“Hello all, I’m Mark Renshaw, a Readymix Batcher from Yorkshire.

In 2012 I was elected to join the Regional Communications Forum for the Northern Region. I was asked by my management to represent to the best of my ability and to this day I reckon I’ve just about achieved that. In the same year I also was elected for The UK Forum and incredibly The European Forum.

I felt privileged that I had the confidence of the people I work with to represent them at all three levels and was eternally grateful.

The European Forum is an intense but rewarding Forum to be on.  Four members of staff from the UK Team represent the 3,000+ UK employees at a European level. Alongside us are our passionate German, French, Spanish, Polish etc counterparts. We are surrounded by a myriad of booths filled with translators all ensuring that language is no barrier.

A number of sensitive topics have been discussed during my tenure on this Forum in Warsaw, Prague, Split and Vienna and I have been, as I said, privileged and honoured to have played my part.

My four year stint on the forum is over and through the same election process Paul Whyte, a much liked fitter from Dove Holes Quarry, Derbyshire, was successfully elected as my replacement and now takes his place alongside Tom Hunter, Sonny Netto and Ian Horstwood as our representatives on the European front.

I wish Paul all the very best for his tenure. I’m sure he will get as much out of it as I did and I look forward to listening to his experience the next time we meet.

I would like to thank all the people that looked after us in lands abroad and hopefully at some point in the future I may get re-elected.  If anyone is thinking of joining a local forum I would highly recommend it. You get to learn so much more about the business and industry that we work in and along the way meet some great people.”