“These are exciting times as the green shoots of recovery at last appear to be more than a hopeful distant promise. The construction sector latest figures are boosted by a boom in the new house building market and a release of funds to develop further the public sector area’s (ahead of the next general election I guess) and private money seems now to be filtering towards new construction projects.

This and  increasing customer demand has resulted in our commitment to buy more new access platforms, with an order placed for 15 new Genie boom and Scissor Lifts, 2 Manitou VJR100’s and at least 6 new Skyjack access platforms. All being delivered in the next few weeks and ready for hire.

This together with our expansion into the Midlands area, where there seems to be an insatiable demand for quality access providers.

The thorny subject of secondary guarding / anti entrapment. After some initial reluctance it seems manufacturers now recognize the desire of MCG’s to have additional features temporarily added to cherry pickers in certain, difficult or potentially dangerous working environments. We now offer these temporary features available for the Genie, Skyjack and Nifty ranges, all with branded approval from the manufacturer. These should not ever be considered a substitute for good quality training, rather a device that gives additional safety feature when one is identified as being required.

PAL PLUS. There has been some disappointment with the uptake of what is a new underused top quality IPAF training course. This course is an absolute must and MCS site managers would be failing in their duty for site safety if they regard the secondary guard as negating the need for this course.

Pal Plus was designed specifically with the big sites in mind, where multiple machines are working in close proximity, often on piece rates. The course identifies danger zones and ensures all attendees are fully versed in the additional safety aspects required for work in a tough environment.  This is a great course and is available now. See our training section for more information.

Jim Haigh.”