premier construction magazine

Roma Publications

Volume 15 - Issue 2

Pride in the Job

The NHBC awards recognise outstanding site managers

FIRAS, FRACS & Certifire Focus on fire safety in construction

Anaerobic Digestion

UK dairy turns to biopower

School’s In

Surge in UK education investment

Architectural Excellence

The 2010 RIBA Awards

1. CHOOSE YOUR COURSE(S) – PLEASE INDICATE IN THE BOXES THE NUMBER OF PLACES REQUIRED Becoming a CDM Co-ordinator under CDM 2007 Solihull 7, 8, 9 September 2010 London 14, 15, 16 September 2010 Southampton 5, 6, 7 October 2010 Bristol 19, 20, 21 October 2010 Manchester 26, 27, 28 October 2010 Glasgow 2, 3, 4 November 2010 Leeds 16, 17, 18 November 2010 London 7,8,9 December 2010 Bristol 15,16,17 February 2011 Solihull 22, 23, 24 February 2011 London 1, 2, 3 March 2011 Manchester 8, 9, 10 March 2011 Southampton 29, 30, 31 March 2011 Glasgow 5, 6, 7 April 2011 Leeds 12, 13, 14 April 2011 London 12, 13, 14 April 2011 CDM for Designers!

London 25 October 2010 Solihull 17 November 2010 Manchester 2 December 2010 The `essential guide` to Property & Development Law for Construction Professionals London 11 October 2010 Solihull 27 October 2010 Manchester 9 November 2010 Bristol 25 November 2010

Keeping up to speed with the Latest Building and Fire Regulations London 21 September 2010 Solihull 12 October 2010 Manchester 26 October 2010 Bristol 2 November 2010 Leeds 23 November 2010 London 30 November 2010 London 9 February 2011 Solihull 17 February 2011 Manchester 15 March 2011 Bristol 23 March 2011 Leeds 30 March 2011 London 7 April 2011 The new Building Regulations Part L and F in Action!

London 4 October 2010 Solihull 10 November 2010 Bristol 7 December 2010 Manchester 9 December 2010 Taking the Danger out of Buildings – Asbestos, Fire Safety, Legionella Contractors’ and other H&S checks London 28 September 2010 Solihull 18 October 2010 Manchester 22 November 2010 Bristol 29 November 2010

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Tackling Party, Boundary wall, and On-site Liability Problems London Solihull Manchester Bristol

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Structural Surveys – Identification and Repair of Structural Defects London 27 September 2010 Solihull 5 October 2010 Bristol 26 October 2010 Manchester 16 November 2010 Dealing with Condensation, Damp and Rot in Buildings Solihull 7 October 2010 Manchester 1 November 2010 Bristol 11 November 2010 London 16 November 2010 Working with CDM 2007 Solihull 6 September 2010 London 13 September 2010 Southampton 4 October 2010 Bristol 18 October 2010 Manchester 25 October 2010 Glasgow 1 November 2010 Leeds 15 November 2010 London 6 December 2010 Bristol 14 February 2011 Solihull 21 February 2011 London 28 February 2011 Manchester 7 March 2011 Southampton 28 March 2011 Glasgow 4 April 2011 Leeds 11 April 2011 London 11 April 2011

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3. PLEASE RETURN THIS COMPLETED FORM TO: Construction Study Centre Ltd, 3 West Bar, Banbury, Oxfordshire OX16 9SD Tel: 0845 3133 414, Fax: 01295 275981, Email: enquiries@constructionstudycentre.co.uk www.constructionstudycentre.co.uk

Provisional bookings may be made by telephone, but must be confirmed in writing with the appropriate remittance or, if agreed and subject to credit approval, appropriate order or written confirmation of payment arrangements. Joining instructions and VAT receipts will be forwarded to delegates; if these have not been received within 3 working days before the relevant course, please contact us to ensure your place has been booked, as we cannot be held responsible for non-arrival of registration instructions. Should circumstances mean that you need to transfer to another Construction Study Centre Ltd course then the following charges will apply dependent on notice given: Provisional bookings – no charge. Confirmed bookings, more than four weeks prior to course start date - first transfer no charge. Confirmed bookings, two-four weeks prior to course start date £30 plus VAT. Less than two weeks notice given - 20% of course fee. No transfers will be accepted less than 6 working days prior to the course start date. NB. Transfer notice must be made in writing. Free transfer applies to the first transfer only.

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COURSE FEES Fees: 1 – day course: £280 plus VAT, per delegate. 3 – day course: £640 plus VAT, per delegate. The course fee includes full course documentation, coffee on arrival, coffee, lunch (full day and 3 day courses only) and afternoon tea. The fee does not include overnight accommodation. Discounts are available when 3 or more delegates from the same organisation, attend any of our courses during the same programme period (i.e.

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For more information: call 0845 3133 414 or visit www.constructionstudycentre.co.uk

CDM for designers!

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BRAND NEW COURSE

2010 London 2010 Solihull

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COURSE BACKGROUND This BRAND NEW 1 DAY COURSE is intended to clarify the role of Designers under CDM 2007.

The Key Messages from the HSE in their CDM 2007 References are: • If you design or specify building work, then you are a designer with new duties under CDM • Competent designers eliminate hazards and reduce risks – manage the risk, not the paperwork • Design for safety and health for those that build, use, maintain and demolish – it’s safer by design • Tell others about significant risks which remain – give the right information to the right people at the right time This course is aimed at people who carry out planning, conceptual, feasibility or detailed design of permanent or temporary works or who dictate or influence design decisions. It will elaborate the approach that Designers can adopt and will include short films and pictures to generate discussion on various designer issues. The course is intended to be interactive to enable people to raise and discuss issues related to their own work as designers and the associated implementation of their duties under CDM 2007.

SPEAKERS’ PANEL The speaker for each course will be from a panel of Peter Andrews, Paul Gray and David Jordan

OVERVIEW H&S Legislation and CDM 2007 • Brief overview of H&S legislation and the aims, application and content of CDM 2007 • Definitions of construction work and a structure and a review of the duties on

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2010 Manchester

all parties • Appreciation of the Pre-construction Information, the Construction Phase Plan and the H&S File • What is design and who are designers The Expected Approach by Designers • Designers’ duties in detail and the approach by designers for their considerations of health and safety i.e. the elimination of hazards, the reduction of risks and the provision of information • The process of considering and recording health and safety • The process of the provision of information • Input into the Pre-construction information and the H&S File Issues Associated with • The general principles of prevention • The Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations • Co-operation and co-ordination • Suitability and compatibility of designs • Changes in design and design during construction • Suggested work methods and sequences • Giving collective measures priority over individual measures Elaboration of • Justification of competence as a Designer • The relationship between the Designer and the CDM Co-ordinator • Lead Designer • Significant hazards and risks • Risk Assessment and Design Risk Management Notes • Delegates are advised that it may be helpful to bring a copy of the ACOP ‘Managing Health and Safety in Construction) L144 (available as free download from the HSE website)

The new Building Regulations Part L and F in action! BRAND NEW COURSE 4 10

October November

2010 London 2010 Solihull

COURSE BACKGROUND This BRAND NEW 1 DAY COURSE is designed to develop delegates’ general knowledge of the Building Regulations with in-depth knowledge of Parts L and F, which can be adopted for everyday use.

SPEAKER ALL VENUES Jim Goddard

OVERVIEW Introduction • Summary of how Westminster and Europe are requiring changes to the Building Regulations • Details of the far reaching changes to Part L within the context of National, European and Worldwide legislation and guidance Part L1A (Conservation of Fuel and Power) New Dwellings • Summary of the changes to Approved Document L1A • Five criteria to show compliance: carbon emissions, design flexibility, solar shading, construction consistency and end user information • Role of SAP 2009 • Mandatory building pressure testing • Space cooling • Party wall design • Heat pumps • Accredited details • Practical examples of compliance • EPC’s Part L1B (Conservation of Fuel and Power) in Existing Dwellings • Summary of the changes to Approved Document L1B • Elemental method of compliance • Change of use, material alteration and historic buildings • Consequential improvements • Renovation, replacement and retention of thermal elements

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Part L2a (Conservation of Fuel and Power) New Buildings other than Dwellings • Summary of the changes to Approved Document L2A • Five criteria to show compliance: carbon emissions, design flexibility, solar shading, construction consistency and end user information • Role of the latest version of SBEM • Alternative compliance software • Mandatory building pressure testing • LZC – low or zero carbon energy sources • Practical example of compliance • EPC’s and DEC’s Part L2b (Conservation of Fuel and Power) in Existing Buildings other than Dwellings • Summary of changes to Approved Document L2B • Elemental method of Compliance • Consequential improvements • Change of use, material alteration and historic buildings • Renovation, retention and replacement Part F (Means of Ventilation) • Overhaul of the existing Approved Document F • Performance based approach • Strategies based on extract, whole building & purge ventilation • Guidance on natural & mechanical systems • Guidance on ventilation of basements • Guidance on ventilation of offices & car parks • Requirements for commissioning systems Summary and Future Changes to Building Regulations

TERMS & CONDITIONS The views expressed at the courses are personal to the speakers and are not attributable to Construction Study Centre Ltd which accepts no responsibility for them. Delegates are recommended to take specific independent advice. In the case of emergencies, Construction Study Centre Ltd reserves the right to replace the advertised speaker with suitable substitutes. We use every endeavour to avoid cancelling or aborting a course at the last minute or on the day. However, if factors beyond our reasonable control make this necessary, we will refund the fees or the appropriate portion thereof. We cannot accept liability for any other costs, expenses or losses of delegates wasted or incurred thereby. Speakers for each individual course are indicated in the respective course content. All courses include Forum Sessions when the speakers will be available to answer questions. CPD certificates are available for all courses. Delegates are advised to bring a copy of the relevant form of contract, where appropriate.

COMPANY DETAILS

Construction Study Centre Limited is registered in England and Wales No 2554091.

VAT Registration No 887 1394 77.

Managing Director Lorne Alway LLB (Hons), FRICS, MCI Arb, Barrister

2010 locations Bristol: Ramada Bristol North, The Grange, Old Gloucester Road, Northwoods, Winterbourne, Bristol, BS36 1RP Glasgow: Thistle Hotel, Cambridge Street, Glasgow, G2 3HN Leeds: Regus, 1200 Century Way, Thorpe Park Business Park, Colton, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS15 8ZA London: The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, 12 Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1A 2LP

2010 speakers Manchester: Etrop Grange Hotel, Thorley Lane, Manchester Airport, Cheshire, M90 4EG Solihull: St Johns Hotel, 651 Warwick Road, Solihull B91 1AT Southampton: De Vere, New Place, Shirrell Heath, Southampton SO32 2JH Edinburgh: Holiday Inn, 132 Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh, EH12 6UA

Richard Allen, FRICS, MaPS Director, Allen Holmes Ltd Peter Andrews, OBE, CFIOSH, LCGI, Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner; Principal, Andrews Associates, Safety and Health Consultants Keith Blizzard, BSc(Hons), DipArb, FRICS, FCIArb, FFB, MEWI, Director, Shakespeare Putsman LLP Robert Castledine, BSc(Hons), MCIEH, MIOSH. Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner

Tim Clark, MSt (Oxon), LLB, Solicitor, Partner in Commercial Property Department, Shakespeare Putsman LLP Jim Goddard, MRICS, MCIOB, DipMan(Open) Technical Manager, Building Consultancy, Birmingham City Council Paul Gray, BSc, CEng, MICE, CMIOSH, RMaPS Health, Safety & Construction Consultant; Chartered Engineer & Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner; Former Technical Director, Scott Wilson

David Jordan, MSc, MCIOB, MCMI, CMIOSH, RMaPS Consultant CDM Co-ordinator Stephen Neale, BSc(Hons), BA(Hons), MRICS, MCMI Hisbis Limited Eur Ing David Symonds, BSc(Eng), DIC, CEng, MICE, MaPS, FRSA Chartered Civil Engineer

Contents PREMIER CONSTRUCTION

Volume 15 • Issue 2

Dear readers, Welcome to a special edition of Premier Construction, in which we take a look at some of this year’s NHBC Pride in the Job award winning sites, with reactions from the victorious site managers and their advice on how to run a successful new build project.

Elsewhere, we bring you specialist advice on fire safety in construction and another look at some of the recent RIBA award winning designs, including a favourite of ours: The Monument in London.

