The UK’s twelfth largest consultancy by turnover, Scott Wilson, has been bought by the US design firm URS for £218 million. URS is second in the ‘Engineering News Record’ list of top 500 design firms. Metric Views speculates that Scott Wilson’s metric know-how is crucial for URS in this acquisition.
UK Prominent Peaks tables and maps updated
A new release of the UK Prominent Peaks tables and maps is now available. This follows the announcement of survey results for Glyder Fawr in Snowdonia which demonstrate that it is more than one thousand metres high. Continue reading “UK Prominent Peaks tables and maps updated”
New metric “Super Mountain” revealed in Wales
A new metric “Super Mountain” was revealed by G & J Surveys at a press conference in Maentwrog, Snowdonia yesterday. The vast majority of the UK’s mountains with summits of over 1 000 metres are in the Scottish highlands with previously only four other summits – all in Snowdonia – confirmed as over this height. Glyder Fawr, previously recorded as 999 metres by Ordnance Survey has been measured as 1000.8 metres in height making it a “Super Mountain”. Continue reading “New metric “Super Mountain” revealed in Wales”
Southwark goes back to the 1980s
The London Borough of Southwark appears to relish its role as the setting for the BBC’s 1980s retro series Ashes to Ashes, which was filmed on location in the borough. Just a few hundred metres from filming locations, which were dressed to take off a quarter of a century and appear as they were in the 1980s, Southwark has been busy spending public money removing universally understood metric road signs and replacing them with imperial ones that fewer drivers will understand. Continue reading “Southwark goes back to the 1980s”
Labour leadership hopefuls quizzed on metrication
It is at least possible that one of the five candidates for the Labour leadership will be our next Prime Minister – so it would be helpful to know where each stands on the question of completing metrication. Here is the result (so far) of a small survey carried out by an individual Party member.
Continue reading “Labour leadership hopefuls quizzed on metrication”
Sign clutter campaign misses obvious target
The UK Metric Association (UKMA) welcomes today’s announcement by the government of an attack on unnecessary sign clutter, but believes that some obvious targets have been missed: in particular, the Department for Transport’s requirements for local authorities to use multiple obsolete units on our road signs.
Continue reading “Sign clutter campaign misses obvious target”
‘Rebalancing of the UK economy’ postponed?
Metric Views has learned that the coalition government may drop the proposed amendments to road traffic sign regulations, which would have required dual signage of height and width restrictions within four years and which would have achieved savings and improvements in efficiency for the UK economy in the long term.
Continue reading “‘Rebalancing of the UK economy’ postponed?”
A juicy story
A slogan appearing on the label of a bottle of apple juice leaves some of us guessing about its intended message. Continue reading “A juicy story”
Measuring, trading and manufacturing
Two questions from a reader have prompted thoughts about the impact on UK trade of the continued use of pound/inch units in the US, and about the future prospects for manufacturing industry. Continue reading “Measuring, trading and manufacturing”
DfT prefers imperial units to pedestrian safety
Signs indicating the emergency escape routes in tunnels are of critical importance to the safety of tunnel users, given the particular hazards of fire and smoke within tunnel environments. Sadly, the government’s irrational position on units of measure even extends to these safety critical signs, as illustrated by the different units being used by the same authority on adjacent tunnels.
Continue reading “DfT prefers imperial units to pedestrian safety”
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