Wild Work Day with Suffolk Wildlife Trust

Jan 26, 2024

BTS Group helped keep heathland healthy during a Wild Work Day on 25 January 2024.  Support staff swapped laptops for loppers and spent the day clearing pine seedlings from Blaxhall Common. The day had double advantages: helping the Suffolk Wildlife Trust maintain an important natural site and contributing to employee wellbeing. Activities like this help with team building and offer the wellbeing benefits of enjoying the great outdoors. BTS encourages employees to suggest volunteering oppo...

BTS supports Wellbeing Group

Oct 17, 2023

Many thanks to the Victoria Wellbeing Group for inviting us for tea and cake at their newly created sensory garden at Victoria Surgery. BTS was pleased to donate a solar fountain and shade-loving plants to the group this summer, and it was great to see them in situ – as well as admiring the huge amount achieved by the group. The space looks wonderful and is in regular use by the hardworking staff at Victoria Surgery. The Wellbeing Group will resume gardening in the spring!  

bts Group – supporting the armed forces community

Aug 31, 2023

bts Group recently signed the Armed Forces Covenant pledge, the summary of which is: We commit to uphold the Armed Forces Covenant and support the Armed Forces Community. We recognise the contribution that Service personnel, both regular and reservist, veterans, and military families make to our organisation, our community and to the country. We’ve signed the pledge to acknowledge the unique challenges faced by employees and their families who have been – or who are still in &ndash...

Lights, ladders, action! bts Group clears vegetation from powerlines overni...

May 9, 2023

bts Group Needham cleared vegetation from powerlines in a late-night roadside shutdown at Red Lodge on 2-3 May.  Teams from bts and Tree Craft were on-site from 20:00 to 02:00. The distribution network operator shut down two spans on the A11, leaving them safe for our teams to clear. Arborists cut pines – which comprised the bulk of the job – to three metres below the conductors, and removed self-set poplars and an ash. The roadside location necessitated traffic management, ...

bts staff on Bat Training Day

Apr 11, 2023

Area Manager Ross Leeks, Contract Support Administrator, Frankie Tomlinson, and Surveyors George Farn and Jim Fielding O’Farrell, all staff on bts Group's UKPN contract, completed a bat training course with Anglian Ecology in March. This course trains participants to scope for bats to the new BS8596 standard. It teaches scoping and (non-specialist) surveying in woodland; including understanding foraging, connectivity, and habitats.  What are the benefits? Having staff with this t...

Sarah Marklove joins bts board of directors

Mar 8, 2023

Utility arboriculture firm bts Group Ltd welcomed a new director in early 2023. Sarah Marklove, who has worked for the business for around a decade, accepted the position after leading one of bts's major contracts for several years. On International Women’s Day, she shares her thoughts on women in arb.  Sarah started as Infrastructure Director on 1 February 2023. Her years as Senior Contract Manager set her up perfectly for the role, as she's learnt how the business ticks on all le...

CommUNITY Christmas - bts decorates trees

Nov 18, 2022

Christmas trees in Bury St Edmunds have been decorated with children’s self-portraits drawn onto eco-friendly wood slices. The miniature masterpieces were placed in high boughs by local tree surgery firm bts Group Ltd, on behalf of Bury Developments, ahead of the 17 November Christmas Lights Event.   bts Group arborists Clive Collins and Jason Webb withstood the November rain, using a mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) to safely reach the higher branches of four trees: two in t...

bts Group receives RoSPA Gold Health and Safety Award

Aug 29, 2022

Utility arboriculture firm bts Group Ltd has landed an internationally-recognised award for demonstrating top-tier health and safety standards in the workplace. bts Group has received a RoSPA Gold Health and Safety Award for its diligent work safeguarding staff and sub-contractors. RoSPA – The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents – operates by the motto “accidents don’t have to happen”. bts Group agrees, doing everything possible to mitigate risk in a dang...

Ash dieback - the danger to professionals - PDF

May 20, 2022

Ash Dieback: the danger to professionals

May 19, 2022

Ash dieback: the danger to professionals Trees infected with ash dieback are dangerous, even to experienced arborists. Know the risks and learn how to stay safe. Ash dieback, or Chalara, is devastating one of the UK’s most common tree species. Experts say that the disease will kill 80% of the UK’s ash trees in the next 50 years. We’ve written about this subject before from an ecological angle. This time we will focus more on the risk to tree workers. The BBC recently report...