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Do NOT get cheated by an unscrupulous electrician!

alan — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:19:01 +0000

Do NOT get cheated by an unscrupulous electrician!

I went to a old ladies house recently and was absolutely horrified by the fact that she was about to have a very expensive, not to mention very invasive rewire on a bungalow. This lady was obviously in a late 70s and I’ve been a widow for almost 10 years and she was exactly the kind of fodder for a conman. In actual fact I’ve been called to replace the battery in the burglar alarm panel, but whilst I was there we got chatting and she told me that the power had been switched off because the lights were fusing and she’d had an electrician. He had told her that the wiring was substandard and dangerous and this ad obviously scared her into a complete so-called emergency rewire the following week.

On a quick inspection of the fuse box within a few minutes it was obvious to me that this building had been rewired in the late 1970s in PVC double insulated cable and everything was earthed and safe !!!!. Okay the consumer unit was a little out of date with rewire able fuses instead of circuit breakers and the main earthling to the services was a little out of date, but overall it was fine.

She told me that she could not switch the lights on because they continually fused, but I investigated and literally within 10 minutes it turned out to be one of the obvious things it usually is, in this case was just a metal lamp holder which had baked the wires inside itself because it was in an enclosed lampshade collecting the heat. I’m not blowing my own trumpet, but when you’ve been in the job for many years you usually know very quickly what the problem is and in my case this could be a electrical installation, a security alarm or a CCTV system. It’s very rare you cannot pinpoint the fault quickly because you’ve seen it so many times before it’s obvious. I fixed the fault switch the power back on and everything was back to normal and she didn’t have to spend her quoted £2600 on a rewire that wasn’t necessarily!

It’s so annoying what kind of world is this! You get not just a conman but sometimes some a jobs worth electrician comes along and says your installation is over 20 years old and you need a complete rewire Rubbish!

Even if it’s over 30 years old very often the wiring is earthed and double PVC insulated which has not deteriorated and is fine. Things might not be up to code their standards, but you should not be told you have to change things which might not be up to current day standards and wiring regulations, because they were fine when they were installed and they are still safe.

I’m not saying that I wouldn’t point out things which could be improved like a new consumer unit with earth leakage protection breaker and current overload breakers. And I might suggest also that new main earthling would be a good idea, but it’s best to put this in its true perspective and point out it’s not dangerous and it certainly doesn’t warrant a full rewire etc

Anyway on this occasion a little old lady is happy because she’s got a new battery in her alarm panel and the power is back on and she only had to fork out £50 which is much cheaper than £2500 she’d been facing!

Next time I might start on security alarm companies don’t get me going with their misleading contracts making people believe they have bought the equipment when they’re basically renting it and when the security alarm triggers for any reason, they’re forced to have an engineer out every time because it has a locked out with a engineers code ! I could rant on forever, it’s not just individuals it sometimes companies which also have unscrupulous codes of practice which are just geared to extract money from their vulnerable customers.

AD Alarms. www.adalarms.co.uk We specialise in CCTV and Security Alarm installations established 1984. We are a family run business based in Bradford West Yorkshire and Whitby North Yorkshire. Friendly free advice on the telephone telephone (01274) 614650 E-mail sales@adalarms.co.uk

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Electrician Bradford - Electrician Leeds – - Electrician Shipley - Electrician Keighley – - Electrician Halifax – Electrician Brighouse – Electrican Otley – Electrician Harrogate – Electrican Whitby – Electrician West Yorkshire

Bradford Garage for Sale and Bradford Garage to Rent

Whitby Search Engine Optimisation

alan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:22:10 +0000

Whitby Search Engine Optimisation

Whitby Search Engine Optimisation

Do you want more customers on your website? If so take a look at Whitby Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation specialists for Whitby North Yorkshire, and surrounding areas. Website www.whitby-seo.co.uk/

If you are a business owner in Whitby or surrounding areas we can get your business website high up the search engine rankings where you will benefit from more customers.

We specialise in promoting holiday accommodation websites. Example

www.endeavourcottage.co.uk in Whitby is one of our delighted customers.

This little Whitby Holiday Cottage which has been established since February 2008 has enjoyed almost 100% occupancy for the last 18 months through our campaign of search engine optimisation. Endeavour Cottage is listed on the first page of Google for all the relevant keywords example Whitby holiday cottages.In our opinion if you are a Whitby hotel or guesthouse, it is even more crucial to make sure your website is ranked high on search engines so your occupancy level for your large establishment is as high as possible.

