At the
It was one of three awards presented by Eric Darlow MBE, who since 2007 has chaired and been the main driving force behind the BAA’s Operating Standards and Competence Awards Scheme.
At the annual meeting, held at the Marriott Forest of Arden Hotel, near Birmingham, Mr Darlow, who gave a talk, My Years in the Industry, handed over chairmanship of the scheme to Stephen Cole of
Mr Darlow also gave out two BAA assessment of operating standards scheme awards, one of which went to WCL Quarries for its Cranebrook Quarry in county Staffordshire. The other certificate went to Harleyford Aggregates for its Sipson Quarry at Heathrow, London.
At the annual meeting cameo presentations were given by Kevin Mahoney (Green Biofuels) on Reduce carbon with cleaner emissions from diesel engines; Jim Davies (Environment Agency), Water and Waste Issues; Victoria Bankes Price (Woodlands Trust), Ancient Woodlands and Minerals; Mark Oldridge (Mineral Surveying Services), Fracking - Fact or Fiction; John Wilkinson (MPQC) Competence and Empowerment; Cath Pickett Health and Safety Executive), Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster, and Mike Phillips Institute of Quarrying), Centenary Year and QNJAC (Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee).
A seminar was also part of the meeting, and Rupert Craven of Ritchie Bros gave a talk on Market trends in quarrying equipment, while Peter Dorans (Wildlife Trust) spoke on Quarries and Nature – Why?
Helen Barnard of Nature after Minerals (NAM) looked at the organisation’s tenth anniversary and Mark Osbaldeston/Julie Stone (Derby University) spoke about Courses for SME Quarriers.
Lord Digby Jones spoke on SME management issues.
