18 months with great success and we now feel that this tried and tested model should be rolled out across other areas of the UK.

If you need a single place, or a dozen places please book them via email to mike@demolishdismantle.co.uk

Demolition & Asbestos Awareness in Liverpool on Saturday, 1st November

Following many requests for odd places on a Saturday training course C&D have decided that we will now be running a NDTG certificated Demolition & Asbestos Awareness course on one Saturday each month in the Liverpool area with the first of those courses on Saturday 01 November with Mike Kehoe MIDE as trainer.

C&D have run open Saturday courses on a monthly basis in Birmingham and London for the last 18 months with great success and we now feel that this tried and tested model should be rolled out across other areas of the UK.

If you need a single place, or a dozen places please book them via email to mike@demolishdismantle.co.uk

"White Asbestos Dust is Safe"

Here at C&D we often hear comments from clients and builders about things that they consider to be perfectly safe and we consider to be hazardous, but a site visit by one of our consultants last week brought comments that we found to be unbelievable.

The consultant was carrying out a regular H&S visit to one of our clients who rents a warehouse building for storage of their stock and the building was due to have a fire inspection, hence the visit.

Our client was not aware that the owner of the building was re-roofing the warehouse so they and our consultant were surprised, when they arrived at site, to find a roofing contractor installing metal roofing sheets on top of the existing asbestos cement sheets by drilling through the asbestos cement sheets to install the fixings.

Upon seeing the work we advised our client to keep out of the building until an analyst had visited and advised the roofer to stop work at once as they were releasing white asbestos dust (chrysotile) during their work and their men did not have masks or overalls in use.

The events that followed were simply unbelievable:-

1. The roofers said they had been told by both their boss and the owner of the building that "White Asbestos Dust is Safe" and no special precautions were needed!
2. When we spoke to the Managing Agents of the building they repeated the comment that "White Asbestos Dust is Safe".
3. The roofers were completely unconcerned that chrysotile debris was falling from each screw hole down onto our clients stock below thus requiring all stock to be cleaned and decontaminated, and that they were exposing themselves to deadly asbestos fibres every time that hey drilled a hole.

When you consider that asbestos related diseases kill over 4,000 people a year in the UK it is unbelievable to me that a Managing Agent does not know that dust kills, does not know their duties under CAR2012 and allows workers to be exposed. And it is equally unbelievable that a roofing contractor has not trained his men in the dangers of asbestos.

We carried out a free asbestos awareness toolbox talk on the spot and hope that the guys understood the dangers and the need to be correctly trained as asbestos training CAT B and are face fitted for masks before they do any more work of this type.

We are returning to site later this week to ensure that things have improved.

If you are considering re-roofing a property that has an asbestos cement roof remember that work on that roof falls under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and all relevant precautions need to be in place to prevent the spread of asbestos fibres and all workers must be suitably trained.

Asbestos Awareness and CAT B courses can be booked through C&D and full course details are on our training site at www.demolitiontraining.com

Office of Fair Trading Report into Asbestos Awareness Training price "recommendations"

The OFT has published its report, available through the following link:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2013/29-13#.UVG51xxQbIc

It details prices "recommended" by training organisations.

This report will ensure that all asbestos awareness training providers will now be able to offer courses at a price that they believe is competitive in the marketplace rather than at a "recommended" price.

C&D have always tried to ensure that courses are available at a price that our customer can afford rather than try to dictate the price to the customer and we are pleased to see that OFT have looked at this issue.

Now that OFT have looked at asbestos awareness training, will they look at other training where one organisation has a monopoly on particular courses? If so we could see some major changes in demolition and plant training in the next 12 months.

Armac Group received further training with C&D

We are pleased to announce that Armac Group placed a major training order with C&D for Demolition and Asbestos Awareness refresher training, Asbestos CAT "B" refresher training, manual handling and abrasive wheels.

The training commenced on 9th October amd ran on consecutive days until 17th October at various sites throughout the Midlands and at their dedicated training venue in Solihull.

Property developer receives 12 month suspended sentence for unsafe asbestos removal

Michael Murton, a property developer, has got off relatively lightly following a case of unsafe asbestos removal at one of the properties he was renovating.

The building was found to have 10,000 times the accepted limit of asbestos fibres present, yet workers were handling it without the property safety equipment and throwing it down a plastic tube to a waiting skip.

The workers won't know if their health has been damaged for many years, and Mr. Murton told the court he had no idea the asbestos was present, which the judge accepted. He still received a 12 month sentence suspended for 18 months and has been ordered to pay £10,000 in costs.

As for the building, the specialist company brought in to remove the asbestos safely said it was one of the worst jobs they had ever seen. The cost of removal has so far reached £200,000 with a further £70,000 required to finish.

So why did this incident happen and put people's lives in danger? Because an asbestos survey was not carried out. This total lack of awareness has also spurred us on to offer our £30 course on asbestos awareness which we urge everyone to take. That £30 could save your life.

Source: Health and Safety Newsdesk (image courtesy of TopSkips)

Asbestos Awareness

Introduction

Recently the HSE have launched a major campaign to reiterate the dangers of asbestos exposure. There is a tendency to think that those who come into contact with asbestos will not personally be affected by it. However, every week 20 tradesmen die from asbestos-related disease, including builders, plumbers, electricians, refurbishment workers, interior designers and many more. If you carry out work on a building that was built or refurbished before the year 2000, you could have been exposed to asbestos, without even knowing it.

So now is the time to get clued up on the facts, so that you, your workmates, your friends and family are protected by attending one of our Asbestos Awareness half day courses.

Aims

The course is intended to advise personnel of the dangers of asbestos, where it might be found in building materials and what to do in the case of accidental damage and subsequent exposure.

The Course includes:

Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006

Identifying asbestos

Origins of asbestos

Types and properties

Where it is found

Safe disposal

Risks and hazards

Asbestos related diseases

Precautions

Delegates will be issued with a Certificate of Attendance.