Testing RDS Lite for stability under mob attack at Zaun HQ in Wolverhampton
A temporary high-security fence will be installed for the first time in Birmingham this month for the Conservative Party Autumn Conference.
Zaun Ltd, which has supplied temporary high-security fencing to the main parties’ autumn conferences for a number of years, has developed a light version of its multi-award winning Rapid Deployable System (RDS).
Zaun will also supply two special CCTV bases – one with a narrow-view camera and the other with a wide-view – to try to reduce further the number of officers needed to police events of this nature.
RDS saves up to 90% of police time, causing The Home Office to buy 5,500 metres of it, including access portals, turnstiles and gates, to add to the National Barrier Asset.
The new RDS Lite employs recycled plastic blocks for anchoring the fence line in favour of the massive concrete blocks that help to give its parent RDS system a PAS 68 rating. Zaun stacks ten 15kg recycled plastic blocks in a 2×5 configuration into two purpose-built 15kg brackets, held together by four long tubular pins, to anchor each fence post.
The configuration means blocks can be carried up and downstairs and onto canal footpaths, which would have been impossible with the 750kg concrete blocks that are placed into position by a forklift truck for RDS.
The innovation follows a request from the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) to develop temporary crowd perimeter protection that can be carried by hand and deployed in places that fork lift trucks cannot access and where structural restrictions on weight loading exist.
RDS Lite was mob tested last month at Zaun’s West Midlands headquarters, attended by CPNI representatives, and will be trialled on canal footpaths in Birmingham at this autumn’s Conservative Conference – its fourth in seven years in the city with up to 14,000 delegates expected to attend.
Zaun founder and director Alastair Henman said: ‘RDS was already unique in providing hostile vehicle mitigation up to 30mph in a rapidly-deployed temporary fencing solution with no below ground foundations.
‘We integrated advanced electronics and top end CCTV as an add-on to existing security arrangements to help better cover specific strategic positions on the perimeter.
‘This latest version of our celebrated RDS literally lifts temporary high security perimeter protection to new heights.’
It means the autumn party conference season will have stimulated innovation in temporary high-security fencing for the third year.
In autumn 2012, Zaun installed its RDS for the first time at party conferences, winning police accolades, capturing the Security Innovation Award 2013 and becoming a double award winner at the Counter Terror Expo Excellence Awards.
A year later, Zaun incorporated the latest Video Content Analysis system using high-performance Pan Tilt and Zoom cameras into RDS and pioneered the remote policing initiative when the Conservatives hit Manchester.