We like to think our uniqueness is through our attitude towards our customers making all aspects and services easy to understand (keeping technical terms to a minimum). But more importantly achieving very good results for any particular business at low cost, effective prices.

One of the first things we do is to set up a Google analytics account so that the website owner can log whenever they wish, and watch the progress of their websites rankings. You can actually watch the number of people visiting your website each hour, day, week, month, year and even the actual location in the world where they were based when they viewed your website. It gives you all the information how many pages were viewed and how long that customer stayed on your website.

There are two advantages for websites that are ranked high on search engines in the free organic listings, one they are FREE, and two they are more effective than the Pay Per click sponsored advertising on search engines. Obviously the best place to be for your free website position on major search engines like Google is on page one, but no honest reputable company will guarantee this although it is usually achievable.

We offer a free no obligation friendly consultation, and we never pester anybody by contacting them back. We leave it to the customer to decide. To contact Alan Davidson

Website www.whitby-seo.co.uk/

E-mail alan@whitby-seo.co.uk

Telephone 07813 779273

Free Consultation > Key phrase Research > Search Engine Optimisation ( SEO ) > Pay Per Click Campaigns Managed > Link Building > Website Design> Small Business Email Marketing > Hosting And Maintaining > Domain Name Registration > Video Marketing

We can optimise your existing website or, if preferred, redesign a new one from scratch that is fully optimised.

Whitby Holiday Cottages – Whitby Guide Film - Whitby Holiday Cottage Film Guide – CCTV Installer - Security Alarm Installer – Alan Davidson’s blog

Dog friendly Whitby Holiday Cottages – Dog friendly Whitby holiday accommodation – Whitby events – Whitby weekend

Whitby Seafish Ltd Fresh Fish Suppliers and Wholesalers

alan — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:59:34 +0000

Whitby Seafish Ltd Fresh Fish, Fresh Fish Suppliers and Wholesalers to the Hotel and Restaurant Trade.

We retail to the public from our own fishmongers within our factory at Staithes. We also offer Mail Order, delivering fresh fish and seafood direct to your door anywhere within the mainland UK

Go to our website Whitby seafish ltd the only place on the web you will find a personal shopping experience for the Freshest Fish and Seafood that Whitby has to offer at affordable prices to suit every pocket and all available via mail order.

Whitby Seafish Ltd: fresh fish wholesalers, are Cleveland’s leading fresh fish wholesalers and seafood suppliers; we are thoroughly capable of meeting all your fresh fish and seafood needs. As well as the many varieties of fresh fish and seafood, we can provide, fresh naturally smoked fish (Salmon, Kippers, Haddock, etc…) Frozen seafood, such as Royal Greenland Prawns and Whitby’s own Whole tail Scampi, provided by Whitby Seafoods Ltd.

Whatever your requirements, no matter how much or how little fresh fish or seafood you require, Whitby Seafish Ltd: fresh fish suppliers, can provide you with the highest quality at the most affordable prices.

For great fresh fish go to www.whitbyseafish.co.uk

Tel/Fax: 01947 841236

Mobile: 07980866654

Email: whitby-seafish@btconnect.com

Whitby Seafish Ltd

Unit 1a, Whitegate Close,

Staithes,

Saltburn By The Sea

Cleveland

TS13 5BB

Whitby Holiday Cottages – Whitby Guide Film – Whitby Holiday Cottage Film Guide – CCTV Installer - Security Alarm Installer – Alan Davidson’s blog

Which is the safest place to live, the fishing port of Whitby or the city of Bradford?

alan — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:02:07 +0000

When I bought a second home in Whitby a small fishing port in North Yorkshire, it made me compare the quality of life in comparison to living in my home town of Bradford, a large inland city.

The reason I’m posting the question above is not simply for the answer. I’m also putting forward the thought that sometimes we live our lives not in the best places in our country.

In my opinion there is little doubt which is the correct answer to the above question, but I’m going to give you my answer at the end of this article when I explain what brought me to this conclusion.

