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Ventrac for Norse Commercial Services

in Machinery, Press Release/by Peter Driver

Ventrac for Norse Commercial Services: Norse Commercial Services (NCS) has purchased a Ventrac 4500 all-terrain compact tractor and Tough Cut deck, through supplying dealer Ernest Doe & Sons, to help maintain the embankments of the new Broadland Northway.

The 19.5 km (12 mile) dual carriageway, formerly known as the Norwich Northern Distributor Road (NNDR) connects traffic from the eastern approaches to the northwest of the city.

Completed in April 2018 at a cost of £208 million, it has 39 km (24 miles) of embankments that have been planted with 380,000 native shrubs and trees, including gorse, oak, acer and hawthorn. Areas with no tree or shrub planting have been seeded with four differing mixes of wildflower seeds. It is these wildflower areas that the Ventrac and Tough Cut deck are maintaining.

Simon Mutten is the Head of Policy and Strategy at GYB Services, Project Co-ordinator for the NCS and lead liaison with the client, Norfolk County Council. Commenting on the new machine he said,

“The Environmental Management Plan requires a cut and rake of the wildflower sections twice a year. This is the first year that the embankments have been cut and we required a machine to work alongside our existing Roboflail, to increase productivity on the larger areas. We have 1.5 million square metres to maintain, so we were looking for something more productive to ensure that we provide best value to the client.”

Martin Adcock is Operations Manager at Norwich Norse Environmental, one of the three companies involved in the joint venture to maintain the highway, and was the person tasked with finding a solution to the maintenance issue.

“My first action was an internet search for slope mowers. Remote controlled mowers, including our Roboflail, featured prominently but productivity was an issue due to their limited width of cut. The Ventrac also featured in the search and, with its 1.7 metre cutting width and maximum speed of around 16 km an hour, it appeared that it could do the job. However, I had not heard of the machine before and was quite sceptical. I contacted our dealer, Ernest Doe, who is a trusted partner and has supplied us with groundscare equipment for many years.

“They advised that they had experience of the machine and could arrange a demonstration, which was done very quickly. Once I’d seen it in action, and had a chance to operate it myself, I realised that it would certainly do the job for us. The demo was brilliant; it tackled the embankments with ease and left a very acceptable finish. With a ground pressure of just 6 psi, it’s gentle on the newly established slopes and can be used at 30 degrees, something no other ride-on machine can achieve. We are also using it around the lagoons that take the water run-off from the road.”

Jack Adcock is the principal operator of the Ventrac and says,

“I’ve been using it for around 40 hours and both manoeuvrability and stability are excellent; it just won’t run away from you on slopes. It’s simple to use, the controls are really intuitive and maintenance is easy. The flip up deck makes it quick to clean and the double-sided blades ensure you can keep operating all-day long. Used in conjunction with our Roboflail, which can be used on slopes up to 55 degrees, we have all the right equipment to do the job and keep the highway looking really presentable.”

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TinyLineMarker At Medway Norse

in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Colin Hoskins

TinyLineMarker At Medway Norse: The prospect of at least 30% time savings by using a robot line marker compared to manual line marking – plus the resulting additional benefits in costs and labour resources – proved irresistible to Medway Norse, as the Kent-based grounds and facilities management specialist has become one of the first users of Rigby Taylor’s TinyLineMarker (TLM).

Launched at last year’s SALTEX exhibition, TLM can mark a full-size football pitch in just 20 minutes, compared to around 1.5 hours manually. And for Medway Norse, which has a grounds service remit that includes the maintenance of all of Medway Council’s grass playing surfaces, including 68 football pitches, “that will mean we’ll be freeing up our grounds team from line marking these pitches for at least two days a week”, says Colinda Le Gall, Operations Manager – Grounds.

“I’m being very conservative with these estimated savings, too, because I fully expect the rewards to be much greater!”

Colinda continues: “Also, as a result of needing just one person to mark the pitches using TLM – instead of two by conventional transfer wheel methods – the investment will also mean that the available resource will be able to be redeployed on other pitch maintenance tasks,” she says.

“So, for example, we will be able to carry out additional pitch maintenance all year round, rather than just the annual end-of-season renovations, and that will surely lead to better quality playing surfaces. It’s all about improving and adding services to users within the same budget model.”

