High-tech, Scottish-based site security company Safer Scotland has broken into the lucrative UK market with a £500,000 contract at the Northumberland Energy Park, a premier East Coast location for a range of energy-based industries.
The breakthrough deal, signed with major UK and Europe building and civil engineering contractor Farrans, is the latest in a successful run of contract wins which will push Safer Scotland’s turnover to in excess of £1.6 million, up by 50% compared to this year.
It will also bring to a much wider audience the Paisley headquartered enterprise’s innovative application of the latest technological advances to what has traditionally been a man-guarding sectoral model.
Requirement of CCTV and access control
The Northumberland contract will entail a CCTV package, man-guarding and access control at the strategic land development sitesSecurity specialist and business founder Ryan Clark said: “This is an important new step which opens up a world of potential for our offering. The opportunities in England are 50 times greater than north of the border." The Northumberland contract, which will run for two and a half years, will entail a bespoke CCTV package, man-guarding and access control at the strategic land development sites across the Blyth Estuary.
It follows a previous contract win with Farrans for a road realignment project in Aberdeenshire. That, in turn, followed a major £200,000 instruction at the £38 million Farrans Roadbridge Joint Venture which was set up to construct the A737 Dalry bypass.
Mobile CCTV surveillance tower
On the Dalry project, Safer Scotland once again broke new ground by developing, in-house, a bespoke mobile CCTV surveillance tower for Farrans which runs entirely from renewable energy. It was so innovative that Farrans is submitting it for a Considerate Constructors Scheme award.
Mr Clark said: “The bypass was a rolling project with constantly changing power needs and risk profiles. The client wanted a tower which they could move themselves and which would not be dependent on replacing hydrogen power cell gas canisters.
Safer Scotland has moved into an office which will also serve as a security demonstration centre
“We developed a solution which combined solar panels and an inbuilt wind turbine capacity which meant remote and dangerous areas could be effectively monitored. Its standalone generating capacity has given us a proof of concept model which we can roll out more widely.”
Technical solutions for effective coverage
Mr. Clark pointed out that while personnel traditionally were used to guard sites, it was recognised that they were vulnerable to intimidation, corruption, isolation-related incidents and attack. As a consequence, his firm is 90% to 95% weighted towards CCTV and the company employs technical solutions wherever possible, creating significant cost savings for clients as well as greater, more effective coverage.
Safer Scotland, which employs 12 people, has recently moved into new office which will also serve as a security demonstration centre, illustrating how radically site safety and surveillance has changed in recent years.
The company also provides security guards, event security, door supervisors, key holding and other security services.
