QPA celebrates tenth anniversary at Showcase 2007

THE Quarry Products Association celebrated its tenth anniversary at its annual Showcase Event at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel. Once again hosted by popular BBC broadcaster Fiona Bruce, the event saw a record audience sharing in some of the major leaps forward of the last 10 years for the sector, as well as looking forward to what might be in store for the industry in another 10 years’ time.

The QPA welcomed special guest speakers Barry Gardiner MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Biodiversity, Landscape and Rural Affairs, and Bernard Jenkin, MP for North Essex. The former presented this year’s premier restoration prize, the Cooper-Heyman Cup, while Mr Jenkin took part in a live stage interview with the QPA’s director general, Simon van der Byl, tackling questions on sustainable development.

The Showcase acted once again as the platform to announce the winner of this year’s QPA Restoration Awards. An unprecedented 13 high-quality entries into the competition made life difficult for the Judges in 2007, but the Cooper-Heyman cup was eventually awarded to Aggregate Industries for their Forfar Quarry restoration in Angus, Scotland.

QPA chairman Lynda Thompson made a further presentation of the Chairman’s Trophy to sand and gravel operators The Hills Group for their work at Langford Lakes in Wiltshire, which, as well as exhibiting high-quality technical restoration, also took great lengths to include the community in the project in unique ways.

Speaking at the event, Lynda Thompson said: ‘It stands out for me that all the companies involved in our Restoration Awards have very clearly gone that extra mile beyond what was agreed in their planning permissions. I congratulate all of our entries for the outstanding restoration work that has taken place across the country.’