trust - LJN Blog Posts - Landscape Juice Network2024-03-29T05:09:31Zhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/trustAwards increased for garden designers at Gardening Scotland 2014https://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/awards-increased-for-garden-designers-at-gardening-scotland-20142013-11-29T18:37:04.000Z2013-11-29T18:37:04.000ZLandscape Juicehttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/LandscapeJuice<div><p>Prize money in The Artisan Garden Design Competition being run by the organisers of Gardening Scotland has risen to £6,000 following support from The Cross Trust.</p>
<p>There are now three awards of £2,000 each will be given to designers who submit the best plans for a show garden to be created at Gardening Scotland 2014.</p>
<p>The awards have been developed in order to encourage designers to create exhibits that reflect real gardens.</p>
<p>Martin Dare, Gardening Scotland show organiser, said: “Feedback from visitors has shown that what they want to see are not fantasy gardens but an enhanced version of what they have got at home. They want show gardens to be inspirational and aspirational and they want them to be filled with plants.”</p>
<p>Garden designers, students from Scotland’s rural colleges and representatives of major charities were amongst the audience who attended the Forum at Oatridge College near Broxburn.</p>
<p>The speakers were horticultural lecturers Ann Burns of Oatridge and Ally Bruce of Dundee College as well as Dougal Philip and Lesley Watson of New Hopetoun Gardens Garden Centre, all of whom have experience of creating successful show gardens.</p>
<p>Dougal Philip, who is also Chairman of <a href="http://www.thecrosstrust.org.uk" target="_blank">The Cross Trust</a> said: “ The Trust is a charitable body which gives grants to young Scots who are of merit and in financial need in order to extend the boundaries of their knowledge of human life.  The Trust administers the annual John Fife Travel Award for young people of Scottish birth or parentage who are either studying or working in horticulture.</p>
<p>“We are delighted to be supporting Gardening Scotland in The Artisan Garden Design Competition as we believe it has the potential to give young designers a real platform for their work.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gardeningscotland.com" target="_blank">Gardening Scotland 2014</a> will take place from Friday, 30 May until Sunday, 2 June at The Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh.</p>
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</div>Trees or Turf – A Decision to Make in Place.https://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/trees-or-turf-a-decision-to-make-in-place2012-05-03T13:30:00.000Z2012-05-03T13:30:00.000ZPip Howardhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/PipHoward<div><p>Standardising rates of payment for land management is a grey area. And whilst the FC guidance lists for standard rates is a good guide to costs re forest operations it is just a guide and a very useful one at that. But the recognition of the constraints on individual sites is all important and it is the realm of the practitioner to decipher these constraints and apply them to the quotation for possible work.</p><p>In May last year, the Woodland Trust published the report ‘<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/campaigning/our-views-and-policy/woods-for-people/Documents/trees-or-turf-report.pdf" target="_blank">Trees or Turf?</a>’ written by Land Use Consultants and based on FC research. The main ethos is great – look towards trees as a cheaper solution to the usual council / developer solution of turf. True, but little account is taken of the diversity and complexity of sites across Britain.</p><p>Last years publication of the latest <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.forestry.gov.uk/theukforestrystandard" target="_blank">UK Forestry Standard</a> (UKFS) saw the removal of the appendix which included the following text: <em>‘Forestry in the UK covers a very diverse range of forest types, from young plantations to ancient semi-natural woodlands, reflecting a wide variety of management objectives and local considerations. This complexity of forest types and changing circumstances means that there can be no unique solution to specific issues’</em> </p><p>Whilst the UKFS specifies in some detail the need to recognise many factors relating to a site, this removal of a ‘disclaimer’ was worrying as I wrote about at the time for <a rel="nofollow" href="http://saveourwoods.co.uk/articles/opinion/one-size-does-not-fit-all-pip-howard/" target="_blank">SOW</a> </p><p>When considering urban or peri urban sites, which invariably include many additional considerations – particularly with soil which can change characteristics so considerably metre to metre, the absolute need for a disclaimer to protect practitioner decisions is assured. The WT report heads off in the opposite direction and the costs used to determine ‘flat rates’ of planning, planting and future maintenance, (which can easily be argued as inherently far too little), are a further barrier to practitioners in their place belaying the realities of certain sites.</p><p>The research just simply isn’t in place to blindly assume that trees are better than turf for all three pillars of sustainable development equally, or even cheaper! And as we witness year on year increases with young tree mortality we are a long way from being able to assume a ‘beat up’ rate at any percentage when based on such low planning and maintenance input as that suggested in the WT report (10% is way below the estimates of urban and peri urban tree deaths - and this is research we really need to understand the scale of the problem at the moment, but which no one seems to be prepared to look into - why not?).</p><p>And what is worse is setting a precedent by publishing unconfirmed and dubious finances that we as practitioners may be beholden to! This accelerates young tree death as we as practitioners simply cannot afford to carry out the necessary tests to ensure or guarantee the benefits of trees over turf if pressurised to stick to such budgetary assumptions. The WT enjoys a base of voluntary assistance which could offset additional cost, most councils, businesses or individual practitioners are unable to compete against, how dare they assume rates and maintenance, which cannot be based on site specific research which potential clients may use as an assumed budget.</p><p><b>The standardisation of costs and ideals in land management planning across the UK is wrong and directs us towards a car crash if accepted. Lets get some standardisation of good practice, before even considering anything else and let this good practice be written by practitioners in their place.</b></p></div>TrustMark Celebrates 5 Year Anniversaryhttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/trustmark-celebrates-5-year-12010-05-21T11:16:29.000Z2010-05-21T11:16:29.000ZPhil Voicehttps://landscapejuicenetwork.com/profil/philvoice<div>[PRESS RELEASE] <img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3314097974?profile=original" alt="" style="float: right;" />TrustMark, the Government backed, not for profit quality mark for tradesmen, offers consumers easy access to thousands of reputable and reliable local tradesmen. Since its launch in 2005, it now covers more than 17,500 trades across 27 different sectors and its free online database of tradesman continues to be unrivalled. TrustMark continues to be the only organisation to require on-site inspections to check workmanship and all firms in TrustMark are monitored for quality of work, trading practices, customer satisfaction and are required to operate a user-friendly complaints procedure. Over the course of five years, leading home improvement companies and organisations including Homebase, the National Federation of Roofing Contractors and Dulux Select Decorators have all joined TrustMark and act as ‘Scheme Operators’ who manage the recruitment, inspection and monitoring of individual tradesmen who want to join TrustMark. Roman Russocki, Chief Executive of TrustMark said: “We are proud to have built the largest database of accredited tradesmen in the UK and every month, on average over 300,000 tradesmen’s contact details are viewed through it, regularly resulting in business to TrustMark tradesmen.” Paul Merton, plumber from Welwyn Garden City and a member of TrustMark comments: “Being a TrustMark member has provided me with many new customers. In fact, TrustMark is the second largest source of business for me, just behind advertising in the local paper”. August 2009 saw the launch of TrustMark’s biggest marketing campaign to date, which promoted and engaged both tradesmen and homeowners about the virtues and values of trust – the core message of TrustMark. The campaign included outdoor activity, online and PR activity such as the nationwide competition, searching to find ‘Britain’s Number One Tradesman’. Nick Orchard, a Bristol based builder and winner of the ‘Britain’s Number One Tradesman’ award, comments: “Winning this accolade has opened several doors for me. It’s helped raise my profile in the local media which in turn has increased my customer base.” TrustMark has firmly made its mark with consumers over the past five years, but as Roman Russocki states: “Maintaining awareness of TrustMark is essential as the industry is still affected by a small group of rogue traders which costs UK homeowners £1.5 billion a year – that’s a staggering £17,123 every hour. We will constantly strive to communicate the benefits of TrustMark in new and exciting ways”. Website: <a href="http://www.trustmark.org.uk/">http://www.trustmark.org.uk/</a>
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