B&ES has announced the joint winners of this year’s Craft Trainee of the Year Award.

Nicholas Payne of Birmingham-based J S Wright & Co and Madeleine Fletcher of Npower shared the accolade, which is sponsored by the B&ES Heating & Plumbing Services (HAPS) Group.

The presentation took place during the Annual General Meetings and Conference of the association’s specialist groups, which was held for the seventh consecutive year at Trinity House in the City of London.

The same location provided the opportunity for presentation of the Richard Bostel Service Technician of the Year Award, to Arron Cogger of DSL, Maidstone, Kent, which is sponsored by the B&ES Service & Facilities Group (SFG).

All three awards were presented by the writer, broadcaster and former Conservative MP Gyles Brandreth, who was guest speaker at the event.

During the annual general meetings, Billy Wilgar of A C Wilgar was elected chairman of the HAPS Group in succession to John Hurst of Npower and Simon Carter of
N G Bailey replaced Alan Gregory of IAS as SFG chairman.

Meanwhile, Bob Lane of Roperhurst was re-elected chairman of the Ductwork Group (DWG) and Tony Williams of Cool Solution Refrigeration was re-elected chairman of the Refrigeration, Air Conditioning & Heat Pump (RACHP) Group.

Group vice chairmen are: Tim Hopkinson, Hargreaves Ductwork (DWG); Roy Littleford, Jarvis Heating (HAPS); Malcolm Thomson, Enigma Environmental Services (RACHP); and Giuseppe Borghese, Bouygues E&S Facilities Management (SFG). All chairmen and vice chairmen will represent the specialist groups on the B&ES Council.

In his address, B&ES president Bruce Bisset highlighted the central role that all four specialist groups play in the life and work of the Association – an importance that
was underlined by the fact that more than 70% of the B&ES membership enjoyed at least one group affiliation.

The president went on to welcome the launch of a new edition  – the first for over 16 years – of the B&ES Specification for Sheet Metal Ductwork (DW144), which he described as “one of the most distinguished, authoritative and widely used of all the standards and good practice guides published by the Association”.

In addition, he took the opportunity to pay tribute to B&ES Council member Graeme Fox on his completion of a four-year term as president of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration European Association (AREA).

Mr Bisset concluded by reminding his audience about the Building Services Summit event which the SFG is staging, in collaboration with the Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA), at London’s Barbican Centre on Thursday 27 November.

He said: “With its focus on ensuring that building engineering services operate as effectively and efficiently as possible during the whole life of a building, the programme will be of interest to more than just SFG and BCIA members – so please put the date in yor diary now.”