Newt Fencing – Go Reusable!

By James B Lloyd, Managing Director, Herpetosure Ltd.

James Lloyd

Newt Fencing – Commercial Teams; you’ll need a calculator for this!

Frankly, who in the industry cares about the latest newt fencing innovations; it’s dead money, low priority and the last thing on your mind! This said, installing newt and other ecological fencing on construction sites costs the industry millions every year – and at a time where best value and dynamic working is key, commercial teams should ponder these numbers!

Every year around 400,000 metres of newt and ecological fencing is installed on sites across the UK, creating an estimated fencing bill of £3million a year, paid for by developers, house builders and civil engineers – over 5 years that’s a massive £15million.

Of the 400km installed each year, less than 20% is permanent; meaning 320km or £2.4million is installed on a temporary basis, remaining in the ground for between 30 days and 2 years.

Of this temporary fencing, 65% is the flimsy timber and plastic we all drive past; like that seen between junctions 27 and 28 of the M25. This fencing has no residual value; it can’t be reused or recycled, in fact developers even find themselves with huge disposal cost on their hands – that’s 208km of ecological fencing product written off by the industry every year.

Then there are repair costs to add into the mix – on average you can expect to replace 5% of all installed timber and plastic ecological fencing every 6 months. On 208km that could be as much as 31,200 metres over two years with a cost of around £250,000.

So what’s the way forward?

Buy robust specialist products that can be used again and again; there is always a short term premium but lets look at how it stacks up.

If all 320km of temporary ecological fencing that was installed in 2009 were reusable and in place for 12 months. The estimated temporary fencing bill would sit around £4million. However, if this were to be removed and reinstalled for the following 4 years, the estimated yearly cost would fall to £1.5million.

Over 5 years, excluding repair or disposal costs, using timber and plastic ecological fencing would cost the industry £12millon, compared to the £10million cost of using a reusable product.

And there are even more benefits, these products come with guarantees, some like Herpetosure® fencing are so robust and durable, they have even been proven to reduce on going maintenance by up to 98% – that equates to another £245,000 saved by the industry every two years and £600,000 every five years.

For those of us who are serious about sustainability; using these specialist products will remove hundreds of tonnes of landfill material every year, producing zero product waste – the estimated price-tag on this is an enormous £300,000 over 5 years.

Every national house builder, developer and civil engineer is guaranteed to save money by working this way – as an industry, saving nearly £3million every 5 years.

If companies are to cash in from this forward planned approach, commercial teams will need to tackle this at regional and national levels to maximise the benefit and achieve best value.