Context

St Michaels village recreation ground near Tenterden has a children’s play area, skate park, public toilets, and a large green used for a variety of sports, activities and events all year round.

After an enquiry from Tenterden Town Council in 2013, Jacksons installed 65m of 1m-high Anti-Trap Bow Top fencing and 3 matching single-leaf gates around the play area.

The fencing provides a safe enclosure for children to play independently and keeps dogs and other park users separate from children in the play area. With the recreation ground situated off of the busy A28, a fenced area was essential to keep children from accidentally leaving the play area and going near the road.

The fencing was supplied in Blue RAL 5010 polyester powder coating, and the gates in Yellow RAL 1018, after being hot dip galvanised. The different-coloured gate is an inclusive design that provides a contrasting colour, making the entry and exit point for the play area highly visible and easily identifiable for children and visually-impaired users.

The combination of coatings also provides a highly effective barrier to rust. In addition, 46m of Jacksons stock fencing was installed alongside a double-leaf timber Uni gate.

Outcome

Over ten years later, the fencing and gates are still standing strong and could almost pass as being new, showing no signs of weathering or corrosion. Due to the processes Jackson's employs in the creation of its fencing and gates and the raw materials selected, they are protected from rot, insect attack and rust. In addition, Jackson's supply them with a 25 year guarantee.

Requirement

In 2018, a new building was constructed next to the toilet facilities on the green, complete with solar panels and water butts to recycle rainwater, making the building as eco-friendly as possible.

The building is a designated maintenance facility, storing groundskeeping equipment and machinery. These tools and easy access storage are essential in helping the village keep up its assignment as a quaint, pastoral village.

To secure the boundary of the new maintenance building and prevent theft and vandalism, new fencing and gates were required.

Solution

Seeing first-hand the quality and longevity of Jacksons’ fencing and gates, and wanting to choose another sustainable solution, Tenterden Town Council made no hesitation to contact Jacksons Fencing again.

Euroguard mesh fencing

Over 80m of Jackson's EuroGuard® Regular fencing and two 4.9m-wide EuroGuard® Flatform double-leaf gates were installed by Jackson's team.

Due to the uneven ground level, the fencing panels were cut down and stepped to accommodate the slope.

EuroGuard mesh fencing and gates are Galfan® zinc alloy coated for superior protection against rust and corrosion. The Council opted to have the fencing and gates powder-coated Black RAL 9005, providing a smart appearance.

Designed to reduce vandalism

EuroGuard Regular is ideal for this application as, by design, its large mesh apertures allow good visibility from both sides of the fence. With a history of vandalism at the toilet facilities, it was essential that the CCTV was not blocked from capturing footage.

EuroGuard also has Jackson's unique mesh security clips, which tightly secure panels to posts with tamper-proof fixings on the secure side of the fence. They are specifically designed to reduce vandalism and the risk of panels being removed to create a gap in the perimeter, through which to remove items.

This is a common issue with mesh fencing which uses front-facing clips and standard screws, as is demonstrated in the video below.