Reforming of the Yorkshire & Humberside Branch
BRANCHES
At a recent meeting of the N.W Branch Craig Brocklehurst (LBI Managing Director) & Keith Hodgson (LBI Project Manager) had a realisation of the value of technical discussions on topics and issues that are present in the industry today. With it comes the opportunity to talk to personnel and specialists from various areas of the industry, as well as regulators, thus providing great opportunities for increased knowledge and co-operation from subsequent networking. It was thought “Why not re-launch the local branch for Yorkshire and Humberside?”. With major retailers based in this area and the added value from their experiences and from the many Dealer groups there is an exciting opportunity to bring vast knowledge together for all to benefit. With the input and best practice approach from the APEA we are sure that branch meetings will be a valuable experience for all members and hopefully NEW members will benefit from the discussions and topics raised for each meeting. We have subsequently contacted APEA colleagues and were pleasantly surprised by the enthusiasm and offers of support. With this mind we are looking to set up our first meeting in March. We are based in Sowerby Bridge Nr Halifax which is approx 15 minutes from Jn24 of the M62. We have a choice of venues dependant on numbers. Watch this space!” If you would like more information please contact Keith Hodgson at keith@lbiinstallations.com or Tel: 01422 833122/07595069922.
Eastern The Committee would like to take this opportunity of wishing you a Happy New Year and hope it brings all good things. The Eastern Branch hosted its early Christmas lunch on December 9th at the picturesque location at Hanbury Manor near Ware, Hertfordshire. The early christmas lunch has become one of the Eastern Branch members favourite meetings and provides a great place to network and share business experiences. The 60
presentations on topical subjects were excellent. Jean Fincken who is Petroleum Inspector with London Fire Brigade gave the “regulators update”. This slot is certainly proving to be a valuable part of the meetings with a great deal of information conveyed to members. Malcolm Railson of Urgent Technology explained his company’s approach to provide effective IT services and maintenance support for oil companies. Urgent Technology is a multi national company founded in 1997 and “eMaintenance uses creative technology which Malcolm showed with a live demonstration. They are working with companies such as BP Retail providing the ability to access fast, efficient information. Ed Wheeler, MD of Eurotank Environmental, talked about aspects of Stage II, in particular the issue of over-pressurisation of tanks, posing the question ‘is this a real problem?’. The implementation of Stage II has resulted in the ullage spaces of some spirit tanks becoming pressurised with air and vapour for long periods of time. His presentation looked at how new and old sites are affected and what contractors and regulators should look out for when visiting these sites. Jamie Thompson kindly stepped in at short notice to cover for one of the speakers who was unable to attend for family reasons and talked about some of the training and advice provided by the APEA to some Middle Eastern countries where a serious incident had recently occurred. The Eastern Branch would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who gave of their time to provide us with these interesting presentations. The branch meetings are technical information workshops and qualify for CPD points so people should take advantage of this benefit when attending. The meetings are intended to be relevant to all those who are in one way or another involved with the forecourt related industry. For the diary, the next Eastern Branch meeting and AGM is scheduled for Wednesday 31st March 2010 and will be held at The Imperial War Museum, Duxford,
Cambridgeshire. Other members are also welcome to join us on the day and can bring a friend or colleague. The Eastern Branch will be electing new officers, so if you are interested in doing interesting things for fellow members please contact the secretary, likewise for nominations of branch officers. Members will receive the agenda in the normal way, which will also be posted on the APEA website. If you would like to give a presentation to our members and talk about your business or specialist technology please do contact me. Anton Martiniussen Branch Secretary
North West The NW branch will be holding our spring meeting and AGM at Haydock race course on Thursday 15th April. Details of the technical content for the meeting will be sent to branch members shortly. We are extending the scope of our meeting to accommodate a number of exhibitors and we will be extending invitations to non members to encourage new membership within the North West. Bob Conlin Branch Secretary
Scotland Since my last report, our branch has had a very successful meeting in Inverness. Thanks to Gordon Robb for making the venue available and making the necessary arrangements and to Highland Council for hosting the meeting. We had four presentations on the day all of which were very well received. The first of these was given by Jim Suff - Ledbury Engineering and Welding. Jim provided us with information on above ground petrol storage options and their Supervault system for self contained storage and dispensing. Our second presentation was from Keith Norman - Petroman Limited. Keith gave a talk on the issues that some petrol stations are experiencing with fuel contamination and the housekeeping required by sites prior to the introduction of ethanol based fuel.
APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk
