News

A massive power cut forced shops, offices and units in Sussex to close down as more than 1,500 customers of UK Power Networks were affected. A spokesperson from the company apologised for the incident after swiftly restoring power, and added: “UK Power Networks worked as quickly and safely as possible to restore power to 1,574 customers in Horsham, whose supplies were interrupted…following a fault on the high voltage electricity network.” The fault was due to an explosion at a nearby electrical sub-station. Tensor includes in its Access Control, Security and clocking equipment a highly configurable Fire Roll Call report printing facility for office evacuation purposes. Safety is ensured when Tensor clocks and Access Control units are linked into your company's fire alarm system to trigger a fast, automated fire evacuation list. From the most basic ‘on site’ reporting, to the individual tracking of employee movement between fire zone or fire assembly points, Tensor’s Fire Roll Call can be tailored to meet any company safety requirements.  

Glasgow Caledonian University replied to criticisms of its management pay, saying that 70% of the university's highest paid staff were academics. Glasgow Caledonian Combined Union Committee (CUC) had highlighted salary figures from the university's annual accounts and said that since 2006, 373 teaching and support jobs had been lost mostly through an extended voluntary redundancy scheme. The CUC added that over the same period higher paid staff, who earn more than £70,000 per year, had increased from 13 to 41. Tensor’s unbeatable time and attendance networks, for example WinTA Enterprise, offer comprehensive user-definable working patterns, rosters and shifts, including annualised hours and flexi patterns. Contactless smart cards are used to operate your time and attendance, access control and visitor monitoring systems. Each card reader transmits a 125 KHz frequency field (the electromagnetic field), which is picked up by an aerial in the smart card. The smart card microchip, is a passive device which holds a unique factory encoded ID number that cannot be duplicated, making it very secure indeed.  

An investigation by the BBC has found organised crime gangs are behind more than half of all shoplifting in the UK. The biggest shoplifting team is believed to be run by one of Scotland's most notorious crime family, making millions in the past year on this activity alone. The BBC probe found that half of all shoplifting is now committed by professional steal-to-order gangs. The crime of shoplifting has soared up over the past year by nearly 20%, costing retailers almost £5bn. The T3512 is a one door smart card access control system that has everything you need for controlling access through a single door and is suitable for all types of businesses. It comprises a T3511 controller, the latest .NET PC based Access Control multi-lingual software, magnetic door release, push button, break glass and 10 Smart Cards. It features early warning LED's, audible alerts, tamper detection. It also adheres to international security standards applicable to Access Control systems; EN50133 Parts 1, 7 and 2; GW18, PC79 and DD243I2002.  

Operation Serenity sees British Transport Police officers patrolling stations across Greater Manchester and on problematic routes and services to deter trouble makers. They are particularly concentrating on retail theft and anti-social behaviour at Bolton’s main train station which will have CCTV cameras added for the first time as part of a major revamp. Inspector Michelle Wedderburn said of the operation: “The week of action is designed to tackle anti-social behaviour at the early stages, before problematic behaviour is able to escalate.” A full range of digital CCTV equipment, including body, bullet, covert and dome cameras – plus monitors and software – are available from Tensor’s associates CCTV Surveillance Ltd to protect your premises. Body cameras are supplied in more conventional CCTV bodies. We sell body cameras from all major manufacturers and can configure a system exactly to your requirements. Evidence quality digital CCTV body cameras require a lens to be attached to them and these generally have to be bought separately, but this allows you to choose the best lens for your needs.  

A Liberal Democrat amendment was agreed upon by Bolton Council in a tempestuous budget meeting where hundreds of public service jobs were cut. Cllr Roger Hayes, Lib Dem leader, put forward the amendment which included reducing the number of the Executive from 10 to seven, reducing members’ allowances by five to 10 per cent depending on responsibility, and going back to a slimmed down committee system. Other methods employed to slash £41 million from the budget included stopping the council’s Scene newspaper. Tensor's WinTA networked time and attendance systems and personnel software saves your organisation time and money. Employees clock in on the fastest throughput time available using their contactless smart cards at the clocking stations, at which they can book jobs and absences. The software can create multiple shift patterns available per day via the AutoSelect Groups function. The WinTA system will select the most appropriate shift depending on when an employee starts work. If you move an employee's shift, WinTA will automatically assign the correct shift to the employee.  

A council has come under fire for preventing people from using its town hall toilets at the same time as it persuaded more businesses to open up their own facilities. A sign warning people away from ‘spending a penny’ at the town hall was quickly taken down after the authority realised an employee had mistakenly banned people from entering. At the same time Ealing Council announced its Community Toilet Scheme has been extended to business premises in West Ealing. Councils and private companies can continue to employ toilet facilities for members of the public via the installation of coin operated Tensor Toilet Turnstiles. Glass Turnstiles will give you all the benefits of controlling access to your toilet facilities, yet fit seamlessly and elegantly into any high-status environment where appearance is equal to functionality. Allowing optimum pedestrian throughput in an elegant, sophisticated style, the glass turnstiles are an essential element for any lobby environment. They can cope with high traffic volumes and with severe operating conditions.

