Latest News

BROUGHTON HIGH SECURITY LAUNCHES SECURITY RATED TURNSTILE

Broughton Control’s rapidly expanding High Security Division has launched a new high security turnstile, the Defender 970, aimed at customers requiring unsupervised control of pedestrian access within a site perimeter.

The Defender 970 High Security Turnstile is the latest addition to a range of products from Broughton High Security aimed at front line security locations including ports, airports, prisons, police stations and government buildings as well as high risk commercial and industrial facilities such as banks and oil refineries.

Click here for the full story

Safety & Security Don't Go Hand in Hand

Whilst the human side of the security industry is undergoing a period of regulation, legislation and licensing aimed at improving overall standards, where is the legislation to cover front-line security provided by the entrance control industry?

Our industry has the odd basic British Standard but few suppliers and even fewer customers appear to know of them, let alone conform to them.

At the end of the day, if an accident occurs with any entrance control equipment such as Automatic Gates, Road Blockers, Barriers etc - whatever the cause - the buck stops with the owner or tenant of the premises. Ignorance is no defence as it remains their responsibility to ensure that all entrance control systems are built, installed and maintained to the correct standards and that all operators and users of such equipment are suitably trained in its use. These are heavy-duty pieces of mechanical equipment, easily capable of causing serious or fatal injury if installed, used or maintained incorrectly.

But property owners and managers are not entrance control experts and neither are many of the contractors supplying and installing the equipment. How are customers expected to know what equipment and safety features to specify or how to maintain and operate systems if there are no rules to follow?

As legislation pushes staffing costs up and unmanned entrance control systems become increasingly popular, it is essential that safety features are installed to protect users. Seat belts, laminated glass and air bags have all become standard equipment in our cars through legislation. The same sort of safety features are available for entrance control systems, so let’s have the necessary legislation to make them compulsory fitments.

The current volume of equipment in use in the UK that falls below what our company deems a suitable minimum standard is vast and will take a long time to bring up to any code that could be introduced, so the sooner our industry starts putting its house in order – the better.

As the increasing threat of terrorism and organised crime focuses attention on the security aspects of entrance control, it is essential that some form of regulation or legislation is introduced to ensure that safety gets an equal billing.