As usual, we bring you a roundup of the construction scene in the UK, Ireland and beyond, beginning in the North West of England with a look at two successful local housing schemes and an overview of work being carried out at Sellafield.

Moving to the North East and Yorkshire, there’s news of continued work at Scarborough Spa despite recent government spending cuts and, speaking of which, we take a look at one county council’s drive to cut costs through new build.

Over next to the Midlands and news of a Jamie Oliver inspired revamp to one school’s dining facilities amongst other features, and then to the South West where a vanguard biomass plant represents a new era of efficiency in the dairy industry.

Rounding off our trip around England, we skip across to London and the South East, where a swimming pool, a science park and a secondary school are just a few of the diverse projects to attract our attention.

Not to be outdone, the Welsh and Scots of this issue have their own new schools, while there is also news of regeneration and renovation to a wide range of sectors elsewhere in the provinces.

Finally, news coming in from Ireland is of investment in healthcare and streetscapes to round off our tour of the regions before we finish with our customary look at the associations, this month featuring the Constructed Wetlands Association and a guide to ‘Buying With Confidence’, amongst others.

As ever, we hope that you enjoy what’s in store, and your comments and contributions are always welcomed.

Graham Schulz, Editor

Fire Safety focus.....................................................................................11 RIBA Awards 2010.................................................................................19 NHBC Pride in the Job 2010..........................................................27 North West Sellafield.............................................................................................................54 Fusion21.............................................................................................................60

North East & Yorks Keepmoat Homes...............................................................................................68 Batley Sports Centre..........................................................................................74

Midlands Warwickshire College.........................................................................................79 Brierley Hill Health Centre.................................................................................82

South West BV Dairy Anaerobic Digestion Plant.................................................................88 Brixham Regeneration.......................................................................................89

South East & London Gatwick Airport...................................................................................................90 Watford Decent Homes.....................................................................................97

Wales Nant Celyn Primary School..............................................................................106 Cadw..................................................................................................................106

Scotland Scottish Mining Museum.................................................................................108 Merchant City Initiative.....................................................................................113

Ireland Derry Public Realm...........................................................................................116 Wellbeing Centres in Belfast............................................................................116

Associations Confederation of Aerial Industries...................................................................118 Constructed Wetland Association...................................................................124

Managing Director: Marcus Howarth Editor:

Graham Schulz

Contributors:

Lesley Coward

Production Manager: Danielle Burgoyne Advert Co-ordinator: Kelsie Howarth

Published by:

Roma Publications Ltd.

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Graphic Design by:

www.marcusmacaulay.co.uk

© Roma Publications Ltd. All contents are copyright. All rights are reserved. No part may be stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form without prior written permission from the publishers. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies however caused. Contributed material does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the publisher. the editorial policy and general layout of this publication are at the discretion of the publisher and no debate will be entered into. No responsibility can be accepted for illustrations, artwork or photographs whilst in transmission with the publishers or their agents unless a commitment is made in writing prior to the receipt of such terms.

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Advising clients about Site Waste Management The introduction of the Site Waste Management Plan Regulations 2008 has brought to the fore a number of issues relating to Construction Waste Management, Site Waste Management and the UK sustainability agenda.

For some time clients have been demanding that their project teams consider, reduce and manage site waste, sometimes to reduce costs of waste to landfill and sometimes to secure ratings or compliance with schemes that necessitate consideration of Site Waste Management – indeed there are now consultants who have made this arena their specialisation. But now the new regulations in England (and Best Practice Guidance in other parts of the United Kingdom) have made it necessary for many more clients, who may have differing perspectives on sustainability and Site Waste Management, to grapple with demands made of them by these regulations and Best Practice Guidance. The Site Waste Management Regulations 2008 do not, however, offer any guidance or assistance for clients. Clients are therefore asking their project consultants to tell them what is required of them – and asking for help in dealing with the regulations.

Whilst there is no requirement in the regulations for anyone to advise clients, (or anybody else involved in a project), about Site Waste Management, there is clearly a need for this to happen and a clear business opportunity for someone to provide such a service.

A consultant’s guide to the provision of services relating to the Site Waste Management Plans Regulations 2008 and Best Practice Guidance has now been published by the Association for Project Safety and is available for those who wish to offer the additional service of ‘Site Waste Management Plan Client Adviser’ to their clients or who wish to know more about the whole subject of Site Waste Management.

“Advising clients about Site Waste Management” provides consultants with information and procedures that they can use to help clients and design teams meet the challenges of effective site waste management on projects. The guide: • • • • • • • • • •

Gives a concise background to Site Waste Management Outlines the costs of site waste and the environmental benefits of Site Waste Management Plans and planning to increase recovery, recycling, and re-use of materials and to reduce site waste Provides an overview of the Site Waste Management Plans Regulations 2008 and Best Practice Guidance Explains the implications of the Regulations and Best Practice Guidance Outlines “who does what” in different parts of the United Kingdom Suggests services that consultants can provide to help clients and design teams deal with their Site Waste Management obligations Demonstrates the synergies between these services and CDM processes and requirements Provides a step-by-step guide to working as a client adviser dealing with Site Waste Management Plan issues

This ‘Advise and Assist’ process often parallels the duties of the CDM co-ordinator under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. The Association for Project Safety, which has in-depth knowledge and experience of CDM coordination practice, has used its experience to help develop this ‘step-by-step’ guide so that this additional service to clients can be offered by CDM co-ordinators, as well as other consultants.

They will then be acting as an adviser to clients on Site Waste

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Management - a ‘Site Waste Management Plan Client Adviser’ - a clumsy term but it says exactly what is in the tin!

Because the Site Waste Management Plans Regulations and Best Practice Guidance also directly, or indirectly, require clients to make sure that others carry out certain duties, clients will expect assistance from designers and certainly designers will need to consider their obligations in supplying the information required in the Regulations. It is clear that in many instances clients will need a specific adviser to ensure that their duties are properly discharged and that all parties work together to comply with these new Regulations (in England) or the Best Practice recommended in other parts of the United Kingdom. The CDM coordinator, who, for most construction projects valued at £300,000 or more will already have been appointed, is in an admirable position to provide efficient and targeted advice to the client on all of these matters and this is the basic premise upon which this guidance is based. On the other hand consultants who wish to provide a separate advice service to clients will also find that this guide helps them deliver that service consistently and effectively.