Forces in other parts of the world are following the lead of a business crime strategy which has won international praise. Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce will provide administrative support for a police-involved scheme which advises businesses on fighting crime. Scott Knowles, the Chamber's deputy chief executive, believes the public-private partnership is unique to Notts. He said: "It is absolutely crucial that firms do all they can to protect their premises, equipment, product holdings, staff and customers.” Tensor can aid firms realise that aim with our comprehensive choice of smart card access control, door and registration point control, visitor control and security devices. Access Control profiles are easily created or customised to suit your particular site, and can be varied minute-by-minute. An anti pass back facility limits the same card being used by more than one person, thus tightening control on who gains access to your premises. A near-real time graphical display shows doors being opened or closed, those with alarm status set and those with forced entry.  

It may seem strange for a profession to be recommended a pay rise of almost a quarter in these austere times, but that is the case for Scottish councillors according to an independent review of their salaries. The Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee says their increased workload justifies the rise. The total pay bill would increase from about £22.8 million to £28.3 million per year. The report argued this sum must be seen in the context of councils’ £10.9 billion revenue budget. WinTA Lite is the latest in Tensor’s proven range of complete Windows™ based time and attendance products which meet your firm’s clocking and payroll requirements. The WinTA Lite software allows the creation of many daily working patterns, with either fixed or flexitime rules; plus overtime, and paid and unpaid breaks. WinTA Lite stores information on up to 1000 production or department jobs. Using a smart card or key fob, employees book time against these jobs to produce a fully costed analysis and breakdown of time spent on each one.  

Business Secretary Vince Cable said after business had been concluded on the £291 million sale of a steel plant: "Coming just over a year after the plant was mothballed, it is a tribute to both companies involved – Tata Steel and SSI. I welcome the return of steelmaking to this historic steel site later this year.” Mr Cable was referring to a deal which should secure 700 jobs following months of negotiations involving Thai company SSI and Tata Steel's Teesside Cast Products. If your company is expanding, moving to a new site or taking on workers, you need a comprehensive time and attendance payroll system which works over multiple sites. WinTA Enterprise is the multi-user, networked, multi-site Time and Attendance, system intended for larger companies. It can store up to 2000 employees on a single Time & Attendance clock, to which extra scanners may be attached for Access Control, Job Booking, and Job Costing. WinTA Enterprise operates both the T32xx and T256x clocking stations and can record employee details for an unlimited number of people.

Raiders have hit a church for a third time in as many months after taking advantage of the high black market prices for metal. Lead was stolen on all occasions. Property steward Ken Pennells arrived at the West London church to see the thieves had struck yet again. He said: “My reaction was unprintable. We're looking at improving security, CCTV cameras and things like that, we just didn't expect the thieves to come back so quickly.” CCTV tracking, secure sliding gates and barriers are just some of the securing devices Tensor can deliver to your organisation in order to protect your vulnerable site. Static or automatic bollards provide a genuine deterrent and the automatic ones fully integrate with our smart card and biometric access control systems. With a range of styles and designs, your bollards are available in any RAL colour as a special order at low prices. Our bollards have a range of uses, including protecting vulnerable points like corners of buildings or deterring ram-raiders.  

A minister has slammed ‘cheerleading development officers’ and similar jobs not part of traditional 'front line local services, which have been calculated to make up a quarter of public services. Local Government Minister Bob Neill said: "These figures reveal the explosion in town hall jobs and bureaucracy under Labour and reinforce the need for some councils to start cutting out middle management." He continued that getting rid of these jobs “will ensure local authorities can protect front-line services." Does your organisation feel bloated or inefficient? Tensor’s time and attendance clocking networks can save your company money as our smart card operated systems offer the fastest throughput possible. All Tensor smart cards and key fobs use the same well-proven and reliable RF (Radio Frequency) reading technology. This gives a consistent read range which is unaffected by most external conditions. The factory encoded ID code cannot be duplicated, therefore it is very secure. Cards have no battery, thus usually can be read an infinite number of times.

Payments to local shops and businesses have been proposed as part of a council project to maintain public toilet provision. Where a pub, shop or other premises can open its ‘WC’ facilities to the public, the nearest local authority toilet at Highland Council would be shut down. The Scottish council wants to widen the project to save money on its bottom line. It currently spends more than £1.2m a year on its 115 public toilets. Tensor's turnstiles offer improved security and extended flow capacity as well as smart card and coin operating options, the latter raising much-needed revenue to keep the toilet open. Coupled with a set of smart cards, flow capacity is significantly increased compared with any swipe card system, as the card is read in under ¼ second and does not have to be removed from a wallet or purse. Without compromising the safety of those who use the turnstile, speed and reliability are provided even during rush hour periods. Also available as a double half height turnstile, your throughput can be doubled.