05.04.2011

Lavendon picks up access/scaffold award

Lavendon Access Services of the UK has been named as the UK’s best access or scaffolding supplier in 2011.

The award sponsored by the UK construction publication Construction News, evaluates companies based on their contribution to improving safety, quality of service and client satisfaction.

The three man judging panel included senior executives from contractors John Laing and Galiford Try as well as the chief executive of the National Federation of Roofing Contractors.

Most of the other finalists were scaffolding contractors and included: Turner Access, Admiral Scaffolding Group, Connect Scaffolding, Ezee Scaffolding, The Up and Under Group and Network Scaffolding.

The decision to give the award to only powered access company among the finalists was based on the fact that it halved its accident rate in 2010, it received the Rospa Gold award, Its operator training efforts, its TechX programme which encompasses Sustainability measures as well as general good practice and its support of IPAF safety initiatives and St Johns Ambulance first aid courses.

It was note also that all of this was achieved in a year when the company/industry had to cope with a challenging market and carry out some significant restructuring measures which involved staff cutbacks to reduce its cost base.

Accepting the award, Mike Potts, Lavendon UK’s chief executive, said:
“One of the most pleasing aspects of this award is that five of the six other finalists were scaffolding companies. I believe this is a clear message that the benefits of powered access, in terms of efficiency, cost-effectiveness and safety, are increasingly accepted by decision-makers in the construction industry.”
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(L-R) Mike Donegan of BAM Construct, Peter Douglas, Richard Miller and Mike Potts of Lavendon with host Alun Cochrane.

“Our employees’ commitment to service innovation, safety and customer satisfaction has played a major part in Lavendon Access Services being named as winners of the Specialist Award within the Access and Scaffolding category.”

Vertikal Comment

There are a number of frivolous and pointless awards out there aimed more at lining the pockets of the publishers that promote them than to truly award good practice or innovation in the industry. While the Construction News awards are certainly a commercial venture, the entry requirement, the judging panels and the award justification do appear to be first class and fully objective.

The only downside to them is that you do have to submit an entry in order to be included, however it is free and can be done on line and if you have no one within the company to put forward a good presentation help is available – albeit at a cost.

From what we can see of this Access or Scaffolding award, we would recommend that more UK companies from the powered access and scaffold industry enter in 2012, as this does look like one of the more meaningful recognition programmes.

Congratulations to Lavendon for winning the award for high efficiency access rental.