US President Donald
Trump slept secure behind a ring of steel on his recent State visit to the
United Kingdom – thanks to a premier British fencing systems manufacturer.
Trump stayed behind an
eight-foot-high security fence of Zaun Limited’s multi award-winning Rapid
Deployment System (RDS), developed with partner Highway Care Security, that
surrounded the house and gardens of the US Ambassador's residence Winfield
House in Regent's Park.
Wolverhampton-based
Zaun first created RDS, which forms part of the National Barrier Asset, for
political conferences and major outdoor events.
The security fences
were erected ahead of the President's controversial three-day state visit to
join the celebrations of the 75th
anniversary of D-Day.
Around 10,000 police
officers were on duty at a cost to the UK taxpayer of £18m and parts of the
London park were closed.
Thousands of
protesters gathered to demonstrate against his visit, including the inflatable
baby blimp which flew during his last visit to London.
RDS has become the
firm favourite with police for securing party conferences since it saved up to
90% of police time and proved its rapid-install-with-high-security credentials
during a whistle-stop tour from Brighton to Birmingham via Manchester for the
three main UK political parties’ autumn conferences in 2012 and at the G8
summit in Northern Ireland in May 2013.
After the Labour
autumn conference in 2012, Inspector Steve Worth, Specialist Operations Branch,
Conference Planning Unit, Greater Manchester Police, said: “RDS is now firmly
the preferred product for the delivery of security operations for party political
conferences we police, fully supported by The Home Office.”
Since then, RDS has
won a number of security innovation awards, including the Security Innovation
Award and the Counter Terror Expo Excellence Awards for Best Physical Security
Innovation.
A new QuickFit post
system halves the manpower for installing RDS, with a team of two able to
install a 30m run in just half an hour in trials.
Opposing wedge-shape
protrusions on the posts and clamp bar serve as a pincer system to clamp the
fence panels to the posts. They are locked in place with a single bolt
fixing per post with the head of the bolt completely encapsulated inside a tube
so it cannot be removed.
