SUMMER'S HERE!

Well, perhaps it has been and gone. After the dryest winter in ages things went wrong in April as soon as a hosepipe ban was implimented. By the end of April one of our sites was partially flooded. We then had a lovely few days at the end of May, but with June the wet (and windy) theme is resumed.

We have just erected 400 sq m of pagodas held down by weights on a tennis court.The met office then predicts 55mph gusts (this is June!) so some of us have had an uncomfortable and noisy night in the pagodas keeping an eye on things and making sure the weights don't shift. It never hurts to take extra precautions as if we ever do have to make an insurance claim, such things count. (The event organisers were also very grateful as we kept an eye on all the other marquees there.)

All was well and the winds have now dropped; weather still very dull though. Those not sleeping in the pagodas were erecting a giant awning in the teeth of the gales, again without incident, though the work was twice as hard.

Only a month ago we were told that the hosepipe ban was unlikely to be lifted until winter. It has already been lifted in the west and is likely to go here soon.

Oh how we long for summer to return, but no sign in the forecast.

NEW SEASON

The 2012 Marquee season starts in earnest in April, and all preperations are well in hand. New marquee walls, roofs, linings and coir matting are all being delivered shortly. Second hand coir matting, trestle tables, and pvc are on sale. (see sale section on our website)
All electrical equipment has been safety tested & a first aid refresher course completed.
New pagodas (sometimes called oriental canopies) arrive shortly

This weekend sees the Boat Race, for us traditionally the start of the season. For this event we have built a bespoke marquee for the roof of a Putney boathouse - it is being erected today. Everything has to be carried through the boathouse, and then up 2 flights of steps followed by a spiral staircase, so erecting it is the easy bit!

Our only remaining non compliant vehicle for the London low emissions zone is being upgraded this month. (We have had enough compliant vehicles for the winter period.)

Otherwise all is ready, and we are just waiting for is some better weather. Perhaps we had our summer in March.

LOW EMISSIONS ZONE MADNESS & MARQUEES

This post is not strictly about marquees but as transport regulation has a big impact on how we run our business, it does occupy rather a lot of our time! Of course we are all in favour of improving London's air quality, and a Low Emissions Zone will help to do this. However what follows really does not make sense.

Phase 3 of London's low emission zone (LEZ) came in to force at the beginning of this year. This requires vehicles over 3.5 Tonnes to meet the Euro IV standard for particulate matter emissions. Sadly the LEZ system seems to be based on the mad idea that a vehicle registered in September 2006 is not LEZ compliant whilst one registered in October is. Guess what - one of our trucks was registered in September, and has according to the manufacturer identical engine & emissions with the same vehicle registered in October. However LEZ says that doesn't matter. Even if we have it tested and the emissions are below the required level, we will have to have abatement filters fitted to make it compliant. Worst of all we have been informed that as we are not doing long motorway journeys the filters will not get hot enough to operate properly, and within a few months will not be doing their job. Never mind - we only need to get them tested annually, and can send them off for cleaning just before testing. Cost of filters for one vehicle is over £4000, + cost of annual cleaning & retest in excess of £200. Surely it would be better to allow vehicles that comply with the emissions requirement to be checked annually and providing they still meet the requirement not have filters fitted.

All this after phase 1 of the LEZ caused us to scrap a truck and phase 2 a van!

I understand that even LEZ estimates indicate that the reduction in pollution expected from this phase is a fraction of 1%. Surely there must be better ways improving air quality in London.

Of course we could stop erecting marquees in London!

CLAREMONT MARQUEES PHOTO PRIZE 2011

2011 WINNER

Once again a wedding photo has won the prize for last year. This time the photo was taken by the professional photographer Benji Barnes. To see other winners please follow the link to our website action=photo_gallery&cat_id=22&recordsPerPage=50 . If you would like to enter a photo for the prize do look at the details of the competition on our website Many thanks to all those who entered this year. As always it was very hard to choose a winner.