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Wetter walls and dry rot has resulted from a spate of thefts at a church in Lancashire. St John the Divine is riddled with the rot after damp has set in through areas where protective lead was stolen. The vicar, Father Keith Henshall, explained it is worse when thefts go unnoticed. He said: "We haven't realised the lead has gone and we've only become aware of it as the walls have got wetter and that has undoubtedly exacerbated our problems with dry rot." For security protection of your premises or site, a Tensor Access system is the solution. Tensor Access Lite is one of our proven range of Windows™ based Access Control products. With Tensor Access Lite and Tensor's T149x scanners, you can control most standard types of internal and external electronic and magnetic door releases. The scanner controller is the unit to which all Access Control equipment within your Tensor Access Lite network is connected. A Tensor T32xx clocking station can have up to twelve T8424 scanner controllers attached to it.  

A convenience store was burgled twice in three days, with an employee saying he felt sure it had been targeted by professionals. Shift manager at the shop in Swindon, Wiltshire, Nathan Humphries, said: “They came through the back door and must have used a crowbar to prise open the shutter. I’m sure they were professionals.” He added: “We were worried about our payroll information but we’ve been told they shouldn’t be able to access it.” Whether it is a retail store, site or office, your business property can be protected by Tensor’s access control products. These range from simple door and registration point control, through to a fully computerised global networked Access Control System. Further options include a Visitor Management System, a low cost PC based visitor pass production system that controls, records and monitors the arrivals and departures of an organisation’s visitors and contractors. Reception and gatehouse staff can quickly check the identity or enter the details of visitors, and print their personalised ID pass, which includes a digital photo.  

Parachute Regiment soldiers returning from tours of Afghanistan face having a special bonus payment cut as defence bosses are looking to reduce costs. Paratroopers are most likely to be affected since the Army wants to decrease the number of soldiers fully trained to parachute. The Daily Telegraph newspaper says it could mean a pay cut of up to a tenth for the lowest paid private. The newspaper also claims as many as 4,000 individuals could be affected. Using Tensor’s comprehensive time and attendance software, including WinTA Lite, your firm’s payroll department can create a wide range of daily working patterns (shifts), with either fixed or flexitime rules. These can run past midnight, making night shifts simple to define. Bonuses and other payments are easily created. Overtime is easily monitored with up to four different pay bands in each shift. Bands are selected based on the time and the number of hours worked. Periodic Overtime is used to calculate overtime on weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis.  

Police have been swift to arrest four people following a robbery at a petrol station earlier in the week. The crime happened on Monday evening (May 30) at the filling station at Flintshire in North Wales. A minor amount of cash was taken in the incident and a cashier was taken to hospital with minor injuries. Police are urging witnesses to come forward. Tensor offers a top of the range access control system which gives protection to your site. When a person attempts to pass through an access point, the T32xx access control unit compares the individual’s security profile with that of the access point. Security profiles are based upon the day, time of day, and the security threat level of the attempted access. You can upgrade Tensor Access to include digital evidence quality CCTV technology. Further additions to your Tensor Access system may also include automatic number plate recognition – with the option to add a comprehensive visitor monitoring ID badge system – to enhance your security solution.  

Almost 20 tonnes of metal intended for the new grandstand for a top military display has been stolen. The girders were to be part of the stand at the Edinburgh Tattoo, and the theft took place between Sunday and Monday (May 29 and 30, 2011). Police have suggested the theft was made because steel prices have remained high, and the huge amount of that metal was why thieves targeted the two trailers carrying the girders. Using the latest .NET PC-based access control software, Tensor technology is the first step towards protecting your business premises from theft. From the control of a single internal door through to a fully computerised, multi-site network of control points, a Tensor Access system is the solution. It begins with low cost 1 to 4 door access control which linked together can control up to 128 doors from one PC. Tensor Access is modular in design, and so is able to be adapted and extended with extra features like visitor control and monitoring systems.  

In a drive to save money in the civil service and public sector, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles announced that the Audit Commission will be scrapped. Mr Pickles said the body had "lost its way." As an example of his displeasure, he vetoed the appointment of a new chief executive for the Commission; and was angry that the Commission splashed out on a corporate event – all at a cost of nearly £250,000 to taxpayers. Tensor installs Time and Attendance technologies including biometric fingerprinting, smart cards and key fobs so that businesses or bodies can save money on their clocking bottom line. Whichever software system you choose, whether it’s the basic WinTA Lite or advanced WinTA Enterprise, you can be assured that you will receive a simple to use, highly secure way of monitoring your employees' time and attendance clocking data. The WinTA package also has the facility to export reports as either plain text or CSV files, making interfacing with all popular payroll packages simple. The Tensor WinTA Lite package includes a T32xx Clocking Station and 50 smart cards.  

A former Scotland Yard commander has said a heist on two of the capital's most upmarket shops may have been an inside job. Raiders smashed windows at Omega and De Beers jewellery stores in the Royal Exchange shopping centre in the City of London on Saturday night. Ex-Flying Squad officer John O'Connor told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The villains did not drive up on the off-chance they could get through security gates. There is always the suspicion that they had somebody on the inside." Tensor’s technology is ideal for the current security climate with its access control range. Automatic barriers can be installed at the entrance to your site and enable you to securely control vehicle access. At this point you are able to allow or deny access to anyone visiting your site. Barriers can be controlled remotely, from your reception area; or locally, from a guard post next to the barrier. Smart cards can be used to automatically open the gate when an authorised member of staff needs to get in. Accurate records of any visitors are stored within the monitoring software.  

CCTV genuinely helps the police with their enquiries. For instance, camera footage has aided their investigation of a missing office worker in Edinburgh, which has resulted in Lothian and Borders Police launching a murder inquiry. The cameras show 38-year-old Suzanne Pilley just outside her office in Thistle Street on the day she went missing. The force has employed unusual methods in order to jog people’s memories. These have included a large screen placed in St Andrew Square, which showed CCTV footage of her on the way to her office. A massive array of digital CCTV cameras and recording systems is available from CCTV Surveillance Ltd for all budgets and all needs. These include infra-red, which have the capability of seeing in ‘absolute darkness’ and are ideal for town centre alleyways; and bullet cameras, which are cameras mounted in a cylindrical or bullet casing. They are perfect for situations where space and price are key factors because of their compact size and inbuilt lens. Our cameras are evidence quality so you will be helping the police to fight crime.

A £37 billion deficit needs to be cleared by the Ministry of Defence, although the Government is targeting the civil service mandarins rather than troops. The Minister in charge, Liam Fox, said it would be "difficult and painful" to deal with this "dangerous deficit", but pledged a stop to the "endless salami slicing" of military budgets. Dr Fox ruled out any merger of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF but has hinted there were still disagreements between the MoD and the Treasury over who will pay the £20 billion cost for replacing Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent. Savings can be made at your work environment via Tensor’s proven range of Windows™ based time and attendance products, from simple collection of employees' clocking data, through to extensive labour hours analysis. Our software has lots of standard analysis and viewing screens which enable you to analyse, approve and audit clocking transactions made by employees. A report can also be saved in a variety of formats or even transferred to other Windows packages. This is a quick and easy process once users become familiar with Windows.

Questions will be asked about security procedures because an armed robber absconded for a second time after he was sent to an open prison. Twenty-six year-old David Patmore had already escaped custody from the dock seven years ago. "Open prisons have existed since 1936 and they are the most effective means of ensuring prisoners are tested in the community before they are released,” a Ministry of Justice spokesman said. "To release prisoners directly from a closed prison without the resettlement benefits of the open estate would undoubtedly lead to higher levels of re-offending.” As well as being experts in Access Control, Tensor offers its Prison Pass computer based pass system for registering each visitor, both on and off site, to improve security. It allows HM Prison Service Officers to quickly check the identity of visitors. A photograph taken by a digital or eyeball camera is printed on a bar-coded pass using a high speed printer so each visitor is easily identified. At controlled monitor points, the visitor pass badge is swiped, thus verifing that the correct person is passing through.  

Quangos – short for quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation – are seen by many, including the current administration, as a waste of money. Consequently the government, keen to make savings, has abolished many of them, putting many thousands of public sector workers out of a job. Half of these bodies in the department of health have gone, as confirmed by the minister concerned, Andrew Lansley. Doctors and nurses' groups have criticised the decision to axe organisations like the Health Protection Agency. Tensor can make savings for employers and organisations with its state of the art time and attendance clocking systems. Under this regime, employees clock in and out using smart cards, the data from which is used to create a wide range of daily working patterns (shifts), with either fixed or flexitime rules. These can run past midnight, making night shifts simple to define. The WinTA Lite software has a familiar Windows™ interface, providing quick and easy access to information. A range of output styles let you export to web pages, spreadsheets or as simple text files.  

The lack of a public toilet in many town centres and leisure areas has a hidden social cost – it effectively makes older people a prisoner in their own homes. Age UK, who used to be called Help the Aged, published a paper entitled "Nowhere to Go", which highlights this matter. Twelve per cent of older people (1.2 million) feel trapped in their own home, it says. Furthermore, about 100,000 never go out. The organisation suggests that lack of public toilets is a major factor in this, and the situation will worsen as toilet provision continues to decline. In order to aid the increase in public toilets, Tensor plc’s toilet turnstiles enable public conveniences to be built in towns to a good standard by local councils and provide the finance for their upkeep – they do cost money to maintain and clean. The durable coin operated turnstiles are adaptable, so that the coin box can be positioned to the most accessible point. They then permit entry with a small charge. Tensor’s turnstiles can cope with high volumes of traffic, while causing minimal disruption. For more information on a Tensor turnstile, barrier or gate, please contact our sales team. Half height and full height versions are available.