WORKING THROUGH THE COVID STORM

Summer 2020 has been confined to the memory and the leaves on the trees have changed colour as we embrace Autumn in what continue to be unchartered times.

Some semblance of normality has returned with schools back in, team sport back on the agenda and a much desired routine re-emerging amongst family life.

But without doubt there is continued concern about what the coming weeks and months will bring as we battle against further waves of Coronavirus.

It is a year that no-one could possibly have imagined and certainly one that we will never forget.

March 2020 will be forever stamped in our minds in years to come when we recall how we experienced lockdown. Our one walk a day. The queue to enter the local supermarket, socially distancing. Watching the daily bulletin from Westminster and then the follow up from Arlene and Michelle at Stormont to find out the latest Covid case tally. Easing the natural stresses and tension with a daily run or cycle. And tending to the home schooling.

We closed the Clyde Shanks office shutters on 16 March and thanks to our strong IT capabilities and excellent help from our external printing suppliers, Service Graphics, we managed to maintain our high level of service for clients and continue to remain productive across our diverse work portfolio. A return to the office and a rota balance of part office working and part home working has been ongoing since late June.

As a business we have maintained our professional team and continued to work hard across our diverse project work. We have adjusted to the initial home working and since June have embraced a flexible part office part home working routine.

As a busy planning consultancy we are operating in a new world with preapplication community consultation taking place online rather than in person. Council planning committees have turned virtual and those old enough to remember can see the comparables with Celebrity Squares with limited attendance in person in Council chambers and elected members and applicant’s representatives joining via zoom and Microsoft teams.

Zoom and Teams calls have become second nature in the office as design team meetings with clients, architects and engineers happen on surfacepros with sharescreen the new normal in taking people through design analysis, planning policy and site context and general project advice and updates.

We remain optimistic that the coming months will continue to keep us all fully occupied with a good level of instructed work whilst being hungry and proactive in the market to seek out and hunt down more new work to reinforce what we have to do.

Our strength lies in the diversity of the type of work we do – housing, renewable energy, tourism and leisure, agrifood, waste, liquor licensing, mixed use and city centre development to highlight a few rather than being overly reliant on one particular sector.

We are delighted to have secured some great results for clients during these Covid days – notably a mixed use development at Comber Road, Dundonald including 119 dwellings and some 30,000 sq ft business space secured after negotiation on a section 76 legal agreement for Neptune group, assisting with getting revised design of former Norwich Union House in Belfast city centre for 6-storey office development and active ground floor uses for McAleer and Rushe approved (230,000 sq.ft gross) Phase 4 at the former Belvoir hospital site for Neptune including 79 apartments and a new holiday park in Portrush at the Magherabuoy chicane including 83 static and touring pitches and 13 glamping pods.

As we go to press on this edition we are also delighted to have secured planning permission at Belfast City Council’s planning committee for a 13 storey aparthotel for Andras House Ltd. Designed by Todd this promises to be a striking addition to the city centre at the meeting point of Bedford Street and Ormeau Avenue.

We hope you enjoy our latest news and look forward to better days ahead! Clyde