Below are news stories from British Precast. Keep up to date with developments in the industry here.

CE Marking

At present CE marking for precast concrete products is not mandatory in the UK but it is likely to be so in the future. It is important for businesses to be aware of the potential ramifications.

British Precast has produced a briefing note, however, the big problem with CE marking is that there is conflicting information.

We would welcome comments on the issues contained.

This section will be updated quarterly to include these comments, so it is important to keep checking back for regular updates.

Briefing Note

All comments should be sent to James Fudge

Green Buildings Making it Happen

29th November 2007

The UK Green Building Council held their first conference in conjunction with Construction Products Association and British Precast.

The conference featured presentations from: Paul King - UK Green Building Council, Martin Bailey - NG Bailey, Ana Alba-Perez - BASF Construction Chemicals, Paul Edwards - Hammerson Properties, Peter Fisher - Bennetts Associates, John Connaughton - Davis Langdon and Anette Simpson - First Base, John Dowling - CORUS, Miles Watkins - Aggregate Industries.

A copy of the presentations are avilable from the events team for £75. Order your copy on events@britishprecast.org

British Precast Sustainability Charter

29th November 2007

British Precast has launched a challenging Sustainability Charter. Member companies have been invited to sign a series of commitments to improve their sustainability performance and profile.

At the launch event held on 29th November the initiative was warmly welcomed by Paul King of the UK Green Building Council who said “the charter would be used as an exemplar by the Council”. 

Martin Clarke, British Precast Chief Executive said, “The charter was the next planned step in our sector sustainability strategy, ‘More from Less’. We encourage all our members to sign up but at the same time advise that it is a serious decision needing full commitment to achieve the objectives.”

Member companies signing at the launch reception were:

• Aggregate Industries UK
• Cornish Concrete
• Hanson
• Litecast
• Marley Eternit
• Marshalls
• Tarmac
• Trent Concrete

Signatories of the British Precast Sustainability Charter (l-r) Trevor Grounds(Tarmac Ltd), Chris Hudson (Aggregate Industries), Nick Cardon (Marley Eternit), Ian Holton (British Precast), George Pickard (Litecast), Paul King (UKGBC), David Moses (Cornish Concrete), Robert Donnelly (Hanson Ltd), Martin Clarke (British Precast), Stuart Bell (Marshalls Ltd), Robert Hall (Trent Concrete) British Precast 'Creativity in Concrete' Award 2007

Creativity in Concrete Award

This new Annual Award is presented to an individual who has enhanced the image of concrete through excellence in precast concrete technology,

product design, communications, architecture or engineering. Painter as well as sculptor, Carole Vincent has explored the use of natural colour and texture in concrete for sculpture. Her work with pigments has achieved remarkable success, opening new doors to architects, engineers and planners.She likes to work to commission for specific environments, which may range from public spaces to individual buildings and gardens. Her work has helped to free colour concrete to be a visual material with its own character. The highly polished surfaces reveal texture, form and colour with all the time-proven assets of concrete.

Carole Vincent receives her Award from Brian Blessed