Arbocop

Well APF was the official UK Launch of the new top handled saw. I saw it, I know what i think what about you guys? kev

Ranger MAtt was it critchel estate i was a student forester there in the early 80's as for the advice i teach the basic tree survay cource and you have to remember it is an 'alam bells cource' basically desigened to make people look with open eyes but also to know when to call for help, the basis of any felling must take in to account all relivant factors not just condition, the american Payne i think was the first to say 'if there is nothing for the tree to hit there is nothing for you to do'...... kev

liam IMHO its not that gray people just choose to make it that way, if yoou are doing this at dissertation level yoou will need a lt moor than you have put down there, as things like the HSAWEA, have things to say as do the EU PPE directives, but the reason i say quite clear is if you lok at both lots of ppe regs the 92 for end user and i think from memory 2006 for manufacturers regs it tells you what you have to do in the absence of a ce mark or self declare like tefelburger have done with the ce climb. have a read all becomes clear. kev

Hi all So as to set the record strait about CS50. It is indeed a chimera of several existin quals, and some eliments of the national occupational standard (NOS) that were not put in to other cs quals as they did not fit. (the NOS is the government 'standard for education of certain skills and knowleeg ours falls under trees and timber) It is critical to note that CS50 is critically size limited, and risk limited, but does have assisted felling in it which does not really exist else where. It was concived folowing a number of issues arround a certain training organisation delivering training in to the highways sector and the HSE being a little less than impressed with what was being provided. so bear in mind it is aimed at highways sector, is size limited and risk limited and is NOT a replacment for CS34/35. As for us at BTS training not running one, we have in house trainers and assessors willing to run one but as with all of the wind blown cources getting the sites is always hard so soon as we get a site we will put a cource on so always worth having your name added to the list. hope that helps cheers kev

Greetings all long time away, just back for a bit as work is crazy bonkers at the mo, The interesting facts is that there seem to be many differing opinions here and that is actually the a reflection of the law. That is nothing that goes to court is ever certain until the judge bangs his gabble. There is some degree of accuracy in comments so far and aslo some of the classic 'wifes tales. My first advise, is talk to the neighbor, tell them tat you fear there tree is causing damage, be polite, be friendly, be open to suggestion, but also be aware you must use this as an opener and also as legal notice. The reason for the softly softly approach, is these people have to live together. next put it politely in righting and ask them if they will take action. Tresspass is a missnoma, the common law tort is one of nuiseseness, a special kind, founded on the principals of Ryland v fletch and many others. in a nut shell anything that passess overthe boundary there is a liability for but there are defenses one of wich is foreseeability hence the need for notice. the reason for the polite bit it various reforms and advise hat lead to a mediation rought before a prosecution route. check the content of the insurance policy to find if it covers the fence/wall, if it does notify the insurance, if not dont, it will cost money for nothing. and then this is a thing for an experienced and qualified consultant, not a well meaning tree surgeon, and a legal party too, this will clearly cost a lot of money, so we come back to trying to settle nicely first, conpromise is king. as for who is best, re critisizum of under qualified person, there are also cases were over qualifed people haev made a pigs ear of it trying to be clever, a court after all just needs facts and info, not flannel and people trying to be cleaver. if you have never been to court it is not a nice place to be and very exoencive, both parties always loose, the only winners are the legal team try al lyou can to stay away from there cheers arbocop

STOP THINK ACT the National Parks have the overiding control over such issues in national parks and have the extra backing of the NP act, giving them other powers besides good old planning ones. 5 day notice are all wel land good, but they are also a sure fire way to P off any officer be them LPA or NPA, if you serve notive on and LPA they will tell you that you must do it to the NPA and visa versa. with the change in regulations over the last few years any aplication now needs to be done on app1 and for dangerouse trees and subsidance must be acompanied by an apropriate report. now if theperson doing the report is unsutible you will get a refusal on the grounds of no corretc info, if the info in the report is disagreed with by the NPA then you will get a refusal. If you do a 5 day notice and the NPA have a look and disagree with your notice you will be told so and told that if you proceed they will prociute. if you get a refusal because the NPA dont think you have proved your case they can suggest things like picus, but the onus is on you to prove the case. with regard to all the above giving advice to a mate miles away, via e mail about and officer you dont know is always trouble, best to advise them to chat to a local tree person who will know the system and the people and get things going that way alway runs smoother kev

Hi western Hope you are having a good easter. As has already been said the absolute min is UA1 2 days training and 1/2 test then most people will expect UA2.1, basic ID and tree infor and UA2.2 pruning from ground and assisted fell you will need some pre requisites forthat namly cs30, cs31 and UA1 befor any UA 2 have a look heare http://nptc.org.uk/download.asp?file=level_3_coc_in_utility_arboriculture_v2__units_1_2_1_2_2_2_3_assessment_schedules_handbook_feb_2010_amended_march_1.pdf as for price i dont whant to tell you wrong so if you would like to cal lthe office on tuesday number below, and speak to me or clair we would be glad to let you know exact prices and availibility. but like all things the other thing is experiance. cheers kevin

For what??? for an MS200t (020t) for any one over 30 hehehe we do them from the shop here at £452 including the vat for the makita depends what cc size you whant the but £318inc for the dcs3410th (34cc) as for the huski 338xpt you can have one of those for £387 including vat cheers kev