“Advising Clients about Site Waste Management” shows that there are simple ways of harnessing the benefits of the Site Waste Management Plans Regulations 2008 (and Site Waste Management Best Practice) that will help clients with their obligations and duties, assist them in reducing the costs of project waste and enable them to maximise environmental gains – all of which can be compelling concerns in contemporary project realisation.

Copies of the Guide, priced at £34.00 incl P&P for members and £44.00 incl P&P for non-members, can be obtained by contacting the Association for Project Safety, Stanhope House, 12 Stanhope Place, Edinburgh, EH12 5HH, T: 08456 121 290, E: info@aps.org. uk, www.aps.org.uk

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F i re S afe t y

Even a good product, if poorly installed, will not provide the required fire performance. FIRAS, Warrington Certificationís Installer Certification scheme, has been at the forefront of improving standards in the installation of fire protection products and systems since 1995

How the FIRAS Scheme can help building owners comply with new fire safety legislation In October 2006, the long awaited and much discussed “Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order 2005” came into force.

This legislation places obligations on the “responsible person” to ensure the fire safety of a building. This person, who could be the managing agent, owner, employer, occupier or other person who has control over all or part of the building, is responsible in law for conducting a fire risk assessment to ensure that all persons using the building can escape safely in the event of a fire, that fire precautions comply with building regulations, and that they are installed and maintained properly.

Guidance on complying with the legislation is included in a series of 11 “Fire Safety Risk Assessment” documents covering different types of building from schools to shopping centres, hospitals, hotels, residential care homes etc. These documents are available as downloads from the government’s “Communities and Local Government” website (previously know as the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister).

Failure to comply with the requirements of this new legislation could result in the building owner or operator being subject to fines of an unlimited amount and/or a two year jail sentence should they be unable to demonstrate that they have taken all practicable steps to achieve a “fire safe building”.

This legislation is causing building owners and occupiers to question the adequacy of the fire protection in existing buildings and that being specified and installed in buildings currently in

construction, (evidence of this is apparent in the growing number of ‘third party inspection assignments’ which Warringtonfire Certification is being called upon to carry out).

For 13 years, Warrington Certification Limited has, with the support of trade association partners (such as ASFP, BWF, DHF, GGF, BAFSA and others) promoted the third party certification of contractors and installers of fire protection in buildings through the FIRAS scheme. The aim of the FIRAS scheme is to certificate reputable and competent installers of “proven” fire protection

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products and systems to enable these installers to provide clients with confidence that the job is carried out correctly to agreed specifications.

How can the building owner or operator be sure that the fire protection products and systems in their building are correctly installed so that should they be called upon to perform in the event of a fire they will do so?

A way of gaining this assurance is for the installation of fire protection products and systems to be installed by contractors and installers who are third party certificated as part of an industry scheme such as FIRAS, which enables the installer to provide a “meaningful” certificate of conformance supported by a UKAS accredited certification body who have expertise in the field of fire protection.

At this point a word of caution is appropriate as since the implementation of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order new “installer certification” schemes are being launched to provide “certification” of the installer’s passive fire protection products and systems. An area in which new “certification schemes” appear to be focussing their attention is the compartmentation area of passive fire protection, particularly penetration seal installation (fire stopping).

Warrington Certification recommends that clients check the validity of the “certification” held by installers and what level of confidence this certification provides.

• Is the installer’s third party certification issued by a UKAS accredited certification body?

• Does the certification body carry our periodic or /annual audit of the installer’s’ “quality systems”?

• Does the certification body carry out periodic/random inspections of the actual installation work on site to check that it is done correctly using the appropriate tested and proven materials?

• Beyond any initial training of the installer, before issuing certification, is there any ongoing competence assessment of the installer or their employees?

• Does the certification body monitor the “Certificates of Conformance” being issued upon completion of work?

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•

Does the certification body monitor that the installer is not issuing “Certificates of Conformance” for work outside the scope of certification issued, (i.e. issuing C of C’s of intumescent coating when the installers certificated scope only covers penetration sealing)?

As those installers certificated under the FIRAS scheme will know, anyone asking these questions of a FIRAS certificated installer can positively respond “YES”.

The FIRAS scheme criteria are based upon practical competence, supported by the knowledge rather than making discipline training course a mandatory component of the schemes.

This approach to assess the knowledge of those installing the protection through underpinning knowledge questioning and to verify their practical competence by watching the installers at work has proved much less disruptive to the installer companies as this can be conducted at site. Underpinning this is the ongoing random inspection by FIRAS Inspectors of 15-20% of all installation jobs carried out by companies and the inspection of the installer company’s office system and maintenance of their project records.

The scheme has grown in stature over the past years to a point where a number of major retail companies, health authorities and trusts, university estates management operations and mass transport organisations are now specifying that fire protection packages should be undertaken by FIRAS certificated contractors.

The FIRAS Scheme is a voluntary certification scheme and those installer companies who become certificated as part of the FIRAS Scheme pay an annual fee related to their activity level in fire protection installation. In view of this there is no cost to the specifier or client for whom the fire protection work is being done.

Sceptics may say that because a company is not registered as part of the UKAS accredited third party certification scheme such as FIRAS it does not mean that they will produce bad work which is not in compliance with project specifications. This is of course very true but without certification there is no assurance of the quality of the work unless the ‘responsible person’ is going to take the time to check out the installer company’s works

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themselves or employ an inspection body to do so.

The specifier benefits as he is employing an installer who has proven competence and is able to issue a third party backed certificate of conformance on completion of the contract works.

In addition, he or the main contractor or client may be invited by the FIRAS installer company to attend and witness the random inspections.

The growth and industry recognition of the FIRAS Scheme has resulted in a company’s entry in the list of FIRAS Registered Installation companies (available on the Warrington Certification website) becoming the criterion by which “Metronet” approve passive fire protection installation companies for carrying out fire protection works on the underground system, and other organisations are now following suit.

The FIRAS Scheme continues to develop to benefit those

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certificated as part of it and the construction industry to which the scheme is ultimately providing a service.

The more recently introduced areas of the FIRAS scheme, the residential and domestic sprinkler installation scheme (developed in 2003) to introduce a voluntary, controlled regime for contractors working in this relatively new area of fire protection, and the commercial and industrial sprinkler systems installation scheme are both continuing to expand.

