Regional news
www.eca.co.uk On the water
The Greater London region organised an event for 150 of its members, guests and supporters on 31 August, where they were able to sit back, relax and enjoy dinner while sailing past some of London’s most famous attractions. These included London bridge, Tower Bridge, the Millennium Bridge, the O2, Docklands, the Houses of Parliament, Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe and St Paul’s Cathedral. All of the members and guests spent the evening on the
Naticia, a traditional Thames boat, with panoramic windows that allowed guests the opportunity to see London’s skyline from a unique perspective while gently sailing past London’s historic points. The Naticia is one of the few vessels left on the Thames with a sliding roof, and guests wined, dined and danced the night away beneath the stars.
From left: Jean Billington and Eric Anderson with a German colleague
A German welcome The Naticia
The West Midlands regional executive committee was invited by Eric Anderson from Siemens to hold its REC meeting in September in Regensburg, Germany. This gave the REC an excellent opportunity to see the Siemens plants in action. The group spent a day walking around the Siemens factory in
A good morning for business
The Greater London region recently held its morning business conference at 76 Portland Place, London. The event was opened by ECA president Phil Fagg, and a number of presentations were given. Professor Rudi Klein, CEO of the Specialist Engineering
Contractors’ Group, gave a presentation on a key topic: ‘Getting Paid’. He provided GLR members with good advice about contractual pitfalls and payment issues, off ering tips on applications for payment and the auditing of new payment procedures. Vicki Leslie, of Electrical Contractors’ Insurance Services (ECIS),
spoke on how private medical insurance can be important in helping employers with the acquisition and retention of staff , making staff feel valued and being an ‘employer of choice’. John Chamberlain and Richard Hine, HM Specialist Principal
Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive, gave a talk on safe isolation. There was also an opportunity for members to put names
to faces with introduction of a ‘meet the team’ element, where colleagues from headquarters were in attendance representing Technical; Education and Training; Health, Safety and Environment; Commercial, Legal and Contractual; the Electrical Contractors’ Insurance Company; and Employee Relations The conference was closed by ECA group CEO Steve Bratt, who praised all the speakers and thanked members for attending.
Regensburg, where RCDs are manufactured from raw materials, and saw the automated production line that produces thousands per day. Even the plastic moulding around the device is produced from raw materials. Every device is electrically and mechanically tested before it goes out to the customer. Siemens then took the group to its test lab and carried out a
live test on a cartridge fuse with reduced sand inside the casing, and then applied a high current. The result was an explosion. In a real-life situation it would most likely have caused a fi re in the property and not have broken the circuit. This was a warning to contractors to only purchase fuses from reputable companies and with the correct EN British Standard kitemarks. The trip ended with a walking tour of Regensburg, which has
been occupied since Roman times, and a chance to view the medieval bridge that spans the River Danube.
Branch tech talk
The North West Region enjoyed a presentation given by Tony Cable of Certsure on 9 September. Tony spoke to members of the Central Lancashire ECA branch on two topics, the fi rst one being an eye-opening and informative explanation of when and how to use surge protection. He gave in-depth coverage of the qualifi cations required to
become a qualifi ed supervisor. Following the presentations, Tony answered members’
questions on a range of technical topics. Chairman Anthony Smith thanked Tony on behalf of the branch members.
46 ECA Today December 2013
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