They claim it ain't broke, yet BALI are nevertheless reviewing their strategy and vision for the future - I assume with the intention of fixing it - it is evidence that landscaping associations are faced with an identity crisis never before seen.
On the one hand, I'm feeling extremely frustrated by the revelation that BALI, APL and SGD are planning to get together and exclude the vast majority of UK land-based businesses; on the other, I'm extremely proud that these associations now agree with Landscape Juice that there is a need to reassess their position in the landscaping and horticulture industry.
It's nice to see that BALI are considering the Landscape Juice initiatives.
BALI (and I assume APL and SGD) are extremely uncomfortable with the Landscape Juice 'open' approach but with irony, it is their silo mentality that will eventually be the undoing of all three incumbents - their respective leaders fail to publicly recognise that pressure from Landscape Juice and the membership of the Landscape Juice Network, has forced a lot of changes and way of thinking within their organisations.
Why a change is needed?
There has been a growing feeling of polarisation in the landscaping and horticulture industry for quite some time now. Indeed, it was this division that motivated me into using Landscape Juice to bring the industry's problems out in the open and try to highlight how difficult it is for all of those good businesses who have found themselves discriminated against.
The biggest problem is that the landscaping associations have gone unchallenged for so long and have got away with the their notion that only the businesses who have signed up to and been vetted by their respective organisation, is worthy and all of those left outside, by implication, are not of a standard capable of carrying out a high standard of work.
I am first to acknowledge that there are some poor businesses out in the marketplace and we would all be foolish to say that the potential for any client to engage with a rogue trader is low. Landscape Juice isn't about vetting; it's about freedom of information, education - through peer sharing - between both clients and practitioners and enabling both parties to understand what challenges exist and need to be overcome, before any contract goes ahead.
Landscape Juice soundly believes that a practitioner should be free to report to a potential client of his or her abilities so that the client can make up their mind if they are engaging with the right person.
We have already established that vetting can be an unsafe practice - recently exposed when a roofing company was filmed by the BBC's Rogue Traders ripping off old and vulnerable clients; the company had supposedly been vetted and was accredited to the Government backed Trustmark scheme.
An ex BALI member also reported on Landscape Juice how her company was pitched head-to-head with another BALI member and was urged to do a cash deal because the other contractor was also prepared to 'knocked the VAT off for cash'.
What is needed is a unified support system for the whole of the landscaping and horticulture industry run by its practitioners and not by a part-time committee; a system that seeks to help individuals and small businesses improve their systems through understanding of the challenges that business poses; by guiding everyone to work within their capabilities and above all, to get them to deliver a quality product.
This system also needs to go a step further; a step that hasn't previously been considered; the industry needs to educate its potential clients about how to temper expectations.
Currently, most of the marketplace still considers that a garden practitioner is a menial worker and no steps have ever been taken to tell the story that a landscaper or gardener can, in fact, be a very skilled worker, often taking a lifetime to reach the pinnacle of their career.
One other question that needs to be asked - why has BALI joined forces in a partnership (commercial?) with Horticulture Week?
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