The residential and domestic sprinkler installation scheme section of the FIRAS scheme was developed to provide reassurance to building control, fire officers and building owners that sprinkler installations in residential accommodation and domestic dwellings are designed and installed by competent contractors in compliance with appropriate industry standards.

Here again the FIRAS scheme assists the building owner in demonstrating compliance with RRO. Part of the requirements of registration of this part of the scheme involves random system design review to ensure that the design of the fire protection (as well as its installation) is appropriate to the risk posed by the fire to the building.

The FIRAS scheme is currently expanding to address the maintenance of installed products and systems as appropriate.

This will align the passive sections of the scheme with the sprinkler scheme requirements which already identify that installers should provide a maintenance agreement with each installed system. Here again the FIRAS scheme certificated installers will be providing a service which satisfies a requirement of the RRO. In conclusion, since the “Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order” has become legislation, building owners and operators are required by law to demonstrate compliance with its requirements, so why not allow the FIRAS Scheme to assist in this process?

Those wishing to find a FIRAS installer to undertake passive or active fire protection installations can review the list of certified companies available at www.firas-database.co.uk

Think Third Party Certification Says Fire Expert Leigh Hill, a leading fire technical expert and business development manager at Warrington Certification, highlights the importance of ‘third party certification’ for construction products in addition to CE marking, which will be mandatory in all European member States including the UK, Sweden and Finland if the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) is implemented in 2012.

“In the case of fire protection products and services, independent third party certification is critical to ensure that a product or solution is fit for purpose and will deliver the designated fire performance in a life or death situation. However, many manufacturers are under the impression that CE marking their products will remove the need for third party certification, but this could not be further from the truth!

“CE Marking was adopted by the European Union to establish a single market, allow free trade and foster economic development within the member states. In many cases CE Marking has allowed products to be imported from all over the world and this is where potential quality and performance issues can come in to play.

In some areas products can be self-certificated to demonstrate compliance with the essential requirements of the Construction Products Directive (CPD).

“While CE Marking permits a product’s access in to the EU, it is not an approval or quality mark nor is it intended to be a marketing tool. CE is a “marking”, which demonstrates that the product has fulfilled the minimum requirements imposed through

Part of the rigorous testing which fire doors have to undergo to achieve CERTIFIRE

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the CPD. In some cases there is no requirement for independent testing or verification of the factory production control.

“CE marking also does not address the issues of compatibility, for example on which doors a particular piece of hardware can be used, and for which fire resistance period it is suitable. This can have serious consequences as a product will only give the desired level of fire performance if it is partnered with the correct sub-components and is installed by a competent installation contractor.

“Increasingly using third party certification allows manufacturers to demonstrate performance differentiation and gain a market advantage over their competitors. A CE marked product is immediately more attractive if it has the additional benefits of independent third party certification, such as CERTIFIRE, the well established product conformity scheme offered by Warrington Certification.

CERTIFIRE was launched in 1988 to provide a third party certification mark for passive fire products and although voluntary, CERTIFIRE’s popularity has grown considerably since product manufacturers increasingly appreciate the benefits that independent product verification brings.

The five key elements to CERTIFIRE take it far beyond CE marking and include inspection and surveillance of a factory production control system, initial type testing on independently sampled product, design appraisal against a technical schedule, assessment of a defined field of application and on-going audit testing.

Fire performance is only one aspect of the performance that is evaluated under the scheme. The product must also be ‘fit for purpose’ and in addition to the fire performance and quality aspects, CERTIFIRE addresses the other essential characteristics relevant to the product to ensure maximum performance in a fire situation.

“Warrington Certification’s CERTIFIRE scheme enables a product manufacturer to distinguish his products from the rest,”

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F i re S afet y explains Leigh Hill.

“A good example of where CERTIFIRE is ideal is with doorsets that have fire or smoke resistance. With so many different types of doorset, ironmongery and glazing apertures for example available, it is very easy to specify a complete doorset that will not perform in a fire, even when it is assembled from tried and tested products from reputable manufacturers.

“The interaction of all the components of a fire door is critical to its ability to function satisfactorily and provide the intended fire performance. If each of the components have been approved to a recognised scheme such as CERTIFIRE, specifiers can be reassured that all the components will work together in a fire situation”.

“In a nutshell, third party certification offers the specifier, architect, contractor, building owner, regulator or any combination of these confidence when purchasing or selecting the product. Choosing a product, which carries the badge or mark of a reputable third party certification body, will give safeguards as to the performance of the product in its end use application.

“Also, in the rare event of a failure, it will help to mitigate against the accusation of possible negligence, which may be directed towards the one of the individuals mentioned earlier.

For more information, contact Warrington Certification on 01925 655116; alternatively, visit www.warringtonfire.net

First Ukas Approved Fire Risk Assessor Certification Scheme Launched Warrington Certification Limited, (WCL), has launched the first United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited ‘third party certification’ scheme for fire risk assessors; in partnership with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The Fire Risk Assessors Certification Scheme (FRACS) is the only competent persons certification scheme for fire risk assessors, complying with the requirements of BS EN ISO/IEC 17024:2003 – the internationally accepted standard for bodies operating certification of competent persons; and it is the only competent fire risk assessors scheme in the UK to have national accreditation status from UKAS. The scheme is open to any practicing fire risk assessor who wishes to prove their competence through third party assessment. For individuals affiliated to the RICS, the scheme provides the basis for entry onto a register of competent fire risk assessors held and managed by the RICS. All assessors who are certificated against the requirements of the standard are issued with a photo identity card and also listed on the WCL website: www.warringtonfire.net/riskassessor The scheme has been developed in response to the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, that requires a ‘suitable and sufficient’ fire risk assessment for the purpose of life safety to be carried out, and subsequently maintained by the ‘responsible person’; workplaces, public buildings, sleeping accommodation, (hotels) care homes, licensed premises and houses in multiple occupancy (flats) are all subject to the RRO regulations. Individually owned domestic homes are generally exempt from the order.

‘Responsible persons’ who wish to appoint a ‘competent’ fire risk assessor to carry out a fire risk assessment on their behalf, should ensure that any assessor they appoint is ‘competent’ to complete the assessment. With no regulation or control from Central Government, currently anyone can set themselves up as a practising fire risk assessor regardless of knowledge experience or training. Third party certification is increasingly being recognised by government, end users and within the fire safety industry as being essential for fire risk assessors. FRACS sets a level of quality assurance previously unavailable in the UK

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Candidates who apply for certification undergo a comprehensive two stage process to demonstrate their technical competence; stage one involves a detailed review of previous work carried out by the assessor, and stage two is a three part technical interview. Only assessors who pass both stages become certificated, and in order for them to maintain certification they must continue to demonstrate their competence by satisfying on going surveillance criteria every two years.

Simon Ince at Warrington Certification said: “Just like other certification schemes from Warrington Certification Limited, we anticipate that FRACS will rapidly become ‘the industry standard’. The comprehensive nature of the assessment procedure, its impartiality and UKAS accreditation, already means this is the highest ‘quality standard’ available in the UK to date. We anticipate that end users will, as standard practice, start to insist on having independent competence assessment as part of any due diligence process in selecting a competent fire risk assessor. FRACS is the first and currently the only competent person certification scheme for fire risk assessors in the country and therefore demand for FRACS assessors will be very high for the foreseeable future. Rest assured that assessment standards will be maintained at a high level in order to maintain the value of the scheme.

With enforcement authorities handing out more and more enforcement notices and with potential fines of up to £20,000 for non compliance with the fire safety order, the ‘competence’ of an appointed fire risk assessor is something that the ‘Responsible Person’ can not afford to ignore” For more information, please contact Simon Ince on 01925 655116 www.warringtonfire.net

Focus on 2010 RIBA Awards In this issue of Premier Construction, we take a look at the 2010 RIBA awards, given out to outstanding building projects across the UK and even beyond.

RIBA Awards are given for buildings that have high architectural standards and make a substantial contribution to the local environment. The awards are annual, and have been running continuously since 1966.

Nominations All RIBA chartered members and International Fellows are eligible to enter as many of their projects as they wish the awards. They need submit only one entry to the RIBA region or nation in which the building is situated. Winning schemes are then considered for all RIBA awards for which they are eligible.

Awards judges take into account the following factors when considering entries: • Budget • Size • Complexity of brief • Detail • Invention/originality • Contract type • Client satisfaction • Sustainability • Social factors • Delight Since the application process is so open, judges have to sift through hundreds or even thousands of contenders, indicating that the final few left in contention represent real architectural quality.

Judging process The buildings are judged in the first instance by shortlisting panels in each region, who visit schemes individually and meet to produce a list of buildings to be visited by the region’s jury.

Each regional jury is made up of a regional representative, a lay assessor from various disciplines and the jury chair, who is a nationally renowned architect and chairs the shortlisting panel.

They visit the shortlisted projects, talking to clients and users and assessing design excellence irrespective of style, size or complexity of the project. The jury changes every year.

Each RIBA Award-winning project is sponsored and produced by the Lead Sheet Association. The association has been supporting the RIBA Awards since 1989 by producing the plaques, which are individually numbered and recorded, and can be seen on buildings all over the UK.

2010 Awards The award-winning buildings range from a small circular loo for bus drivers in London to the Neues Museum in Berlin, from a zero-carbon house to the energy substation for the 2012 Olympics. The high arts have done well with galleries, museums, theatres and auditoriums winning many awards (including the Ashmolean Musuem, Nottingham Contemporary and Aldeburgh Music Campus). Education buildings have also flourished with 17 of the 93 UK awards going to schools and universities.

Another feature of the RIBA Awards this year are public spaces pavilions, monuments, Liverpool Pierhead and the Infinity Bridge in Teesdale have all picked up an award.

RIBA President Ruth Reed said about the 2010 RIBA Award winners: ‘The RIBA Awards reflect not only the state of British architecture but also that of its economy. In the midst of the deepest recession in the 45 year history of the RIBA Awards, this year’s awards demonstrate that although times might be hard for architects, there are still great buildings being built throughout the country and overseas. The RIBA Awards always give an opportunity for gem-like small projects and less established practices to shine through and this year is no exception. Far from being a size prize, the RIBA Awards are for buildings that offer value to people’s lives.”

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Innovative conversion adds Malcolm Fraser to list of RIBA high-achievers Macolm Fraser Architects join the list of RIBA successes with their impressive £8 million conversion of the Infirmary Street Baths in Edinburgh. The disused Victorian building has been turned into a new workshop and public gallery for Dovecot Studios, Scotland’s leading tapestry company. Main contractor Reywood was responsible for bringing the design to reality.

Constructed in the years between 1885-87, in response to a cholera outbreak, the Infirmary Street Baths was the first of several handsome public pools designed by architect Robert Morham, many of which still exist. The pools were filled by turning a tap with a huge spanner, and it is said that famous actor Sean Connery used to frequent the pool.

The women’s pool suffered a fire in the 1950s. While the surviving pool continued in use, the roofless women’s pool sprouting foliage and with its windows bricked up - became quite an eyesore. Infirmary Street Baths finally closed in 1995, as the local council baulked at the prospect of £20 million to bring the baths up to date, and the Grade B listed building languished on the Buildings at Risk Register, facing possible demolition.

Now, after being rescued for the conversion, the main workshop re-uses the main swimming pool space and the public viewing gallery will become a new display area for the work of the studios. Dovecot’s design rooms, offices and supplementary accommodation have been located beneath the gallery space and the yarn library and tufting process form a vibrant and colourful visual backdrop to the work space.

The once subdivided entrance foyer, which was separated for men and women, has been made into a single, welcoming space in the new building, and provides direct access to the gallery and exhibition spaces located within the former main pool. Above and within the former ladies’ pool are located Dovecot’s new offices. The former and laundry and boiler house spaces have allowed for a small number of residential apartments, accessed independently from the rest of the building.

Externally, the existing stone walls of the original swimming pool are maintained and consolidated to or a robust base course, while new volumes above are conceived as simple zinc clad boxes with large glazed elements maximising the quality of light, space and city views.

Since reopening in 2009, the building has been a RIAS Dolan Award Finalist and won a Roses Silver Award. It also features on the 2010 Scottish shortlist for a prestigious RIBA award However, the tribute about which Malcolm Fraser and Dovecot can feel proudest comes from the Cockburn Association, Edinburgh’s civic trust and a doughty defender of architectural

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heritage. The association has nominated the Infirmary Street Baths for a Scottish Civic Trust My Place award. The award seeks “to celebrate a project that has had a positive impact and offered additional benefits in a local community” and “local placemaking”. The conversion of the baths showcases a “considered, respectful and vigorous mixed-use development”, according to Malcolm Fraser.