Umm controversial health and safty?? controversial = 1.of, subject to, or stirring up controversy; debatable umm from any one persons pont of view could be any thing....... a hint pic subject based on what you know is out there in resurch as you could pic the most interesting thing and end up with only experiensial and conjecture and you wont get a pss for that. i would argue rigging leads to most injuries in tree work, on reported accidents i would say the clear winner is one handed use of chainsaw in tree........ left arm and chest ohhh always had 2 near us in the last 4 weeks that ive herd about both very serious, both the climber admitted bad work position one handed use. i see streams of climbers with scars to left for arm, one handed use. now to what extent shoud the best practice of two hands be enforced to prevent this.??? these oen not health and saftey but a pet hate of mine ' the role LA officers have in driving down quality vs cost' to meet political pressure as opposed to altering regiems to protect cutters rights and pay, but no politicalpopularity??? hse wise how about random drugs and alchole testing, freind or foe, in the world of utility arb on the rail and the power networks we have it, seen 3 lads go through failing the test..... do you think its good or bad. or hears another one.....' i think the work at height regs have done a good job and should be more thoughtly enforced, as they have driven best practice reviews and stimulated manufacturers to come up with new cost effichent inovitive answers to access problems' i love things like that as an aside and to prove my point when i was doing my HE qualification as a teacher id did my final dis. on 'Modern First Aid Training & how casulty, 999 and other reality EMed programmes have affected it' that was fun cheers all kev

bob not quite right chap 3 point linkage PUWER integeral part of machine that has permanat ifxing and set regime of attachemnt forloaders loler, just there funktion. dont forget loler builds on the established principals of puwer and thus if puwer is covering the role and the function fall ou side your definition then no need to apply the stricter loler requirments kev

ohh i do hate it when regs get over applied by some lunatic whith an ACOP and no common sence. the hand grab in a tractor would clearly fall under PUWER regs, ie be in good nick, do the jod its intened for and cheaked as part of a service/maintence regiem. this is why god invented tazarars... kev

loks like the kamatu.sinoa say had one for training for years, and now the mikita great for new starters small light easy to control but the chain break is a royal pain

if you have a petzle sequia srt you can just add a top croll to thew set up kev

ditto through a crab at the back

hi chaps Ive been assessing the old 33 for a while now and have the interesting hounor of being the first to assess the new cs33 award. it is as has been said all about getting hard trees to do what you need them to bt dam big ones was fun kev

Otty give the office a number, a bell and ask for clair in training she will be able to tell you exactly what we have planend and when over the next few weeks. cheers kev

ohhh pooo how do i post this dam picture any help welcome

Ok fellas if its old harnesses still in use behold the honey brothers GT circa 1983 my first harness, when i moaned as i had one with padding at college they got me the bright orange alternative with padding, which i also still have, im conviced they will both survive a nuclia war unlike my spine climbing in it. as a grumpy old man id just like to say you lads dont know your bon wiht ya arm chair harnessesss ahhhhhhhh. what do you think chaps kev ps jim is on the money i think it was the pro 2000, came across a few where extra rings had been welded on.... as for the first sliding d, there were a derth of them in the erly 90's but lets not forget the frst dedicated tree harness recorded at the mo is 1903 in the usa kev

The SRT stands for single rope tequnk, there is an additional attachment point to the rear of the harness that allows you to attache top or top crull, that makes the harness a fully rated full body to meet MEWP use or an srt with a crull so you can use it in the standard IRATA set up there you go, i have an srt in fat bloke sze with a medium bridge and a large swivel, plus extra front ring. if you are going for sequar ether srt or plain, i recomed a swivel and a hitch climber brings the harness to life. cheers kev

just giving you the heads up fellas my diary is crammed so it looks like it will be late spring befor we can arrange some training sorry for the delay kev

Deer man yep that cost is correct. to be honest we usually charge a littel moor to cover the cost of the plants but we have decided not to on this occasion, just because i did not whant to put too many barriers in the way as there is so little time. we have also reduced the assessment fee for the same reson, and we have been a little clever with how we have structured the assessment as you would usually pay about 220 - 250 for the assessments

Chaps i will find out abetter answer about the future of the award and post it under a seperate headding. but in a nut shell government licence qualifications, in the same way NPTC have HAD to change to awards from certs of comp, the current aproval for the tech cert expires at the end of the year, what would usually happen would be some alterations ie making it modular as happened last time, re submit and get re issued. but as the gov have changed the award it will ahev to change and likley by quite a lot. ill have to chat with a couple of collegs of mine who sit in some mind numbing commitees with me trying to make sence of all these changes and let you know the full SP asap but the clock it appears is running so waiste no time. cheers kev

OK chaps AO1 & 2 dates in suffolk near bury st edmunds are 10th & 11th March with test on the 12 (subject to assessor confiring) cost fro the two days training is £190 + vat and for the two NPTC assessments all inclusive 170 no vat. if you would like to come along plese ring office number below and ask for clair in training. remember you only have until dec this year to complete your whole rfs certificate then the award expires and if you only have practical you will only have practical any questions plese ask kevin

Ummmmmmmmm oftern on work experiance you will work for nothing, it is the way of the world, but, the college should have assessed the guys health and safty provision including his obligation to provided ppe to staff FOC, its the law, so i thing you may be getting the standard nothing for a student and 40 quid a day for your gear. sucks a bit but he has no obligation to pay a student sorry kev

hello gang yep its RSI and also the start of tendernitus, its your bodys way of saying u r taking the p****. i can sell you a cheap air spade may help??? but seriously, there are laws on your side belive it or notthe phisical agent directive, the thing that protects you aganst aise and vibration kicks in hear and your emplyer has a dutyto you, to protect you the reson it hurts is u r breaking your self for 80 quid a day for your boss. so have a go get amini digger. now if he still says no, minimise work by rotating and use good tools, as for gloves, im not your man for that but plese dial the numbe rbelow and ask to talk to terry in the shop, he is the guy who deals with the ox-on glove side of retail and will be able to sell you the best gloves he has for the job. again though, pleees hassel your boss, machanise in the long run it will save him money kev