South Cambridgeshire Local Authority, yay/nay?

[Tony L]

12 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

The building industry is not full of nice folk.

This has been my experience so far.

 

12 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

I'll catch the fu.ker and have his house off him if I can

 

Good for you.  Show no mercy.

[saveasteading]

12 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

designs that I've checked and found them wanting as they are incompetent and downright dangerous. 

Sadly I'm not surprised.

Eg. I was once seconded to one of the big UK  consultants who were engaged by one of the world's biggest (US).

I was handed stuff to design that I had only studied af student level. I thought "why me" then gradually realised that the place was full of agency sourced designers and I knew as much, maybe more, than most of them.

It was basically " design this middle eastern new city".

I did ask at higher level and was told not to worry as it will all be redone later.

I've looked on Google Earth and it seems to be in place.

 

On the positive side though, this became part of a spontaneous and rigorous questioning at my Professional Interview. It was clear that this was also a concern to my interviews, both high in Engineering circles, so perhaps it is unusual.

Plus I've engaged perhaps 5 Stuctural Engineering practices over the years. No doubts, good teamwork.

 

The thing is, @Gus Potter, if they are found wanting what will happen to them? They aren't in professional bodies that could sanction them, so prob a strict talking to and small fine, and then a change of business name.

 

 

[Gus Potter]

On 08/05/2026 at 12:59, saveasteading said:

The thing is, @Gus Potter, if they are found wanting what will happen to them? They aren't in professional bodies that could sanction them, so prob a strict talking to and small fine, and then a change of business name.

This is an important question. 

 

To address this I go back to the HSE act 1974. This was a vital piece of legilation as it made breach of the act a criminal offence. Jumping quickly ahead we had the CDM regulations 2015 which in part also reinforced the statutory stiffness. In other words it means you can't go about desinging or carrying out work if you are not competant to do so.

 

In the UK It's got little to do with if you are a chartered member of x, y and z. All that does under UK law is to help you demonstrate competancy. Competancy can be demonstrated in different ways. The law is a good law as it is all emcompassing. There are many Engineers and Designers (lots of these work for and are involved in Contracting where we are looking for experience and competancy) they are not chartered but many also have a deep understanding of boots on the ground Civic responsibility. So no, being Chartered does not make you better or more qualified, it just shows you have attained something, through a process that demonstrates your competancy. That is the law. 

 

I refer to a well known goetech book, its the go to bible. The guy that wrote it was a director of a massive Scottish Structural Engineering Consultancy.. he had an HND in Civil Engineering, he wasn't a chartered SE or anything. But many well known Chartered Engineers were glad to get a mention. 

 

The reasoning behind the law was to capture all the tom, dick and harrys.. say dodgy plumbers and moonlighting "Architects" or tech designers, builders that thought they could do design that were desinging stuff that was unsafe to build or later compromise the safety of a building. 

 

The actual problem is that the law as it stands is not being enforced. All the tools are there that would allow our courts to send people to prison for statutory breaches of the law.

 

Next is the Civil Law aspect. Now to practice well you also should to hold indemnity insurance. If you employ anyone then you must have employers liability insurance as that is a statutory requirement, public liability insurance is an optional extra. PI insurance is also and extra believe it or not!

 

Technically you can practice in the UK with no PI insurance! It's totally irresponsible but some who moonlight do so.. I hold 2.0 million PI insurance as an SE and Architectural designer which is a lot more than most small Architects and small SE's for example. My cover is wide ranging. 

 

So what needs to happen is that the law as it is stands needs to be enforced for everyone that does any kind of design work. We need to see some prison sentences dished out from the local plumber right up to the Architect and SEs when they put folks safety at risk.  

 

 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Gus Potter

[saveasteading]

7 hours ago, Gus Potter said:

prison sentences

That doesn't even happen for gross incompetence with lives lost.

To me, the PI I had to pay was firstly an assurance for every client, and secondly it was in case of any inadvertent error by my business or a sub-contractor or engaged specialist designer.

It didn't occur to me that we, or anyone,  might be incompetent... ie only do what you know and do it well.

Part of the training is to appreciate all aspects and know enough that you don't dabble.

Eg a surgeon doing hip surgery knows a lot about cardiology but doesn't dabble with heart surgery.

 

Fundamentally a dabbling and overconfident builder  or a rogue designer probably goes out of business after a very big mistake, but some poor client is left with the consequences.