Project showcases monumental expertise A prestigious, award-winning £4.9 million project to upgrade one of the City of London’s most outstanding landmarks and visitor attractions has been carried out at the Monument - a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade I Listed Building in Monument Street, London EC3.

Every year, over 100,000 visitors climb the 311 spiral steps to the Monument’s viewing gallery to enjoy unique and exhilarating views across the capital. The Monument closed in July 2007 for an 18-month programme of improvements and repairs funded by the City of London Corporation and completed in February 2009.

Principal Contractors were Cathedral Works Organization; Architects & Lead Consultants were Julian Harrap Architects; Structural Engineers were Hockley & Dawson; Quantity Surveyors were Davis Langdon LLP; Electrical Services Consultants were The Spencer Clarke Partnership, the CDM Coordinators were Johnson & Mather and the orb conservators and gilders were London-based Hare & Humphreys.

Due to the difficulty and expense of scaffolding the 202 ft column, the Monument is only scaffolded approximately every 80 – 100 years. The brief was to undertake external repairs for a very long life span from the scaffold, repair the interior and re-present the building for visitors, This included replacing and upgrading all services with all the cables being brought up the stairwell in spiral stainless steel conduits, each shaped on site to fit the diminishing circumference of the stairwell. Other works

included replacing the 1950s balustrade and cage at viewing platform level with a new design that improves visitor circulation and safety and enhances the visitor experience.

The viewing platform was covered with asphalt for many years and this was removed revealing six huge slabs of original black limestone. Originally only an iron balustrade around the perimeter restrained visitors, but following six suicides over the balustrade in the 19th century, a cage was added above the handrail to prevent further incidents. The balustrade and cage were replaced in the 1950s with a basic steel bar enclosure.

Early design drawings and Roman precedents have informed the new balustrade design, of widely spaced square balusters each appearing to be lead caulked into the stone platform. Only alternate balusters are actually structurally embedded to avoid inducing a crack along the edge of the black limestone.

Ambitions for the cage above the heavy and reassuring balustrade were to create a lightweight birdcage hanging from the stone dome beneath the flaming orb. The curved profiles of the slim structural members are cloaked in fine stainless steel cable mesh, its diamond pattern distorting as it stretches over the bulbous lower frame and contracting at the slim neck beneath the dome. The curved form of the cage avoids reflecting blocks of light, with the mesh almost invisible from afar and less obtrusive to the high level viewer than the former prison-like bars.

The throwing of potentially lethal large objects has be prevented, (which unfortunately has been known). New telescopes have been designed and integrated with the stainless steel handrail which was widened to receive them. The stainless steel tubes of the cage contain electric cables to the telescopes, lighting and discrete CCTV cameras surveying the viewing platform.

Further works comprised repairing and re-gilding the copper flaming orb, structural restraining of the wrought iron armature supporting the orb and structural repairs to stone courses dislodged by movement at high level. A major element of work was cleaning the entire Portland stone exterior and repairing the

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fluted shaft, carvings of dragons and the sculpture relief panel

by Claus Cibber.

Four large carved stone paterae, each to new designs, replaced those which had been removed from the underside of the abacus in the 19th century. The black limestone viewing platform was stripped of its later asphalt coating and repaired, together with the entire black limestone spiral staircase which had suffered damage.

The lightning protection system was renewed and discretely connected to the internal wrought iron balustrade, which itself was repaired, re-caulked in lead and its spiral oak handrail repaired and re-polished. A calcium-silicate paint was applied to the interior allowing the masonry walls to breathe, and bespoke slim bronze casements were designed and fixed into repaired rebated window slits. A new pair of oak doors were installed, replacing the previous 1980s entrance door.

Innovative LED light strips fixed to the slim square stair balusters, now light the spiral staircase. A panoramic camera system produces real time images of the views from the top of the Monument which are then manipulated with software by date from a weather station on top of the flaming orb to produce a mesmerising moving image, available on the internet, and on a screen in Monument Yard.

Repairs to The Monument have been carried out approximately every hundred years, with work last undertaken in 1888.

The Monument commemorates the Great Fire of London. As part of the rebuilding after the fire, it was decided to erect a permanent memorial near the place where the fire began.

Sir Christopher Wren, Surveyor General to King Charles II and the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and his friend and colleague, Dr Robert Hooke, provided a design for a colossal Doric column in the antique tradition. They drew up plans for a column containing a cantilevered stone staircase of 311 steps leading to a viewing platform. This was surmounted by a drum and a copper urn from which flames emerged, symbolising the Great Fire. The Monument, as it came to be called, is 61 metres high (202 feet) - the exact distance between it and the site in Pudding Lane where the fire began.

The column was completed in 1677.

Hare & Humphreys Ltd Hare & Humphreys Ltd, conservators and gilders of the Monument’s glittering flaming orb. were awarded the investigation into original treatments and the gold leaf contract

by Julian Harrap.

Led by Project Director Peter Hare, Hare & Humphreys assisted in the creation of the conservation brief, undertaking the microscopic paint investigation phase and the preparation and application of two layers of 23.5 carat gold leaf.

Hare & Humphreys was founded in 1986, during the three-year Spencer House restoration project where they worked with interior designer David Mlinaric, Lord Rothschild and Princess Diana before going on to carry out work at the National Gallery, Windsor Castle, The British Museum and The Royal Opera House. The company has a history of working on prestigious projects and continues to undertake works of national and international importance.

See their website at www.hare-humphreys.co.uk

Pyramid Visuals Pyramid Visuals provided covering to protect the structure during construction work, and used their expertise to print images of the project on 25m x 15m panels, using specialist welding techniques to assemble the display and skilled abseiling and scaffolding to mount them.

The company can provide theatre backdrops, retail display units, advertising displays, visuals for sporting events, commercial vehicle and building wrapping and all varieties of visual panelling for the construction industry as part of its range of services.

A 20-strong team based in Kent continues 17 years of experience in the commercial printing sector accumulated by directors Justin Murray and Scott Meader.

