Southern Region : Maidstone buildeng 14.03.23

On the 14th March the Southern Region held their first Regional Conference of 2023 in Maidstone. The event was well attended, and delegates were welcomed, via Teams, by CABE President Joseph Birt from his base in Northern Ireland. . The invited speakers covered a range of areas with Alan Milstein, Chairman of the Residential Property Surveyors Association offering an insight in the role of the New Homes Ombudsman and introducing delegates to the "New Homes Quality Code". Richard Harral, Technical Director at CABE, followed Alan's presentation and gave members an update on the competency and new regulations which were coming into effect by the Building Safety Regulator.

After a short refreshment break, Kabbe Njie, a fire engineer offered an overview of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations which came into effect in January 2023. This was followed by Jonathan Twaites, a Senior Consultant for the Water Hygiene Centre, who offer a talk on the "Chain of Infection - a reservoir of organisms", this touched upon the importance of ensuring the prevention of legionella within new and existing buildings. The final speaker for the conference was Councillor Tony Harwood, who was the chairman of the working group which created the Maidstone Climate Change and Biodiversity Action Plan. Tony is an advocate for renewable energy generation , efficiency and reducing harm to bio-diversity. He used his presentation to talk about the work that Maidstone Council had done to support the action plan Thank you to all who attended.