Last month (21 & 22 June) saw the relaunch of the Landscaping Show by the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire.

Cumbrian stone quarriers Burlington and Doncaster-based stone paving product suppliers Natural Paving Products were among those exhibiting.

The Landscaping Show is now intended to become an annual event, returning 19-20 June next year. This year’s event attracted nearly 1,000 visitors, which the organisers were happy with.

The show featured a seminar programme put together by BALI national chairman Paul Cowell, which included the launch of the new Landbased Industry Skills Scheme (LISS) and the LISS / CSCS skills card that gives those working in the landbased sector the ability to work on Highways Agency estate and construction sites.

BALI’s recently appointed chief operations officer, Wayne Grills, said: “Small but perfectly formed seems to be the best description for BALI 2011 and it’s a salutary lesson that big is not always beautiful where industry exhibitions are concerned.

“That said, we must listen carefully to our exhibitors and visitors to ensure we strike just the right balance in 2012 and continue to deliver a targeted exhibition and programme of seminars that will make it an unmissable event for landscape professionals.”

Natural Paving Products took the opportunity to launch their new brochure that includes their latest launches of York Grey natural stone block paving and a calibrated version of their Classicstone range.

Natural Paving say sales of sawn premium flagstones have been good thanks to customers being more discerning with their paving decisions and stone having become the product of choice.

Burlington Stone launched a new range of tumbled cobble sets and cropped walling in modular units that are simple to install, showed their wide range of natural stone hard landscaping products and promoted their capabilities as a solutions provider.

Nick Williams, Burlington’s Sales & Marketing Director, said: “We certainly helped to fly the flag for British stone. When it comes to either bespoke or off-the-shelf products we want contractors to appreciate the fact that they can source highly engineered and complete landscaping solutions from Burlington as a manufacturer.”

He points out that the permanence of natural stone is the perfect foil to the evolving shape of plants.