MONKPLANTHIREMAGAZINE JUNE 1 2018 Issue 1
Ground works
Fakenham, Weybourn, Risby, Beccles & Brancaster
Plant Hire
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Recycling
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Aldiss of Fakenham A Pheonix From the Ashes
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Lady Fisher’s Field, Luxury from the ground up
Risby Groundworks Project – Lady Fisher Field, School Road, Risby, Suffolk
W
hen William Blake penned ‘Jerusalem’ in 1804, you’d be forgiven for thinking that he had the scenic county of Suffolk in mind when he lovingly described England as, “a green and pleasant land”. Blessed as it is with pretty, colourful villages, rolling green countryside, and some of the country’s finest coastline, it is a land where visitors and residents alike truly “feel away from it all”.
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Few people from outside of East Anglia will have heard of Risby, but undoubtedly this best-kept-secret feel only adds to the village’s picturesque charm. Located around three miles away from the historic market town of Bury St. Edmunds, Risby, with its homely old pubs and strong scrumpy, its cricket pitch, and grand old buildings, is a rural idyll that is steeped in history. As such, it is unsurprising that property in the village is in great demand from those seeking their own little
slice of fine country living. Lady Fisher’s Field, a stunning collection of 20 luxurious 3, 4, and 5-bedroom properties set in the heart of the village, is one of Risby’s few housing developments in recent years. Based on traditional designs that are inspired by the village’s period houses and rural surroundings, building these properties to the highest standards and specifications was no small ask. But before work could even begin on creating the stunning tree-lined
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avenue, and building the magnificent luxury homes that the avenue led to, the MPH Group’s groundworks team needed to quite literally lay the foundations for the project first. As the first trades on-site and the last to leave, MPH’s groundworks team played an integral part in the success of the development from the moment the project began, as Scott Waterton, MPH Group’s Groundworks Supervisor recalls: “We basically went there on this project to take everything from the start to the finish, from site setup to getting right to the end of the project, which involves site clear up and readying the site for the families who have bought the homes and are waiting to move in. The project was for some very expensive properties, which upon completion were sold on the market for up to £1,000,000. Twenty of these up-market properties were built which includes 5 social housing properties – once a certain number of houses are built during a project, it is required by law that a certain number of affordable houses be built on the site too.” As the team responsible for all work done to prepare sub-surfaces prior to the start of building, Scott and the MPH groundworks team were under pressure from the beginning to assess and ready the ground ahead of construction work. The invaluable work that the groundworks team puts in to create a strong and stable base, or footing as it’s known, is usually the first stage of a construction project, aside from any demolition or site enabling works that may need to be carried out. From putting in levels to digging the ground, excavating and then concreting the foundations, and then building these foundations up to the damp proof course, groundworks is a challenging and multi-faceted process. Scott elaborated further on his
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team’s role, explaining: “Quite simply, we do everything from the ground downwards – a lot of the work that we do on-site you’ll never see. It’s buried for the rest of its life! Because of this, the work that we do has to be done right because once groundwork is completed, and above-ground construction work begins, there’s no going back. When we initially arrived at the Lady Fisher’s Field site, it was just an empty field. We put safety fences up to ensure the site was secure before work began on the build, and then we put all the major infrastructure in like the roads, the drains, linking the field to the main road. There’s a lot we have to do. We have to make sure the road levels are right, so that no water falls back down into the properties, and that all drainage falls away from the properties. All the foundation work, basically. Once the footing is put in, the project is then handed over to the brick layers, construction workers, and other trades who then take over and put the building up.” At the start of the Risby project, Scott and the team relied a lot on their engineer, who gave the team markings to set out the roads, advised on road drainage, and calculated the heights that Scott and his team needed to build to. The installation of drainage is one of the key tasks for a groundworks team in any project, and the Risby project was no exception. Following the work with his engineer, work on the project kickedoff with the installation of all the site’s major drains, which run underneath the road. Then, as construction work on the showhouse began, the groundworks team linked the drains from this property to the main drains, a process that they repeated upon completion of each property on the site. It goes without saying that the groundworks function can be a challenging one at the best of times,
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“We always strive to find ways to save the client money, obviously without compromising on quality, efficiency or the standard of service.”
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seeing as there are any number of potential surprises waiting below-ground, but the RiTby project proved to be particularly challenging at times for Scott and the team: “For most of the time we spent at the Lady Fisher’s Field site, the weather was very, very bad. Absolutely terrible! Certainly at the start, the job was very slow moving because as you can imagine doing any kind of groundworks in bad weather is very difficult. To make sure that the Risby project stayed on schedule, we brought more of our team into the job along with more additional machines and equipment. By getting our heads down, we succeeded in completing the job to our client’s schedule, not to mention high-standards. It was important the finished article met their high standards. I’ve found that when there is an obstacle or challenge that we or a client cannot initially fix, we step back, setup a meeting and get together, bang heads, so to speak, and work together with our client to find a solution.” This approach of working handin-hand in partnership with a has been a cornerstone of MPH Group’s success, as has its commitment to the core tenet of its
business: delivering a superior customer experience that goes above, and a willingness to go above and beyond so as to generate increased efficiencies and savings for the client. Customer relations is a big deal at MPH Group. As Scott was keen to emphasise, his team always works with the client, not against them, even if he’s not entirely convinced that their plans, strategies, and decisions are the best ones. “We always strive to find ways to save the client money, obviously without compromising on quality, efficiency or the standard of service. There was an example of this during the Risby project. Initially, the client wanted to begin building work from the outside in, the furthest-most point of the site, whereas I felt it would be best if work began at the road entrance next to where the show home stood – the exact opposite way to which our client wanted it. By working our way in over the course of the build, we’d be able to hand sections over to be sold. After a meeting where I proposed this idea, the client agreed that my inside-out suggestion would be more efficient and they agreed to change the schedule of works.
The result was that we were able to hand over batches of three to four houses at a time, which meant an influx of money into the project and the speeding up of work.” By obsessively focusing on delivering the best possible customer experience, tailored to the individual needs of each of our clients, MPH Group has been rewarded time and time again with new business, whether from existing or new clients. “After the completion of the RiTby project, we’ve been contacted by new customers who were very impressed by our work. For example, a gentleman from another building company who visited the RiTby site out of curiosity, was impressed by what he saw and has since offered us two new contracts – one for a ten-house development that we’re currently working on,” Scott said. He concluded: “If you do a great job in the construction trade, it gets noticed, and what this gentleman saw was the standard of work that he wanted for his own development projects. We as a company are there to help the client as much or as little as the client, and to help deliver the highest levels of service.”
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