Let’s work together, says IDE president

The new president of Britain’s Institute of Demolition Engineers (IDE) has called on members to work together– including a possible forum to discuss near misses, report incidents and share best practice.

Richard Dolman, managing director of contractor AR Demolition, took over the presidency at the IDE’s Annual General Meeting on Friday. He had served as vice president to Gary Bishop for the previous two years.

In his first speech as president, Richard said: “It has been a difficult year in 2020, one which started as a year full of potential and opportunity but became one that few of us will remember with a great deal of fondness.

“Even though our industry was fortunately exempt from the worst of the economic impact of the pandemic, we have all felt the impacts of Covid on our professional and private lives.

“However, the IDE is proud of how our members have responded in difficult circumstances, how we’ve adapted our sites and our businesses to rapidly-changing rules and regulations and kept things going in the most challenging of environments.

“I hope we can look forward to 2021, to collaborate and work together to continue to improve standards throughout our industry, to modernise and attract new talent across the UK.

“Membership at the IDE continues to grow. Even during the pandemic, we have played an active role in bringing our members together through online seminars for sharing experience and expertise.

“This year has also seen the IDE continue to provide a meeting point for ideas and sharing best practice. As an Institute, our strength comes from our numbers and, in the mutual interests of continual improvement, I see this knowledge sharing as a vital feature going forward.

“We should be honest and transparent about lessons learned from near misses, about incident reporting and sharing best practice. Indeed, I would like to explore the possibility of a forum, confidential if necessary, whereby we can learn from each other to help drive up standards across the board.”

The IDE has more than 400 members across three grades of membership, all of whom are individuals working in some aspect of demolition engineering with knowledge and experience of the demolition industry.