The picturesque spa town of Buxton was the location for the BCC’s autumn meeting.
Council members were in safe hands as the get-together took place in the Government’s Health and Safety Laboratory which is tucked away in the Derbyshire hillside.
There was a good turnout of association members and proceedings got underway with Chairman Simon Hollingbery being presented with a Fellowship of BICSc by the Institute’s CEO Stan Atkins. Andrew Dunning, who is representing ICMMA, after the departure of Kevin Day, was also welcomed on-board.
It was the BCC’s first full meeting since the Manchester Cleaning Show earlier in the year and members heard that it had made a healthy profit and would be returning to Event City in 2018.
The success of the Cleaning Show means the BCC can offer funds back to members, and so first on the agenda was an application from the CSSA for £5,000 to help get a new awards scheme underway.
John Findlater from the CSSA told members that the new awards have been designed to shine a light on the positive aspects of the UK cleaning industry; the products, contractors, people, and even the systems that often get overlooked.
The application for funding was carried unanimously and the CSSA Awards will be officially launched at the association’s open evening in October, with the final award presentations being made at the London Cleaning Show 2017.
Looking forward to the Cleaning Show, Chairman Simon Hollingbery said the seminar program looked extremely impressive and was confident visitors would be delighted with the array of guest speakers. Member associations where once again offered the chance to share the main BCC stand and several have expressed an interest in doing so.
The BCC published cleaning industry statistics earlier in the year, and Council members decided that the organisation should continue to do this important work on behalf of the industry. In that respect a professional research company will be asked to work on this, with members given the opportunity to choose which stats would be most useful to collate.
The issue of Brexit was also discussed, with some thinking it was time the Council issued some form of statement on behalf of the cleaning industry. All member associations are now being asked for their views on Brexit, and the matter will be debated at the next full meeting in December.
Events were brought to a close with a presentation by Amy Gyte, from the HSE. This was followed by lunch and then a guided tour of the Laboratory, where members got a first-hand view of the work being carried out to make the cleaning industry safer.
The Council would like to thank their hosts at the Health and Safety Laboratory in Buxton for the wonderful hospitality shown to members and look forward to the seminar program the HSE team is delivering at the London Cleaning Show 2017.