Last Friday saw the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) bring the scaffolding industry together at the ICC Belfast, to celebrate its high achievers. The Scaffolding Excellence Awards 2024 marked the culmination of the industry's first major conference and expo in Europe, Scaffex24, itself described as a "turning point for the industry".

Clive Dickin, CEO at NASC, said this year's awards again highlighted the incredible innovation and high-quality work. He praised the work of the judges, who he said had been "incredibly conscientious and meticulous" in their work. "We asked all judges to judge all entries this year, which was very demanding. They all rose to the challenge."

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The chair of the judging panel was Dr James MacFadden, Senior Responsible CSA Engineer at Sellafield. He was joined by Caroline Gumble, CEO, Chartered Institute of Building; Ken Johnson from the No Falls Foundation; Andrew Stotesbury, formerly Temporary Works Lead, Lendlease; Zilvinas Rubinas, Principal Structural Engineer, Goldberg Engineering; Tim Balcon, Chief Executive, CITB; and Damini Sharma, CEO, The OM Group.

The winners were

• Apprentice of the Year – Albie Cooper, Benchmark Scaffolding

• Lifetime Achievement Award –Lee Rowswell, Group Director of GKR Scaffolding

• Product of the Year – PERI's PERI Up Cladding system

• Project of the Year (Small) – Shield Services Group

• Project of the Year (Medium) – Inner City Scaffolding

• Project of the Year (Large) – Lyndon SGB

• Project of the Year (Major) – GKR Scaffolding

• Scaffold Design of the Year – SRK Scaffolding

• Service of the Year – Costain, Skanska and Strabag's Scaffold Request App