Chief Executive’s Report

National Landscape Awards is introducing a new category this year - Nature Conservation and Biodiversity Enhancement

2020 set new records for the British Association of Landscape Industries’ National Landscape Awards, albeit in very different circumstances

Wow! What an awards ceremony we experienced at our virtual National Landscape Awards. I would like to start by congratulating those members that were awarded a prestigious National Landscape Award, Principal and/or Special Award, and of course, the highly coveted Grand Award. The latter was won by Accredited Contractor PWP Landscape for their spectacular private residence in Yorkshire. Congratulations to all of our winners. Whilst last year’s ceremony was missing the celebratory atmosphere of being together inside The Great Room at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London, there was still a sense of occasion and grandeur that we have come to expect from our leading awards ceremony, the largest of its kind anywhere in Europe. We were lucky in other ways as the awards was enjoyed by over 1,600 guests, the most we’ve ever recorded watching at any one time, many of whom may not have been able to make the trip to London. If you are a winner, make sure you maximise the potential press and publicity opportunities by promoting your achievement using the appropriate winner logo and link to our website baliawards.co.uk.

BALI National Landscape Awards 2021

Entries are now open for our 45th National Landscape Awards. Although we cover the story in more detail on page 12, I wanted to personally thank our loyal sponsors who have already signed up for this year’s event, in particular Accredited Supplier Green-tech who have confirmed their headline sponsorship for another three years. I would like to encourage all Accredited members to enter a scheme. For our smaller landscape contractors, garden designers and supplier members it may seem daunting, but I welcome one and all to share your experiences, passion, determination and drive with fellow landscaping colleagues at the largest industry awards in Europe. You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain. Visit baliawards.co.uk for more information.

Member engagement

Due to COVID-19 and current lockdown measures, at the time of writing, we had to hold all of our Regional Annual General Meetings virtually in January. Following my update to members during the pre-show, which took the form of a 90-minute online national event, we had a great presentation from Accredited Designer Jilayne Rickards MBALI and Ben West of Accredited Contractor Landscaping Solutions.

Topics they covered included:

• Reasons for choosing to work with each other • How their relationship translated to the client and what they wanted out of the project • The reuse and recycle aspect of the project and Jilayne’s passion, along with the client, to reduce the carbon footprint of the garden and overall project • What materials were used and how they were sourced • What were the challenges and how they overcame them.

If you missed the pre-show, a recording of the event is available in your video resource library in the member’s area of our website.

The regional AGMs were, in the main, well attended and some great discussion points were covered.

Jilayne Rickards MBALI partnered with Ben West of Landscaping Solutions to present at the Regional AGMs - Photo Credit Marianne Majerus ROLO Operative, Supervisor and Manager courses environmental responsibilities, including invasive threats like Giant Hogweed

Members were reporting that, if they’d had the staff, they could have turned over four to five times the turnover they had done this last year. The commercial market still seems buoyant but cautious as we all watch with bated breath as to how the Brexit negotiations turn out. Meanwhile our Regional Support Officer, Laura Doyle, is doing a great job and wants to continue to build on this early success by getting more of you involved. So, if you are wondering what else you can get from your membership, if you haven’t already, why not join in with one of our regional meetings or national online connects. It’s a great opportunity to meet new people. Hopefully it won’t be too long until we can all move towards some kind of normality this summer.

Membership renewal

It is once again that time of year when we ask our members to renew their annual membership. By the time you read this the deadline will have passed, 31st March 2021. We’ve had a really solid start in 2021, with members renewing early and securing their 2% discount. Thank you to those that have fully completed the process, your service will resume uninterrupted. For those of you that have not yet responded, now the deadline has passed I want to stress that, currently, your company is not being listed on our website, if this is a benefit of your membership, and you will not be receiving our marketing communications, including the BALI Newsletter. There is also a danger that you will not be listed in our annual Who’s Who Landscape Directory, if this is one of your benefits of membership and you receive a free listing, as the cut-off for that is the middle of April. So, please ensure you have completed both stages of the process; completing the renewal form and making payment of your membership fee, to ensure your continued promotion as a member and to continue your access to a great range of benefits.

What’s new for 2021

By the time you read this we will have already started rolling out our refreshed brand and new look, announced details of our BALI Chalk Fund Champions and preparing to launch the highly anticipated ROLO Health, Safety and Environmental Awareness courses for both Supervisors and Managers. The latter will be the only accepted route into applying for your Land-based Industry Skills Scheme & Construction Skills Certificate Scheme (LISS/CSCS) SmartCards (for those working in the commercial sector) at the appropriate level and provide a great basis for health & safety training, even if you do not need the LISS/CSCS SmartCards.

These courses, along with our ROLO Operative course, have been approved by both Build UK and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and therefore are the appropriate SmartCard that you and your staff should be obtaining to get onto site. As a result of this approval, all three courses do attract a training grant from CITB for those companies that are paying the CITB Levy. Further details can be found on page 10. Best wishes.

Wayne Grills

Chief Executive