[Spursboy1972]

David

If ladders are to be fased out then i think it adds weight to my point that someone somewhere is taking brown envelopes from the manufacturers of wfp. Now I have no evidence of this and I am not against wfp. You see people that choose to work at height (and there are many more trades than just window cleaners) know the risks before they do it. So yes it is sad when someone gets hurt. My thought is that people should be educated on using a ladder safely and to not be stupid with them. To check the condition of the ladder etc, etc. I personally take every precaution. I use my ladder stopper more often than not. Cones are put out.

Trouble is there are too many people out there (and I dont mean on the forums) that don't care and have the attitude that it wqill never happen to them. They are the people that are spoiling it for the rest of us.

Just yesterday I went into my local bank and saw two operatives from mitie in their doing the insides. Now this is an old bank with lots of high windows internally and externally. They used no warning signs at all. no safety implements. One of them went up the ladder and when he finished with applicator dropped it to the ground without looking. All I could think of was they were a joke. Trouble is nobody seemed to care. That is wrong.

[jinky230]

In scotland you need a license and you need to show your insurance and get vetted before you can clean windows .maybe the H & S would fine the council if they did not vet you for having a safe method.Maybe the license could come to England,Did stop smoking in pubs in scotland and Ireland overnight.Never say never

jinky

[Trevor Knight]

I personally think having a Licence to clean windows is a great idea and something that should be put in place ASAP..
This would achieve two things.

1) Customer peace of mind that you are registered and legal.
2) Gets rid of the fly by night dole dodgers that ruin this industry!

The sooner the better please.

It could even work that if you are registered you would obtain discounts for insurance, products etc....

I think I am one of the few companies who are registered with the local police. I don't know how many others are but it helps when we are obtaining new business and customers love it.

Trev

[shaunjames]

Hi trevor
 Didn't know you could register with local police station, good idea. How do go about, just go down to local station?

Shaun

[Trevor Knight]

Thats all I did, we kept getting stopped by the police and in the end I went to the station, filled in a for (G3Jan31) and now they hold our records.

This way anyone contacts them they have or vehicle details and identification on the people who should be in the van!

Best wishes,

Trev

[Paul Coleman]

I personally think having a Licence to clean windows is a great idea and something that should be put in place ASAP..
This would achieve two things.

1) Customer peace of mind that you are registered and legal.
2) Gets rid of the fly by night dole dodgers that ruin this industry!

The sooner the better please.

It could even work that if you are registered you would obtain discounts for insurance, products etc....

I think I am one of the few companies who are registered with the local police. I don't know how many others are but it helps when we are obtaining new business and customers love it.

Trev

One of the things that attracted me to window cleaning in the first place was the relative freedom and that it was far less regulated than other businesses (plus I couldn't get a job).  I dislike excessive regulation as it seems to give birth to yet more council prodnoses who want to know things that are none of their business.  However, having said that, I do see the way society is going and acknowledge that some form of licensing system is inevitable.  Scotland and Wales usually have things tried out on them before transferring these things to England.
If/when such a licensing system comes into being, I believe that there are two things that must happen

1) The license should cover a very wide geographical area.  My business covers three counties as I live near borders.  I feel that it would be very wrong to have to purchase three licenses.  Even worse, if it were to be done by towns, I would probably need eight licenses as some of my business is scattered around.

2)  The price of the license should only cover the costs of producing it.  I would even go as far to say that I do not feel that we should have to pay for enforcement costs.  There are plenty of precedents for this.  It must not be used as yet another indirect tax.

Sometimes I go through life feeling that there is some prodnosed twit hiding around a corner waiting for a technical offence to be committed.  Although I can normally laugh off the mild paranoia, at times of stress this feeling can be amplified.  Maybe it's just me and I should see a psychiatrist (who is probably also paranoic because he/she also has to be checked out by the authorities periodically)   

[clevs]

 I dont think there ever ban ladder work, which lets face it, is the best way to clean windows.  ive used these wfp systems and theres no way they clean the windows like hands on. The way forward is too stop these cow boy window cleaners who get up ladders at stupid heights with no one footing them !.  Too stop accidents and so on, all it takes is someone too foot your ladders, but most of the window cleaners ive talked too, our more concerned about speed, and not the safety part.  One more thing.  Dont it get your back up when you see a window cleaner using a builders bucket for window cleaning, how professional does that look  , too window cleaners who  use builders buckets, go and buy a window cleaners bucket, you look stupid...!! lol 

[geoffreyspecht]

ive used a builders bucket fo 10 years it only cost £2

[AuRavelling79]

can't [/i]win that one, and I for one won't let them.

I'm not so sure your right squeaks, A customer of mine has had to give up his business after 20 years because of these regulations. ok may be a different trade but it was banned.

Just to let you know what it was, I'll tell you.
His business was at a Riding school for disabled children, and his staff used to have to hold the children on there horses,
he said to me you could not measure there smiles with a tape measure, and because his staff had to hold the children on the horses this was now banned, because they were not allowed to touch the children.
20 years in the business down the pan because of regulations.

That is so sad..... but that is anti-child abuse gone mad not Health and Safety gone mad.....

[rosskesava]

We do the windows of a rich lady who runs a stable for disabled kids.

She was horrified that last year when she found out that no one was allowed to help/lift a disabled kid into the sadle. Her thing was was that kids who spend their lives in a wheelchair get real excercise from horse riding but new legislation makes that impossible.

Fortunately she has the money to come up with other ways that involve ropes and harnesses.

Society has in some ways gone mad. Those that intend good have got swallowed up for the very very small minority who intend otherwise.

With window cleaning, I feel it will all go the same way. Instead of sorting out the problem of those who use ladders in a stupid way, they will d**n the good with the bad even though the bad are a vast minority. Just like when we were at school, the thick teacher punished the majority who had done nothing along with the odd one who was guilty.

Cheers

[Paul Coleman]

We do the windows of a rich lady who runs a stable for disabled kids.

She was horrified that last year when she found out that no one was allowed to help/lift a disabled kid into the sadle. Her thing was was that kids who spend their lives in a wheelchair get real excercise from horse riding but new legislation makes that impossible.

Fortunately she has the money to come up with other ways that involve ropes and harnesses.

Society has in some ways gone mad. Those that intend good have got swallowed up for the very very small minority who intend otherwise.

With window cleaning, I feel it will all go the same way. Instead of sorting out the problem of those who use ladders in a stupid way, they will d**n the good with the bad even though the bad are a vast minority. Just like when we were at school, the thick teacher punished the majority who had done nothing along with the odd one who was guilty.

Cheers

It's the way society is going Ross.  Rather than educating, they prefer to "dumb down" - especially whjere something is hard to police.  It's the same in other areas too.  Speed limits are a classic example.  A good (or even average) driver will know a safe speed for the conditions without being ordered by a sign or a camera.  However, the assumption is that we are all idiots and need to be treated as such by over regulation.  Then they complain when we don't think for ourselves.  Methinks they want it both ways.