25
Mar
2014
By Calvin at 09:18 GMT, 10 years ago
On Sky News this morning the guests discussing the newspapers picked out a headline in the Mirror concerning a severe shortage of fencing panels. The upshot is that with the recent storms, an increase in house building, wet forests hampering cutting and the start of the DIY season demand for fencing panels has shot up. This combination of factors has seen the price of a standard fence panel rise from £20 to £30. Some DIY outlets have such a severe shortage that they’ve withdrawn their sale to the public and are only supplying the trade.
The newspaper suggests that the black market price for fence panels is around £80 and I rather suspect that if you were to part with that sort of money during the current shortage you could end up with someone else’s panels possibly stolen to order the night before!
With improving weather and more people being employed to meet the demand I’m sure the shortfall in panels will soon be met. In the meantime, please take a fresh look at your fence panels to see how they’ve been secured to their posts.
The panels most at risk will be those that slide in between concrete posts and which border public open spaces, highways and alleyways.
If you have this arrangement make sure each panel is fixed to the next one using a metal bracket or, if the concrete posts have pre-formed screw holes make sure you use them. All the fixings should be on the inner face of the fence for obvious reasons. It makes sense to do this anyway to stop burglars lifting a fence panel to get into your garden.
Further advice about fencing can be found at the links below, which include a link to our Directory member, Jacksons Fencing, who have one of the most (if not the most) comprehensive websites for fencing information and advice on the net.
Jacksons Fencing: http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/directory/l50/jacksons-fencing/
Further advice: http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/preventing-crime-in-the-garden-outbuildings-and-garage/492/garden-boundaries-fences-and-defensive-plants/
