Roofing Work News Roundup – December, 2017
Here at D-marc we’re in the business of making work at height, namely roofing work, safer with our innovative rooftop barrier solutions. As such, we keep a close eye on the news for stories about roof work and working at height in general so that we can provide our readers with useful and relevant information that will keep them up to date with what’s going on in our industry. Once a month, we’ll publish a roundup of the news that affects our sector in one easy place so that readers can get a quick overview of the most important happenings over the past month. If you have anything to add or know of any stories that you’d like us to cover, please don’t hesitate to let us know, either by email, on our Facebook Page or on our Twitter feed.
Just after Christmas a busy stretch of the A30 in west Cornwall was closed due to reports of “roof debris” strewn across the road. Police and firefighters were called in to inspect the debris from a building at West Cornwall Retail Park which had blown off in high winds. The road was closed for a whole day while crews removed the loose roofing from the road and a structural engineer called in to inspect nearby buildings for damage.
Oxford’s Covered Market has been at crisis point according to local trader tenants who have called for a radical rethink on how the Market is promoted and managed following a pledge by the city council to spend £1.6 million on improvements. Traders welcomed the news of the investment, saying that the main priority will be fixing the leaking roof. The Grade 11 listed building dates back to 1771 and belongs to the city council who are committed to investing money in improving the fabric of the Market.
A rogue roofing contractor has been fined more than £4,000 for failing to provide customers with the legally required 14 day cancellation notice after an investigation by Northamptonshire County Council Trading Standards. A complaint was received from a concerned customer whose wife received a cold call from the roofing and property maintenance service stating that tiles on her roof were in need of repair. She agreed to the work beginning immediately and was then told that further urgent work needed to be carried out with a vast increase in the price. Investigators discovered that no immediate work on the roof was necessary and the cooling off period had not been followed.
IPAF (the International Powered Access Federation) is collaborating with UK Members of Parliament on a wide scale inquiry designed to improve safety and implement best practice when working at height. The new, all-party working group of Westminster MPs is dedicated to decreasing the number of workplace fatalities in the UK that are caused by falls from a height. This is an ongoing initiative so we’ll keep an eye out for more developments on this story so that we can keep our readers fully informed.