Door Industry Journal - Winter 2016

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk 22 THE door industry journal winter 2016 industry news DHF PUTS THE SPOTLIGHT ON GATE SAFETY DURING WEEK OF ACTION October saw the third annual Gate Safety Week organised by the DHF. Its objective was clear: to educate, inform and raise awareness of the dangers of badly fitted and poorly maintained gates. With the clarion cry of Safe Gates Save Lives, campaigners worked tirelessly to get this vital message across to owners, installers, maintainers and all those responsible for powered gates. The need for an annual gate safety event like this is self evident. In recent years, six adults and three children have been killed in accidents caused by unsafe gates and barriers in the UK and Ireland. And, alarmingly, it is estimated that only 30% of the 500,000 automated gates in service in the UK are safe to use. So what happened during this year’s Gate Safety Week, and how successful was it in achieving its goals? A significant number of influential organisations gave their support to the campaign this year. Their words of encouragement featured on the Gate Safety Week website and several of them spread the word to their audiences on their websites. Supporter organisations included the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), British Safety Council, NHBC, National Security Inspectorate (NSI) and many other influential groups in the security, enforcement, inspection, education and safety sectors. Gate Safety Week created a real buzz on social media. There was a tremendous amount of activity around #SafeGatesSaveLives on Twitter. The GSW Twitter feed numbered 1,101 followers - almost three times as many who followed last year. It was a similar story for the DHF Twitter account. This had 1,092 followers, up nearly 700 from the same time last year. Influential trade publications also helped spread the message to key audiences. Fencex, the perimeter security and access control exhibition, formed the centrepiece of Gate Safety Week this year. The event was a great success, with many DHF members both visiting the show and exhibiting in the dedicated DHF Pavilion. DHF members who exhibited were JCM Technologies, Cova Security Gates, EasyGates, Inova Gates, Sommer, Autogate Systems and AES Global. Fencex attracted more than 350 delegates and many of them visited the DHF’s own stand to learn more about the DHF’s campaigning work to make powered gates safer. DHF training officer Nick Perkins was on hand during the show to answer questions on gate safety. He gave a morning and afternoon presentation that was extremely well attended. The NSI also exhibited at Fencex. It was the opportunity for the NSI to demonstrate the success of its ground- breaking powered gates certification scheme. The NSI and the DHF have been working together for almost three years on the project which culminated in NSI launching their Certified Gate Scheme. The scheme gives installers and maintainers of powered gates, barriers and gate automation equipment the opportunity to be accredited for the services they provide in this sector. The scheme is underpinned by the new Code of Practice for the Installation and Maintenance of Powered Gates (DHF TS 011:2016). The first NSI Gates Gold approval certificates were presented on the stand. For full details see page 88. So Gate Safety Week is over for another year ... but the campaign to drive up safety levels of powered gates goes on. In fact, according to DHF CEO Bob Perry, planning for Gate Safety Week 2017 has already started. He said: “It’s never too early to campaign, educate, inform and raise awareness of the dangers of unsafe automated gates. And so, we’ve decided to turn Gate Safety Week into an ongoing campaign. Planning the fourth year of the DHF initiative is now well under way. Will you join us in helping spread the word about gate safety over the next twelve months?” Information on how you can make a real contribution to this vital campaign for the rest of this year and throughout 2017 will be on the Gate Safety Week website soon. CELEBRATION AT ROLLER GARAGE DOOR MANUFACTURER TTS have just celebrated their 1st year of supplying aluminium roller shutters to the Trade. The company which is run by Vicky Walker and John Millington who both have many years of experience in manufacturing and distributing both insulated roller garage doors and extruded shutters to the trade. Based in the West Midlands, TTS are ideally placed to deliver nationwide with their own vehicles to reduce damage and keep promises on the fast lead times offered. All doors are manufactured using high quality ‘Alutech’ components to ensure, once installed, they last for many trouble-free years and they are supported by the renowned Alutech product quality guarantee. TTS has also benefited from the Alutech CE marking program, so all doors are fully compliant with the most recent standards For a brochure or trade prices for your roller garage doors please contact John Millington on 01746 768734