I was delighted and highly honoured to receive such a prestigious award although I am very aware that I have worked as part of a team supported by operatives, supervisors and managers and this award also recognises the tremendous effort made by the friends and colleagues that I have worked with at Kitsons over the years. My career commenced with Kitsons on 7 September 1964, my first role being that of Trainee Estimator. This was some five years before the introduction of the Asbestos Regulations 1969 and during my early years the Company was still applying large quantities of asbestos insulation and coatings.

The Asbestos Regulations, 1969, were introduced with the manufacturing industry in mind but applied also to anyone working with asbestos and hence, this was the start of the Asbestos Removal Industry that we have today.

I managed my first asbestos removal contract in 1971/72; this involved the removal of insulation from a large power plant at a chemical works in Cheshire. The operation was complicated as we had to provide free access for the clients employees to operate the boilers; as a consequence the sheeting operation was very complex even by today’s standards. I can still remember the difficulties in disposing of the waste and the endless paperwork that was involved and of course the cost. Perhaps this is an operation that hasn’t changed that much! During subsequent years, it became apparent that there was a need to exercise more control over those companies involved in the removal of asbestos products and in 1984, the Asbestos Licensing Regulations were introduced by the HSE. Initially, far too many licenses were issued without the appropriate scrutiny of the applicants, many to companies who never stripped asbestos, it took some years for the numbers of licence holders to be reduced to reflect the numbers of companies actually involved in removal operations.

Kitsons had during this time, completed many contracts and gained extremely valuable experience of complex asbestos removal projects in hospitals, schools, factories, offices, chemical plants and power stations. Also at this time the company had the opportunity to undertake works in Germany and at one time had 140 men employed in that country. I made weekly visits to site and despite the Company having an excellent management team resident on site who were more than capable of resolving all important matters there did remain a constant risk of an outbreak of a third world war. Some aspects of the visits were enjoyable but I did realise the wisdom in the saying “thank goodness we won the war. “

In the late 1980’s the company was awarded a contract for the Asbestos Removal at Berkeley Nuclear Power Station which was a great challenge combining the safety requirements of dealing with asbestos together with the difficulties associated with ionising radiation. This led to major Nuclear Power Station work at Trawsfyndd, Hinkley, Sizewell, Hunterston, Bradwell and Chapelcross together with works at Aldermaston, Burghfield, Winfrith and other nuclear sites.

In 1999 I was honoured to be appointed as Chairman of ARCA for a two year period. It proved to be an eventful two years during which time the Governing Council decided to relocate its’ offices from Chelmsford to its present location in Burton upon Trent. This involved a great deal of contact with Terry Jago who I worked with many years earlier when he was employed at Kitsons and whilst that period was quite stressful, I am sure that we both have fond memories of the purchasing and refurbishment of our present headquarters. In 2003 I was asked by the then Chairman Grant Belgan, to chair the newly formed Standards Committee, a position I occupied for the next five years. This was a difficult challenge but one that I realised was considered of vital importance in ARCA’s continued drive to improve standards in the industry Looking back through my career there have been many changes, mostly for the good. Standards have improved with the introduction of negative pressure, improved decontamination facilities, better trained operatives using greatly improved stripping techniques. Initially there were no third party visual inspections or certificates of reoccupation and undoubtedly these measures have played an important part of the improvement of standards in the industry.

ARCA has played its’ part in bringing about these improvements but in practice there still remains room for improvement. Inevitably asbestos removal will be undertaken by less people but to an ever improving standard and ARCA must lead this change to ensure work is performed by its’ members to minimise the risk to those who may be most at risk of exposure.