QPA board slashed for new super-lobby body

The current council of 25 board members governing the decision-making process of the Quarry Products Association (QPA) is to be cut to 10 as the merger of the aggregates body with the British Cement Association (BCA) and the Concrete Centre (CC) drives forward.

Representatives from Tarmac, Aggregate Industries, Lafarge, Cemex and Hanson will take five of the positions on the new board with five independent quarry firms taking up the other five seats.

Current QPA board members Vaughan McLeod, chairman of Ennstone, Bill Brett, chairman of Bretts, and Richard Stevens, managing director of Allen Newport, are three of the independent board members chosen, leaving a further two to be decided upon.

Chief executive designate of the new construction products super-lobby body, the current BCA chief executive Mike Gilbert, told MQR the reduction was a matter of creating a clear and crisp line of decision-making.

Describing the Friday meeting of the QPA where the changes were agreed as a “watershed moment” in the birth of the new body, Gilbert said: “The new organisation will have 70 staff and a turnover of £11million. Some subtle shifts in the board were needed.”

The BCA council is meeting in October, with the CC board meeting later this month. Both appear to set to ratify the decisions made at the QPA meeting, says Gilbert. “We all want to create a body that speaks for the whole industry,” he said.