Force for Change
Hundreds of soldiers returning to the UK from Germany have brand new en-suite rooms fitted with Eaton’s COPA clip-on plate wiring accessories. COPA was selected by Building Services Engineers, Lorne Stewart, for use in a Defence Estates programme to upgrade single living accommodation for service personnel. COPA accessories have a clip-on cover plate with no visible fixings.
Project SLAM (Single Living Accommodation Modernisation) is a ten-year programme to improve the standards of living accommodation for Army, Navy and Air Force personnel. The prime contractor is Debut Services Ltd, a joint venture company between, Bovis Lend Lease and Babcock. The project, which commenced in 2002, involves new and refurbished accommodation throughout England and Wales. The largest of these sites is at Catterick where 2,800 new bedrooms have recently been completed in a £330
million plan to develop the site as a ‘super-garrison’.
Lorne Stewart specified COPA accessories because they can be installed and tested without fitting the cover plates until the final stage of the installation. This means that other finishing trades can carry on their work with no risk of damaging the plates or splashing them with paint. Furthermore, the risk of theft is reduced.
A white cover plate has been selected for Project SLAM. Typical accessories in the rooms include lighting
switches, switched socket-outlets, spur connection units, TV/FM outlets and shaver sockets. Communal areas also have unswitched socket-outlets serving major appliances, and emergency lighting test switches.
Some of the new accommodation units are pre-fabricated off-site by Caledonian Building Systems Ltd of
Newark. Typical units comprise wings of eight single ensuite bedrooms with a shared utility room and common room. These are connected together to form up to 72-bedroom buildings. COPA accessories are ideal for this application because the basic accessories can be installed by Lorne Stewart electricians at
Caledonian’s factory site in Newark but the cover plates are installed later at site.
The COPA accessories are being supplied to the project via branches of Edmundson Electrical and Newey & Eyre.
Eaton’s contribution to Project SLAM was recognised at the annual Project SLAM Charity Awards Ceremony held by Lorne Stewart in October at which the company won the ‘Best Electrical Manufacturer of the Year’ Award.
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