A NEW training academy has been established in our region to help reduce youth unemployment and ensure the construction sector does not face a skills shortage when the economy recovers.

Northern Construction Training (NCT) is the not-for-profit arm of Northern Construction Group (NCG) and is the only provider of full-time apprenticeships for the building sector in the East End of Newcastle.

Whether it's by automating monitoring processes in dangerous environments, helping first responders find us in our moment of need, or locating workers in hazardous work environments, M2M is being put to work for worker safety. And construction is one industry in particular that stands to be in direct line to benefit.

While technologies such as Wi-Fi and LBS (location-based services) are often associated with products and solutions in the consumer realm, such as mobile devices and gaming systems, these two technologies also enable the Accenture Life Safety Solution--a wireless multi-gas detection system that allows companies to remotely monitor locations such as chemical/industrial plants and construction jobsites.

Bam Construct has won the first stage of a two-stage £36 million deal to build the new Huddersfield Sports Centre through the YORbuild framework.

Kirklees Council has announced its preferred contractor for the centre which will be built on the Spring Grove car park in Huddersfield.

Under the YORbuild procurement framework for construction projects, the council will now work with Bam to meet stage 2 requirements after which a contract is set to be signed later this year.

DFR Roofing Ltd were called in on Thursday evening to help restore normality to the newly erected Christmas stalls at Exeter Cathedral. The exceptionally severe storms had seen the majority of the stalls have the felt coverings ripped off, and some having had the actual roof structure blown away ! For the record, DFR Roofing Ltd were not the original installers of the roof coverings, but their availability to assist at short notice under the circumstances offered the client a welcoming hand.

The pressure was on to try to provide the traders with a watertight roof before trading commenced, but the severity of the damage will see works continue over the weekend. Works are being prioritised as much as possible, but quite rightly all the affected traders are, in their own minds, the priority of which DFR fully appreciate.

Experts believe Saturday's flyover collapse that killed at least 12 people and injured many more was triggered due to the negligence of authorities as they failed to beef up security measures after a previous accident at the same under-construction overpass.

Accidents in under-construction sites are common in Bangladesh due to lax security measures. One of the girders of the same flyover had collapsed on June 29 and probe held lack of security measures as the reason behind the accident.

A roofing company is celebrating after raising their biggest ever total for Children in Need.

Employees at Paul Strank Roofing, based in Wimbledon, have raised £23,010.40 after a year-long fundraising effort.

Among the many charity events held throughout the year was a mascot dance off, regular cake sales at their offices and bucket collections, taking part in the Mitcham Carnival mascot race, fundraising at the Wimbledon Village Fair, hosting a community open day and two charity evenings at the Il Camino restaurant in New Malden.

A review conducted by leading insurer Allianz Cornhill, today reveals that over £70 million of construction plant, including excavators, compressors and even cranes, has been stolen from construction sites in the last year, despite initiatives by the Government to encourage plant manufacturers to improve in-built security features.

It estimates that the UK construction industry is now losing over £800 million a year when other costs associated with plant theft are taken into account. These costs include plant replacement costs, hire of replacement equipment, loss of business and increased insurance premiums. The insurer has also discovered that thieves have become more sophisticated in the methods they employ, even posing as plant manufacturers maintenance workers in order to remove vehicles from site.

Five contractors are in the hunt to build a new £45m regional training campus for Network Rail in Basingstoke.

The Enquirer understands that a shortlist has been drawn-up for the scheme consisting of Carillion, BAM, Kier, Morgan Sindall and Mace.

Bouygues’ subsidiary Warings has signed a deal to design and build a three-tower property development in Southampton worth £48.5 million.

The Warings scheme includes a 26-storey tower, which, at 81 metres, will be one of the tallest buildings on the south coast of England.

It will be accompanied by two residential towers, respectively 50 metres and 30 metres tall. These new buildings form part of the Admiral’s Quay development, which is characterised by numerous luxury apartments.

Over the past two years Clay Cross-based Iko, a major UK supplier of roofing membranes in the UK, has worked closely with its compounder, Chinley-based Vinyl Compounds (VC), to develop PVC materials compliant with the standards relevant to the roofing industry.

The standards include ATG, British Board of Agrément (BBA), the European Union (CE), FM Approvals, Komo and SGS Intron.

In 2009 Iko invested in a new roofing line consisting of three twin-screw extruders. Iko now processes around 3500 tonnes of PVC compounds per annum for its Amourplan membranes. These are offered in variants for mechanical fixing, gluing and detailing. The PVC formulations for these are respectively reinforced with polyester, reinforced with glass fibre and backed with polyester, and unreinforced.