Letters to the Editor Sir, Having just received this months copy of the Bulletin (Sept issue) I just had to put pen to paper. The article (page 59) The N.I Adventure was quite interesting and it brought back many past memories for it was not actually the first venture away from the mainland for APEA trainers. I have attached a photo for you and perhaps some of your older members will be able to put names to those who we had over here in the late 1970’s. The course we ran then was organised by my self and Sam Warner the now deceased petroleum officer in Newtownabbey B Council. For your own information, Sam and myself where the only APEA members in N.I. in those past days, we had both done our early training at APEA courses run at Holme Pierpoint in Nottingham, the trainers then where those in the photo. I attended these training sessions on four occasions and have only recently miss placed my training certificates. I am now retired from employment but I continue to carryout consultancy work on Health and Safety and Petroleum, I did offer my services to your training head Brian Taylor but this never occurred as I think it was just after he took ill in 2000. I was interested in the article the reference to Tom Duke he is a good friend and an work colleague and if he gets around to forming a Northern Ireland branch of APEA I will give him my full support, we tried to get one started in the 70’s but without success. Carry on with your good work for the Association. Best Regards Hugh P Caruth FIOSH RSP MAPEA. Caruth Associates Safety Services (see ad in Year Book page 36) If some on looks at this and can tell me the names I would appreciate being told.
Sir, I read with interest Bruno Boroewitsch's letter in September's issue of The Bulletin, in which he comments on the decrease in size and international relevance of the biennial International Forecourt & Fuel Equipment exhibition. I felt compelled to respond to some of the misleading points he raised and place them all
in context. IFFE was owned by Blenheim Exhibitions where it was launched and grew before being sold to Miller Freeman where it went into decline, and was subsequently rescued by William Reed in 2000. Since then IFFE has grown in terms of its size in relationship to exhibitors and visitors and relevance to the whole forecourt market. The show is also completely transparent about who attends and as such is prepared to have its statistics audited by an external body, unlike most European shows. This year's event, which took place at the NEC, Birmingham in March, experienced a 2.76% growth in visitor attendance from the previous show. This is no mean feat when considering the overall consolidation within the industry. IFFE 2003 attracted over 10% more internationals than in 2001 including senior buyers and personnel from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, North America, South/Central Africa, South East Asia, Australasia and the Pacific. Almost 80% of exhibitors expressed satisfaction or better, at the quality of visitors they saw. The fact that 40% of exhibition space for the 2005 event was sold before the March show closed, is testimony that IFFE has retained its importance and relevance as an influential industry event. For UK and overseas visitors, IFFE is the largest European trade show offering the latest in fuel and forecourt equipment and supplies, alongside innovations for the forecourt shop an increasingly important profit centre for forecourt owners. I agree with Bruno that this is certainly a tough time for the industry, which is why I am committed to providing an effective marketing tool to help manufacturers generate sales and to address some of the many challenges we face. I would be interested to know Herr Boroewitsch's relationship with automechnika. Andrew Reed IFFE Show Director William Reed
Sir, Before you attempt to obtain petroleum spirit please remember……….. · Petrol may only be dispensed into the fuel
tank of a vehicle or into an approved container, which must be taken from the site immediately. · Petrol may only be obtained by persons over 16 years of age. It is a legal requirement that the petrol retailer strictly enforces these rules, which form part of the Conditions of the Petroleum Licence issued by Castlereagh Borough Council and are imposed for the safety of employees and the general public. Issued by Castlereagh Borough Council, Environmental Health. Tel: (028) 9049 4640
Sir, We read with interest the letter from TCI Environment in the most recent Bulletin concerning the problems being apparently caused to environmental security by alleged failing US pipe systems that are being reported by The State of Florida environmental dept. and other states in the USA. Our pipe system ' UPP ' is named three times in the TCI letter and I would like to take the opportunity to comment on this. TCI are correct when they state that the original article from The Dept of the Environment in Talahassee indicates that there are no problems reported with our UPP system in Florida, or indeed in any of the many other states in the US where UPP is installed. Our original approval came in 1996 ( not four years ago as claimed ) and it was some seven years ago that we completed the first UPP site in Florida, at Tallahassee. UPP is no newcomer in the USA. This inaugural site's pipe system is functioning normally and has not been victim to any problems of product failure or contractor error. The TCI Environment letter claims that you can count the number of sites into which UPP has been installed on your hands : in fact, we have hundreds of sites in North America to date of which over 30 are in Florida and all of them are functioning well. We are working with fuel retailers in various global locations in the retraction of non-metallic failed pipe systems and replacement with UPP ; in many cases, without breaking ground if required, so providing a fully retractable system. Therefore to these operators , any incident of crumbling pipe and leaking fuel are not seen as a ' rehash of old information ' as TCI indicate, but a real and current environmental issue. This is presumably the reason why The Bulletin, with an international and not just European readership, informs the industry of this serious situation. A visit to some of these globallyspread sites would result in an understanding of the poor performance of failing pipe systems ; in order to comprehend that the problem is one of today and merits proper concern. Operators and regulators require sound systems and any apparent compromise with leaking pipes, however small, appears justifiably unacceptable to the State of Florida authorities. There is now sufficient photographic and witness evidence of these problems occurring in North America and many other parts of the world, such that the industry will recognise that they are not isolated to just a few contractor errors in one or two states of the US.
Front left bearded person was deputy chief Trading Standards officer Nottingham Next to him Sid Worsfield? - London fire brigade Back row - third left with tash - Chief Trading standards office Nottingham Back right - two in, myself 30 years ago black hair no beard - I am now white with a beard also white. Back third right - this person was a senior or chief Trading Standards officer from somewhere along the south coast. Front right - at the end Sam Warner next to him you have the Council chief finance officer a name sake Ewin Caruth and the Mayor.
10
Stephen de Wild PetroTechnik Ltd Olympus Close Whitehouse Ind. Est. Ipswich UK IP1 5LN sdewild@upp.co.uk
