Three cash handling and gold bullion centres in the UK have fencing on the principle of ‘hiding in plain sight’. The unidentified sites may look just like any ordinary industrial warehouse. Indeed, the Axiom fencing from the Wolverhampton-based manufacturer Zaun is the same as it has fitted on industrial sheds across Britain.
There the similarity ends. The gold bullion centres are guarded by hundreds of hidden cameras. For any intruder who still fancies their chances, electric fencing has been bolted to the back of the Axiom line, extending another 1.6m above.
Adapted vehicle gates allow access to the armoured vehicles that carry the cash and gold in and out of the facility. PAS 68 bollards, blockers and one-way ramps further restrict access.
PAS 68:2010 is the latest of BSi’s Publicly Available Specifications for vehicle security barriers, as a benchmark for Hostile Vehicle Mitigation equipment. It specifies the regime for products to be tested against. The physical security package amounts to approaching a quarter of a million pounds of perimeter protection for each of the three sites.
Zaun high security systems sales manager Chris Plimley said: ‘We get the widest range of commissions to keep safe assets that people value – from gold to critical national water and energy supply lines and global leaders to primary school children. Each requires the same assessment of risks, bespoke attention to detail and deciding the right balance between budget, aesthetics and how obvious the deterrent is made.’
And meanwhile an 8,300 mile round trip to a little-known but strategically critical island is what faces the fencing manufacturer. That’s the distance there and back from RAF Brize Norton to Ascension Island, part of a British Overseas Territory with St Helena and Tristan da Cunha under the sovereignty of the British Crown, in the South Atlantic just south of the Equator. Zaun, whose HQ is in the West Midlands, has been asked by Interserve to do a site survey for new gates and fencing at RAF Fuel Bowser Park on the island.
The MoD awarded Interserve an extension two years ago to its contract to deliver support services on the island until 2017 as part of a £300m single strategic UK-based management structure and bundled package of services for Ascension Island, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar.
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the South Atlantic, around 1,000 miles from the coast of Africa and 1,400 miles from the coast of South America.
The island hosts an RAF station with a US Air Force presence, a European Space Agency rocket tracking station, an Anglo-American signals intelligence facility and the BBC World Service Atlantic Relay Station. It was vital for the British military during the Falklands War. Ascension Island is also the site of one of five ground antennae that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System navigational system.
Zaun’s survey consists of erecting 150m of new fencing around Bowser Park and to design, make and fit vehicle and pedestrian access gates. The park has slightly inclined approaches at both ends, which combined with the position and size of the gates, suggests that the gates might need bespoking.
