The insurance company Aviva recently conducted a survey amongst their clients which dispelled the myth that “White Van Man” was no more than an urban thug.
Tradesmen in London are the smartest, sexiest and most successful drivers on the road their research showed, with over 70% having an interest in politics and current affairs.
Smart Tradesmen in London
Over half of the white van drivers surveyed said that they regularly read books, compared to one-in-ten sports car owners.
Sexy Tradesmen in London
Most of the white van drivers questioned responded that they like to keep themselves in shape and pursued some form of outdoor leisure activity.
Successful Tradesmen in London
Half of all van drivers were the boss of their own business, as compared to 83% of sports car drivers who work for someone else.
Nigel Bartram, motoring expert at Aviva, who carried out the survey, said: “It’s great to prove what we already knew – van drivers are switched on and enterprising! Gone are the days of the traditional white van man stereotype. What our research shows is that van drivers are entrepreneurial and responsible. This is why we have tailored direct motor insurance to cater for the 21st century van driver.”
With half of van drivers opting to fix household appliances when they break rather than ask for help, they are also the handiest to have at home. After a hard day’s work, a tradesman in London is more likely to catch a news bulletin or documentary than anything else on the box and, out of all drivers questioned, is the least likely to watch reality TV.
Sofeminine.co.uk added a female perspective to the results of the survey with the comment that “A white van driver may not be so likely to have a degree, but he has a big package” – So much for stereotypes!
For a deeper look into the psyche of a white van driver tradesman in London, visit the Social Issue Research Centre web site, who produced a quite eye-opening and humorous insight into this social phenomenon, and concluded that in order to change their image, tradesmen in London should paint their vans a different colour!
The cost of DIY bodge-ups according to the Clydesdale Bank
Research from the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks has revealed that bodged DIY jobs in the home cost homeowners £235 million to put right last year.
The recent survey was conducted amongst two thousand of the banks´ customers and showed that over a quarter had experienced a DIY disaster within the past twelve months.
With one in ten respondents having to pay up to £500 to get their mistakes fixed, a spokesman for the Clydesdale Bank commented that while DIY may be a great way to save money, it is important to have the correct tools and right set of skills to avoid a job around the home becoming a very expensive exercise.
The bank estimates that nearly 5 million people across the country ended up paying for DIY mistakes after they attempted to do DIY jobs such as decorating, plumbing or gardening. Instead of wishing you had never started a job that is ultimately going to cost you a lot of money, why not consult Mr Skill´s Tradesmen’s Directory and benefit from the financial advantages of using a London tradesman.
Five London boroughs have been sent notices by the Health and Safety Executive, ordering them to clean up their act when it comes to dealing with asbestos in London´s schools. Harrow, Lambeth, Thurrock, Waltham Forest and Medway councils were all advised that their methods of managing the risks of asbestos were inadequate and that they were potentially putting thousands of teachers and children at risk from asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancer.
Although the recent HSE press release asserts that the majority of local authorities in London are complying with official guidance, it also shows that a significant number are not managing their asbestos effectively, with a quarter of the 42 schools inspected requiring enforcement action to be taken through the issuing of 18 improvement notices and one prohibition notice.
In February, a report published by the asbestos consultants’ association – ATaC – of their inspections of a sample number of schools found serious flaws in asbestos management. Their report reflected what their members find in many schools up and down the country, as the chairman of ATaC stated: “These are not minor problems that have crept in over recent years; rather they are fundamental problems that are endemic in schools in the UK.” (You can read the report by clicking here)
A spokesperson for the “Asbestos in Schools” action group claimed that these findings confirmed AiS’s concerns that a significant proportion of schools are not managing their asbestos effectively.
“This new HSE report highlights that many schools and local authorities are still not safely managing their asbestos and underlines the urgent need for all the schools and authorities in the country that are not adequately protecting their occupants from the dangers of asbestos, to be identified and then brought up to a safe standard. “
They continued “The previous Government recognised that measures have to be taken to improve the asbestos management in schools by establishing an expert Steering Group under the Department for Education to recommend practical measures that will achieve this. The Coalition Government has not yet confirmed that the Steering Group will continue. This report shows that it is essential that it does.”
Many older public buildings in London, as well as residential dwellings, were constructed during a period when the risks of asbestos as a fire-proofing material were not fully understood. As well as being used in fabric form, asbestos was often mixed into cement, and fibres from both sources can lead to pleural illnesses if inhaled or absorbed into the digestive system through eating and drinking in a contaminated area. If you have any concerns about asbestos levels in your home, office or commercial premises, please contact one of the waste disposal experts in London featured in our Tradesmen´s Directory.
Despite thousands of protests from local residents and petitions appearing on every conceivable social media, Covanta Energy has had its application accepted for a Development Consent Order on its plans for a £350m resource recovery facility at Rookery South Pit near Stewartby, Bedfordshire, by the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).
The application, which was submitted at the beginning of August, will now enter the ‘pre-examination’ and ‘examination’ phases of the IPC decision-making process. This allows the IPC, the general public and interested parties to scrutinise the application.
Covanta proposes to take 585,000 tonnes of household and business waste from the surrounding area and generate enough electricity to power 82,500 homes using an energy-from-waste (EfW) facility.
Managing director Malcolm Chilton said: “This is an important step forward in our proposals to build and operate a modern EfW facility and materials recovery facility on this site. [The RRF is] a positive step forward for the environment and a sustainable way for generating power.”
Earlier this month, Lord Henley – the UK Environment Minister – visited an “anaerobic digestion” plant near Rushden, Northamptonshire, to discover how out-of-date supermarket food and commercial waste is being converted into electricity.
Reported on the DEFRA web site (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), Lord Henley found the plant capable of processing 45.000 tonnes of waste food each year and generating enough electricity to power two thousand, seven hundred homes.
The process takes waste such as animal manure, sewage sludge and waste food, and converts it into a methane-rich biogas which can be used to generate heat and power for domestic and commercial installations, as well as providing an environmentally friendly fuel for transport. The UK produces about 100 million tonnes of this waste each year which could instead generate up to 7% of the renewable energy required in the UK by 2020.
Notes – Using biodegradable waste to generate a source of power will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfill sites. It is estimated that each tonne of food waste which is reprocessed will save 0.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
There are currently 37 anaerobic digestion plants in the UK already in operation, with another 60 under construction or at the planning stage.
To see how the domestic household could contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions in their own home and save money as well, visit our blog on “Saving Money through Home Improvements”.
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The insurance company Aviva recently conducted a survey amongst their clients which dispelled the myth that “White Van Man” was no more than an urban thug.