I live on the outskirts of Bradford in West Yorkshire, in quite a picturesque little village called Idle, which is quite a funny name when you consider its true meaning. We have the famous Idle Working Men’s Club, with its emblem of a working man leaning on his spade, get the idea? People from all over the world ask for affiliated passes so they can say they are a member of the idle working men’s club. Idle is quite nice in itself, being an old Victorian village, but its only three miles from the centre of Bradford city and 9 miles from the centre of Leeds.

Being so close to the city centre is good for my business, which is installing security alarm systems and CCTV. I’ve done this job since 1983. Why is this? Because, unfortunately, city centres in the United Kingdom are surrounded by crime and burglary. I used to think there must be other parts of the country which were not quite as bad. Now I definitely think this is the case and I’ll explain why I think so.

In 2007 I bought a holiday cottage in the beautiful old fishing port of Whitby, North Yorkshire. The cottage needed lots of renovation work because I intended to let the property to holidaymakers as well as use it myself. It’s in a gorgeous setting near the harbour, in a very quiet old yard with outhouses. The first thing that crossed my mind was this is very easy to rob because it’s so quiet and there are no neighbours directly opposite. That was my security installer mind in force. So my first two jobs on the cottage were not renovation projects but firstly to install a security alarm system, which also had a telephone dialler which would ring me if the security alarm was activated and, secondly, to install a CCTV camera in the loft with a digital video recorder.

Then I moved on to all the necessary renovation jobs to make the cottage comfortable for holidaymakers. When I finished renovating the cottage, I asked the local and largest holiday letting agency to come around to view the property, quietly expecting nothing but praise for all my hard work and expenditure. It was actually the owner of the agency himself who came to view the cottage. He was a pleasant and professional gentleman, but I’m afraid his first words were not entirely complimentary! His first comment was: Why did you put a security alarm and CCTV camera on this cottage ? I explained my worries about the vulnerability from the burglary point of view, to which he replied that he had well over 120 cottages on his books in the area, and had been in the property letting business since 1970. Mine was the only cottage which had ever had a security alarm and CCTV installation. He went on to explain that there was very little burglary in the area. I suddenly started to have a different perspective on what it was like to live in an area like Whitby. Had I wasted my time and money because, even though there was no labour cost on the security equipment, as I had installed it myself, it had still cost just under 1000 UK pounds for materials?

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending how you look at it, I soon found out by asking local people their thoughts regarding burglary, that he was telling me the truth. They confirmed it was something which very rarely happened and was not a priority to worry about. Then, with a little time spent on my professional hobby of siren box watching, which basically means that when I’m travelling around Bradford I continually look at the Siren boxes on properties to see which company did the installation, I suddenly found around the Whitby area there were virtually no siren boxes to watch! As we say in Yorkshire, the penny had dropped, which means you suddenly see something from a different perspective.

I often meet older retired people in Bradford who have just been burgled and they typically say things like: It’s not like it used to be when we were young; you could leave your front door open without fear of intrusion. It looks like you can still, as long as you don’t live on the outskirts of a busy city!

So the answer to my initial question is, in my opinion, Whitby is much safer than Bradford.

Heartbeat TV INFO

alan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:27:01 +0000

Greengrass in trouble again!

www.whitby.uk.net investigates Heartbeat the television programme

Heartbeat the television programme has graced our screens for I believe over a decade, and without a doubt as done a fantastic job of popularising the beautiful scenery of the North York Moors and Whitby town itself. The program as being one of the most popular ones to grace our screens over recent years with its stunning scenery and 1960s and 1960s nostalgia, I remember reading it has regularly pulled in 18 million viewers which is pretty good nowadays.

We at www.whitby.uk.net are going to produce a dedicated section to the programme on this website. This will be online stories about particular episodes and also to encourage people to discuss the program in an interactive forum. In fact any Heartbeat fans out there, please feel free to put forward any suggestions about highlighting any aspects of the programme. I actually have had the pleasure of being the next an extra a few of the episodes so I will be including the use little titbits about meeting some of the actors myself soon. I am also going to approach them with the actors that stand in the program, to see if they will conduct a little interview for this website and maybe answer a few questions from fans, watch this space for news.

I remember the first time me and my family went to the Goathland’s village over 20 years, it wasn’t totally intentional!

