Innovative temporary security fence to debut at Birmingham Tory conference

17th September 2014

A temporary security fence will be installed for the first time in Birmingham this month for the Conservative Party Autumn Conference.

Zaun Ltd, which has supplied temporary security fences to the main parties’ autumn conferences for several years, has developed a light version of its multi-award-winning Rapid Deployable System (RDS).

Zaun will also supply two special CCTV bases – one with a narrow-view camera and the other with a wide-view – to reduce the number of officers needed to police events of this nature.

RDS saves up to 90% of police time, causing The Home Office to buy 5,500 metres of it, including access portals, turnstiles and gates, to add to the National Barrier Asset.

The new RDS Lite employs recycled plastic blocks for anchoring the fence line favouring the massive concrete blocks that help give its parent RDS system a PAS 68 rating.

The configuration means blocks can be carried up and downstairs and onto canal footpaths, which would have been impossible with the 750kg concrete blocks placed into position by a forklift truck for RDS.

The innovation follows a request from the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) to develop temporary crowd perimeter protection that can be carried by hand and deployed in places that forklift trucks cannot access and where structural restrictions on weight loading exist.

RDS Lite has undergone extensive testing and will be live trialled on canal footpaths in Birmingham at this autumn’s Conservative Conference – its fourth in seven years in the city with up to 14,000 delegates expected to attend.

Zaun founder and director Alastair Henman said: ‘RDS was already unique in providing hostile vehicle mitigation up to 30mph in a rapidly-deployed temporary fencing solution with no below ground foundations.

‘We integrated advanced electronics and top-end CCTV as an add-on to existing security arrangements to help better cover specific strategic positions on the perimeter.

‘This latest version of our celebrated RDS literally lifts temporary high-security perimeter protection to new heights.’

It means the autumn party conference season will have stimulated innovation in temporary high-security fencing for the third year.

In autumn 2012, Zaun installed its RDS for the first time at party conferences, winning police accolades, capturing the Security Innovation Award 2013 and becoming a double award winner at the Counter Terror Expo Excellence Awards.

A year later, Zaun incorporated the latest Video Content Analysis system using high-performance Pan Tilt and Zoom cameras into RDS and pioneered the remote policing initiative when the Conservatives hit Manchester.

About Zaun

Zaun Limited is the sole remaining manufacturer of welded and woven mesh fencing systems that manufactures the entire system in the UK. Zaun makes the mesh, fencing panels, posts, clamp bars and fixings at its state-of-the-art five-acre production facility in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands. Products have been tested and approved by testing organisations including CPNI, LPCB and Secured by Design.

Zaun works very closely with all stakeholders within the business including employees, local, national and international suppliers and a long-established customer base of fencing contractors to design, manufacture and supply high-quality fencing systems, increasingly often providing expertise in integrating PIDs and other systems into holistic security solutions.

Zaun was founded in 1996 and remains a private company solely owned by co-founder Alastair Henman with a regional office in Dubai. They are certified to the ISO 9001 quality standard. It is also a member of the Perimeter Security Suppliers’ Association (PSSA), of which Alastair Henman is a director.

Zaun is a proud British manufacturer and founder member of the Made in Britain campaign, a key player in the UK fencing market and one of the fastest-growing companies in an increasingly competitive industry.