What Happens When You Get It Wrong?
There’s demonstrating best practice – and then there’s deliberately doing it wrong and seeing what happens.
At this Thursday’s AFI & AFA Best Practice Day at Kirkley Hall, our demonstration team will be doing both.
Rather than simply constructing a perfect fence for attendees to watch, the team will deliberately recreate examples of poor installation and bad practice, before putting them under pressure alongside correctly installed fencing.
The aim? To demonstrate why recognised techniques matter and what can happen to a fence over time when corners are cut.
The team will look at areas including strainer and strut installation, footing in different ground conditions, wire termination techniques and dealing with changes in ground level.
There will be runs of both stock netting and deer netting, before the afternoon moves on to destruction testing, putting some of the installations and techniques demonstrated earlier in the day to the test.
Will the badly installed strainer twist? Will the strut pop? And how will the correctly constructed alternative stand up alongside it?
There’s only one way to find out!
Join us this Thursday
- Thursday 15th October
- 9am–3pm
- Northumberland College – Kirkley Hall Campus
- £15 including breakfast and lunch
Our demonstration team includes working fencing contractors and national and international fencing competition winners, so expect plenty of practical experience, discussion and opportunities to ask questions throughout the day.
There’s still time to join us.
Diesel Hits £2 a Litre – Are You Using Your AFI Fuel Discount?
With diesel prices now reaching record levels, the cost of keeping vans and vehicles on the road is becoming an even bigger expense for fencing businesses.
The average UK price of diesel has now passed £2 per litre for the first time, with a 55-litre fill-up costing around £110.
So this feels like a good time to remind members about one of the practical savings available through your AFI membership.
Save 4p per litre with UK Fuels
AFI members can access a 4p per litre discount through UK Fuels, helping to reduce the cost of keeping your business moving.
Four pence might not sound huge on a single litre – but for contractors covering thousands of miles each year, running several vehicles or regularly filling vans and pickups, those savings can soon add up.
For example:
- 80-litre fill-up = £3.20 saved
- 100 litres a week = £208 saved over a year
- 500 litres a week across a fleet = £1,040 saved over a year
And with fuel prices where they are now, every saving on day-to-day business costs counts.
If you’re already an AFI member but aren’t making use of the UK Fuels benefit, now might be a very good time to take another look.
Your AFI membership could be saving you money every time you fill up.
World Mental Health Day
With the latest Keep Britain Working update revealing that there was an increase of 530,000 people aged 16 to 34 reporting work‐limiting mental health conditions between 2015 and 2024. Following on from World Mental Health Day on Saturday (10 October) is an opportunity for everyone to focus on the importance of good mental health.
Employers have a legal duty to prevent work‐related stress and support mental health, and there are a range of resources available, including the HSE Working Minds campaign and 24/7 support from the Lighthouse Charity. The CLC has also published a Mental Health Joint Code of Practice to support businesses in construction to create healthier working environments that prevent or reduce mental health risks. Structured around five workplace factors that negatively impact mental health, the JCOP sets out sets out actions that members throughout the supply chain can take to address each of these factors.
New Apprenticeship Hiring Payment
As part of its commitment to ensuring that every young person has access to further education, training or a job, the Government has introduced a new Apprenticeship Hiring Payment from 1 October 2026, which provides employers who do not pay the Apprenticeship Levy with £2,000 for every apprentice they take on aged between 16 and 24.
- For an employer to be eligible for the payment, an individual must start their job no more than 90 days before beginning their apprenticeship training.
- The £2,000 will be paid in two instalments: the first £1,000 90 days after the apprenticeship started and the second £1,000 one year after the apprenticeship started (or after 242 days for a foundation apprenticeship).
- The employer does not need to apply for payment as each instalment will be paid automatically by their training provider.
The payment can be spent on any costs related to the apprentice’s employment, but the employer will only receive each instalment if the apprentice is still employed by them when payment is due.
The Apprenticeship Hiring Payment is part of the Youth Guarantee scheme, which also includes the Youth Jobs Grant and the Jobs Guarantee, offering a variety of funding to employers to help them provide opportunities to young people.
UK Fencing Industry Awards – Old Trafford Awaits!
The countdown is officially on! In just four weeks, the fencing industry will come together at Old Trafford for the 2026 UK Fencing Industry Awards.
Following an exceptional standard of entries and some incredibly difficult decisions for our judging panels, our finalists have now been revealed across the Awards categories – and on Thursday 12th November, we’ll finally discover who will be taking home the trophies.
But there’s plenty to look forward to besides the Awards themselves.
Guests will enjoy an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of Old Trafford, followed by a champagne reception and three-course lunch, before we celebrate the outstanding businesses, projects and people from across our industry.
And in a year when football has rarely been far from the headlines, we could hardly have chosen a more fitting venue – or special guest.
We’re delighted to be welcoming Sir Geoff Hurst to join us at Old Trafford, sharing some of his memories from an extraordinary footballing career before helping us present the 2026 Awards.
With our finalists confirmed, preparations well underway and just four weeks remaining, it’s shaping up to be a very special day.
- Thursday 12th November 2026, 10am- 5pm
Old Trafford, Manchester
Four weeks and counting… we can’t wait!
Operation Tramline – Is Your Driving for Work Policy Up to Scratch?
National Highways and Driving for Better Business are putting the spotlight on Operation Tramline this month – a nationwide road safety initiative targeting dangerous and distracted driving.
Operation Tramline uses unmarked HGV cabs, giving police officers an elevated view into cars, vans and HGVs and allowing them to identify and record unsafe behaviour that can be difficult to see from a conventional patrol vehicle.
And it isn’t just HGV drivers being targeted. Driving for Better Business reports that around 60% of drivers stopped during Tramline shifts are travelling in vans or cars. Common offences include mobile phone use, failing to wear a seatbelt and drivers not being in proper control of their vehicle.
For fencing businesses with employees regularly travelling between sites, the campaign is a useful reminder that managing driving for work is about more than vehicle compliance. Employers should have appropriate policies in place and make sure managers, supervisors and drivers understand their responsibilities.
Driving for Better Business has brought together a range of free Operation Tramline resources for employers and drivers, including downloadable posters, information sheets, driver toolkits and guidance to help businesses reinforce safe driving behaviours with their teams.
Could now be a good time to remind your drivers that unsafe behaviour behind the wheel may be more visible than they think?
Find out more about Operation Tramline and access the free resources