The benefits of TLM don’t end there, either, says Colinda.

“Because TLM uses Rigby Taylor’s ready-to-use Impact paint [producing bright white lines that last longer than other paints], our operators will have virtually no contact with the paint either, as a flow tube is simply inserted into the paint container.

“So, we will also eliminate the need to both de-canter line marking paint from a 1,000-litre tank and mix it with water. That equates to further savings in time, labour and water, and it will make for a much cleaner, greener operation.”

Lightweight and easy to transport, TLM utilises the latest GPS technology with RTK receiver and antenna that connects with global satellites and mobile network connections. It takes the input of pitch line dimensions and multiple pitches via an App and re-positions them to best fit the site using Google Maps. Once stored, the lines are never lost, even if they disappear if a pitch is not used for any length of time.

Initial marking of a standard size football pitch takes less than 20 minutes – “our initial marking of 68 pitches used to take around four weeks”, says Colinda, “but will now take just one week” – including all perimeter lines, penalty boxes, the ‘D’, centre circle, corner angles and penalty spot all with just one touch on the tablet control. Even pitches with fixed post sockets can be marked.

TLM is able to mark football pitches (any length/width), and rugby union and league pitches as well as multi-lane athletic tracks, tennis, lacrosse and American football pitches, all with no need for formal measuring which is the big time saving.

TLM can just arrive on site and mark standard and bespoke shapes, which is often required for some smaller locations and events such as school sports days, fetes and even boot fairs, marking car parking on the fields.

“TLM operation is so simple,” she adds. “Our operators were very confident after just a few minutes of tuition on the tablet.”

Medway Norse – a joint venture with Medway Council and the Norse Group – has been watching robotised line marking developments for the past few years, says Colinda, “and we are confident that Rigby Taylor has arrived at the ultimate cost-effective and highly-efficient solution”.

She concludes: “While we also expect that TLM will eventually also be applied to the two grass tennis and the pair of cricket pitches we maintain [two bowls greens are also under Medway Norse’s wing], we are also confident that the expertise of our line marking and overall grounds maintenance will attract additional business, from local schools, sports clubs and our neighbouring councils”

For more information, visit: www.rigbytaylor.com

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Waveney Norse Goes Toro

in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Georgina Scott

Waveney Norse Goes Toro: Waveney Norse have made their first investment in Toro as part of a new grounds strategy to better meet the requirements of its core partner Waveney District Council and its growing customer base.

Operating as part of Norse Commercial Services, a major national supplier of facilities management services to the public and private sector, Waveney Norse previously used a tractor-drawn gang mower to maintain all sports fields and open spaces across the Waveney District in the East of England.

As Waveney Norse maintains a host of sites across the district’s 370.4km sq area, and with a wider area to cover thanks to their growing private customer-base, it was a good time to rethink the company’s grounds strategy. Central to this was changing from mowing with a tractor to a dedicated ride-on Toro T4240 cylinder mower.

Grounds operations manager, Richard Hackney, explains: “We have been lucky enough to win new work over a wide geographic area and driving a tractor long distances is inefficient in both manpower and fuel. The Toro mower solves this problem because we can simply fold up its wings and put it on a trailer. This will enable us to deliver best value even when our customers are further afield.”

Richard isn’t alone in his praise for the T4240, he says: “Our operator is very positive about the Toro’s manoeuvrability around obstacles, as the cutting units can be lifted and it has a smaller turning circle than the tractor.”

He adds: “Overall it’s a quick, efficient machine that provides a good quality cut. Downsizing to a ride-on mower also gives us flexibility for who can operate it. We have a 48-strong team and any of them could be easily trained to use it.”

The purchase was delivered with good service from Reesink sales representative Danny Lake who, Richard says, was very helpful in organising a demonstration at local Normanston Park.

Richard explains: “We haven’t traditionally used Toro, so wanted a demonstration to make sure it was right for us. We did consider an alternative supplier for this type of machine but had feedback from another company that, although their competitor machine was fit for purpose, they found it overdesigned, which led to more opportunities for issues to take place.

“This prompted us to review the market thoroughly and choose a robust, simple-to-use Toro mower that will deliver on our requirements. We are very pleased with our decision: the machine will enable us to continue to deliver highly professional, reliable grounds services to our customers at a best value price, no matter where they are based.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk