Report on NW Regional IDE Meeting held jointly with the NW CDM Duty Holders Group at Lymm, Cheshire Monday 30 Nov 2009

Report by Brian S Neale Hon FIDE and Wayne Bagnall MBE MIDE

The Institute of Demolition Engineers held a successful North West Regional meeting attended by over 30 people including 10 Demolition Engineers.  The topic was the BS6187: 2000 Code of practice for demolition and the possible changes incorporating more on structural refurbishment.

This meeting was opened by Steve Haycock, current Chairman of the CDM Group who welcomed everyone and quickly covered the topics including:

• Minutes & matters arising from the previous meeting 28/9/09
• Future CDM Group meetings and call for future topical subjects
• Events & knoblings (HSE enforcement action etc)
• Welcome and introduction for the IDE NW regional meeting

Brian Neale provided an introduction to the aims and objectives of the IDE after giving apologies for Terry Quarmby and John Woodward. 

Following a short break Brian presented an update on the revision of BS6187: 2000, including:

• Background to the review, and the review decision
• The BSI process for development of codes
• Mention of a new draft prepared by a consultant to speed the rewrite process, including some salient points
• The next steps for the development of the draft

Following a lively discussion, Wayne Bagnall gave his presentation which included an overview of demolition in refurbishment when he acknowledged the input from Jan Andresen - HSE Specialist Inspector for some of the examples kindly provided.  The presentation included:

• Health & safety drivers (statistics & trends)
• Current code of practice BS6187: 2000
• CDM 2007 duty holders and responsibilities for competence etc
• A couple of illustrative projects involving partial demolition (good & bad)

A further interesting discussion took the meeting to its close when the Chair for the afternoon proposed a vote of thanks for both Brian and Wayne.

Footnote:
The background to the CDM Duty Holders Group was formed when The Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 1994 were first introduced in March 1995; funding was available for the group following a successful pre-CONDAM  (CDM) national seminar held in Huddersfield in 1993 organised by the HSE, Ian Crowe and Wayne Bagnall, approximately 300 persons attended generating in excess of £17,000 profit seeding the NWSI .

Acronyms
'CONDAM' was changed to CDM shortly after the introduction of the new regulations
'NWSI': North West Safety Initiative (links to 3 safety groups NWCSG, MCCSG & CDM)