Maylarch’s Nick Williamson calls upon asbestos sector to unite.

Fresh from his guest appearance on the Demolition Daily LiveStream earlier this week, Maylarch chairman Nick Williamson has called upon the asbestos sector to assist the NHS and First Responders.

In a statement on LinkedIn, he says:

“…If you have experience of working in live Hospitals, please get in touch with your local NHS trust so they know you are available to help with creating Temporary Negative Pressure Treatment Areas for Patients with Covid19. This is to help protect all the staff working on Covid19 patients.

Hospitals will be looking for solutions and each hospital will have different clinical requirements and constraints on which areas they may want to convert but with our experience of putting in temporary negative pressure areas we can help so please get in touch with your local NHS Trust and let them know you’re available to help…”

UK demolition sites shut their doors.

We truly live in unprecedented times. The nation is in lockdown; police are patrolling the streets to actively disperse gatherings of two or more people; and a website that depends upon an active demolition industry for its very survival is celebrating the closure of sites up and down the country. (OK, celebrating is probably not the right word but you know what I mean).

Social media is filled today with news from employers and employees alike that they have decided to shut up shop for the time being while the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control.

This will have been a difficult decision. It is a bold decision. But it is the RIGHT decision.

As an industry, demolition lives and breathes risk assessments. It is a sector that is – perhaps more than any other – adept at analysing hazards and finding safe solutions.

In this instance, that risk is too great; that safe solution is to stay at home.

There will, of course, be financial implications to all this. There will be casualties. And no demolition company would willingly close sites unless it was absolutely necessary.

We salute those that have taken this brave and wholly correct decision.

Contractor calls for NFDC and IDE to take COVID-19 lead.

Andrew Hope MIDE, contracts manager at Bath Demolition, has written to both the National Federation of Demolition Contractors and the Institute of Demolition Engineers, urging for the industry’s two trade bodies to demonstrate leadership amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

With the industry seemingly left in limbo by last night’s lockdown announcement from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Hope has called for the demolition industry to lead the way:

In his message to the NFDC, he says:

“..I’m writing to you in the hope you may be able to offer some sensible guidance to our industry in what is a completely unprecedented situation.

Perhaps some guidance from you or a word to say that although our work is important it is not essential. Let’s not be competitive. Let’s all stay home and safe lives…”

UK lockdown sends mixed messages to demolition and construction sectors.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson took to the airwaves last night to effectively place the nation in lockdown. Although that term wasn’t used specifically, the granting of police powers to disperse crowds and to fine those found to be contravening the new rules left no doubt that a lockdown was the situation in which the UK now finds itself.

Such clarity was lacking, however, for the hundreds of thousands employed in the UK construction and demolition industries. For while the nation was being urged to remain indoors and to venture out only when necessary, sites up and down the land look set to remain open, even while social media displayed photos of packed site canteens.

In its broadest sense, the UK construction industry is generally said to employ around one million people. And while those in white collar occupations might be able to work from home and abide by the new rules, the same cannot be said of the blue collar element that makes up the lion’s share of the sector.
F
or now, the advice s to abide by the Site Operating Procedures issued by Build UK. A copy of that document is available here.

Scots contractor opts for controlled closure.

Established and well-respected Scottish demolition contractor Forth Demolition has taken the bold decision to cease trading in a controlled closure.

Company employees were informed of the decision last week and will receive a full redundancy package. The company also reports that all business debts will be settled in full as part of the planned closure.

Speaking exclusively to the DemolitionNews, Forth Demolition’s Stephen McCann says that although the closure was not prompted by the COVID-19 outbreak, the likely fallout from the ongoing pandemic influenced the timing of the announcement.

“We’re a relatively small company. We only take on work that we’re able to do and margins are pretty tight. We have just come off the back of two jobs and I decided that the time was right,” McCann explains. “By closing now, I can pay off all that we owe, give the workers a decent redundancy package, and walk away with some money in my pocket. If I had held on for another few months, that might not have been the case. I wanted to go clean.”

McCann is a former regional chairman of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors and has been with Forth Demolition for some 19 years. But he says there was no place for sentimentality in his decision to close the company.

“None of us know how long the COVID-19 pandemic will last or what economic impact it might ultimately have,” he concludes. “At times like this, you have to think with your head, not your heart.”