We were on our way to Whitby for a day out and my car was literally running on fumes and although I realised I was almost in Whitby there I decided to take a detour to see if there was a garage. I remember thinking what a beautiful and tranquil little village it was, but little did I know how popular this place would become due to Heartbeat. The program is one of those timeless pieces that never ages due to its period setting and obviously with its strong musical back drop of hits of the late 60s it definitely takes people back of a certain age to their youth, including myself

More Heartbeat to come soon

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

Whitby Information Website is being approached in a different direction to the usual ones online, I hope.

Attention Holidaymakers and cottage owners alike

alan — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:21:31 +0000

Those in new holiday letting company which is aiming to provide a unique service by allowing holiday cottage owners to list their premises in Whitby and make the whole process quick and easy.

www.Cottages-Whitby.co.uk which is backed by a search engine optimisation company www.seo-the-business.co.uk is preparing to work with Google the search engine aiming to using their free organic listings and Google ad words to promote the company very prominently. This should be good news for holidaymakers and cottage owners alike because it will allow the owners to showcase their fine properties quickly and easily on the Internet without the restrictions of red tape and contracts. The owners can simply contact the company and have their premises online within 24 hours without any from payment or contract tying them in. The only payment is 20% commission to the company on bookings which are taken.

Cottages Whitby in a statement said we will be helping in every direction possible to provide the best service for both the owners and holidaymakers. We will visit the premises and will offer a free photography service to the owners and in most cases will have to be holiday commendation on the Internet within 24 hours. Likewise if the owners decide to remove their accommodation it will be also removed within 24 hours. This should keep holidaymakers up-to-date with the latest cottages and offers which are available in Whitby.

So anybody would like their holiday accommodation in Whitby to be listed on their website quick and easily contact the company and they will place your advertising in a prominent position.

Whitby Regatta

alan — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:54:58 +0000

Fancy dress at the Whitby Regatta

Many years ago just over 20 it was the first time I visited Whitby regatta and I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the place and event itself. In recent years Whitby certainly seems to increase its popularity with things like Heartbeat and the Endeavour ship arriving in town. And then we’ve got the Dracula connection which I soon as inspired the interest from the Goths which now dominate the town on two weekends each year. Last year I was absolutely amazed by the amount of effort these people put into their costumes some of them are absolutely amazing and although I don’t fully understand their culture I do think it makes a wonderful spectacular atmosphere in the town.

But having said that the calendar of events for Whitby now seems to have extended itself enormously along with the town’s popularity Whitby Regatta has got to be the pinnacle of the year I would think. It’s not just the sheer amount of interest it causes and people that cram into the small town it’s also be well organised events that take place with the finale being the firework display set against a cliff backdrop on the east side.

This year once again the Red Arrows I believe I going to do their display which if nothing else it’s well worth a visit just to see that fantastic display of human and mechanical achievement as they thunder down the river Esk in the tight formation which need split-second control.

So if you’ve never been to Whitby Regatta I would certainly try to make this an event to visit this year.

Spitfire,Huricane and Dakota Air Display
Saturday 22nd, Sunday 23th August 2009
time to be arranged

Air Sea Rescue
Saturday 22nd, Sunday 23th August 2009
time to be arranged

Spectacular Fireworks Display
Monday 24th August 2009
Barrage after barrage of rockets, star bursts, special effect shells, whistling mullet coloured rockets and numerous other different fireworks, are the theme of this years’ firework finale

Whitby Regatta
4K Fun Run
Monday 24th August 2009
10am
Download application Form From Crescent Gardens and is run predominantly on the sea wall

Whitby Swing Bridge
Centenary celebrations August 2009
The swing bridge will 100 years old in August 2009
The Regatta Committee are supporting this celebration further information to follow

Vintage, Post war, Classic & Sports Car Rally
Many elegant cars will compete in various classes for prestigious trophies.
Download Application Form in Word Format

Fun for Children of All Ages
We have a wide selection of entertainment for children including:
An inflatable Maze/Pirate Ship/Giant Fun Slide,
a Punch and Judy Show,and Jo Jo the Clown

Rowing Races
Local rowing teams compete for first place in various categories.

RAF Displays
Visit the RAF’s static displays including a recruitment display.

Navy Displays
Visit the Navys Submarine trailer and display

Army Displays
A range of displays to explore

Motor Cycle Gymkhana
Skill and fun on two wheels taking place on Whitby’s beach.

The Grand Parade
Monday 24th August 2009
A parade of many decorated thumbed floats will make it’s way through the heart of the Regatta celebrations.

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