Says Scott, “As an example of our recent work, we completed a Hoarding at Imperial College for Laing O’Rourke and continually do work for London Agencies and BskyB. We tend to supply the construction industry with hoardings, flags, site signage, temporary fencing, building wraps, showroom fit outs and billboard materials”.

Pyramid offer a complete service from initial concepts, design, and manufacture, through to installation, distribution and fulfilment.

Find out more at www.pyramidvisuals.co.uk

Something for the Tourists Tourist Telescopes worked with Judith Allen of Julian Harrap Architects to produce their unique Talking Telescopes to complement the viewing platform at The Monument.

The telescopes, manufactured in 316 stainless steel, were designed as a built-in feature with optical components above the handrail and coin operated function below it.

The telescopes each feature seven languages, enhancing the visitor experience whilst raising revenue for The Corporation of London towards the upkeep of The Monument.

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Inspirational extension adds a new dimension

Studio Octopi won a RIBA London Award 2010 for the architectural design of their residential extension to a Victorian end of terrace house in North London. The project also won Best Extension in the Grand Designs Awards 2010.

Main Contractors for the project were Famella Ltd and the Structural Engineers were Price & Myers.

The house’s first resident was its original builder who had maximised the property’s triangular plot by aligning the side of the building so that it fanned outwards to meet an adjacent public footpath. This resulted in the creation of additional space on the ground floor between the living and dining rooms. It was the divisional nature of this space (previously used as a utility room) that the client asked Studio Octopi to resolve.

The utility room was relocated, freeing the space to allow for an extension that linked the living areas.

A series of folded paper sketch models were used in developing the design of the new extension, exploring the geometry and aspect of the triangular plot. The lines of the roof ridges were drawn out from two points on the rear wall of the house, whilst the elevations extend the lines of the living room and the external rear wall of the kitchen.

The new structure is clad entirely in black zinc, with the standing seams of the roof emphasising its complex topography and echoing the folds created in the paper concept models.

From a distance, the structure appears as a strong geometric form that has ‘grown’ out from the back of the house, but at closer quarters, its edges appear to soften and the malleability

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of the zinc and the very slight billows in its surface come into focus.

Internally, a cantilevered island unit clad in seamless black granite divides the kitchen from the living space, bridging the step down to the kitchen. This feature is echoed in the granite terraces leading out into the garden.

Trench Heating Ltd Trench Heating Ltd. were engaged to manufacture the bespoke in-floor perimeter heating units for this project.

The client required a precisely measured trench heater unit with a solid American oak hardwood grille. The unit comprised saddle detailing, mitred corners and intricate circular cut-outs to create a ‘seamless’ look for the final installation.

Trench Heating enjoy a good working relationship with both the architects and the contractors, which they hope will lead to further co-operation.

Trench Heating Ltd was formed as a separate company three years ago, having had five years previous build-up expertise with a sister company.

With a manufacturing base comprising 3000 sq ft, 12 personnel and up-to-date computerised machinery, Trench Heating cover a wide range of installations from large commercial work to individual domestic units - all on a bespoke basis. Their product is supplied in virtually completed units requiring minimal assembly and connection to be undertaken by the contractor.

New Stobhill Hospital 07H © AndyMcGregor

Glasgow hospital continues to pick up awards One of the most decorated healthcare projects in recent times, New Stobhill Hospital has recently won another award to add to the growing list, which already includes recognition from RIBA, and the Scottish Design Awards.

The Design & Health International Academy Awards recently called Stobhill ‘the best international health project under 40,000 square meters’, and the hospital beat off competition from all corners of the globe to scoop the award.

Fresh from a trip to Canada to accept the award, Reiach & Hall’s Andy Law spoke to Premier Construction:

“Healthcare facilities don’t usually feature widely in award ceremonies, so it’s certainly an honour. It’s a high point of my 24 years in the profession.”

Asked what motivated his design, Andy was clear: “It’s designed to be a calming, supportive environment. It’s easy to know where you’re going and there’s plenty of daylight, which helps with what can be a stressful experience.

“Another thing we took into account was the potential requirement for the building to be expanded without lowering the quality of the building, as so often happens in hospitals. We designed spaces that will be easy to expand if required, without taking anything away from the environment we originally tried to create.

“I’m confident that our plans will stand up to the challenge of extension – they’ll have to, as we’re in the middle of one already!”

The hospital is to receive a 60-bed block extension, to be complete by February 2011. Main contractor Balfour Beatty has been at the heart of both phases of the Stobhill project.

RIBA Award for Scottish Sports Facility Aberdeen Sports Village, designed by architects Reiach & Hall and constructed by main contractor Barr, has scooped a RIBA award for its stylish and functional features.

The new sporting development, which has been built on the site of the former Chris Anderson Stadium through partnering bodies Aberdeen City Council, the University of Aberdeen and SportScotland, features a full size indoor football pitch, indoor running straight, large games hall, squash courts and exercise studios as well as a large fitness suite and conference facilities.

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Aberdeen Sports 04H © Ioana Marinescu

The 3rd-generation, FIFA-approved pitch is one of the first of its kind in the UK and provides the perfect venue not only for football training but for all multi-sprint sports. It is made, in part, from recycled car tyres and is surrounded by viewing portals, carefully arranged to reflect the formations of World Cup winning teams and their colours.

ASV will also add an extra dimension to athletics provision in the region - boasting the best indoor athletics facility in Scotland.

The area comprises a 135m six-lane running straight, with specific, fully-equipped areas for long and triple jump, high jump and pole vault. Throwing events are also catered for with a stateof-the-art indoor throws cage, providing training opportunities for hammer, discuss, shot putt and javelin.

Standards at the Sports Village put it in a prime position to accommodate elite athletes and it has already been selected as a training venue for the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London.

Reiach & Hall’s Jim Grimley led the design team, and he spoke to Premier Construction about the team’s achievement: “Often, the attitude people bring to a building like this is no better than ‘let’s just get it built’. We tried to take a little more care than that, and that meant making it look as good as possible.

One way we tried to do that was to let as much natural light in as possible.

“The building is 210m long and highly visible from along the coast. From this view we wanted the building to have a calm and unimposing presence. We used polycarbonate cladding and worked closely with a German manufacturer to get customdesigned panels that matched the colours of the local skies, after taking hundreds of photos to determine the right tones The building blends in a little better with this kind of cladding. It’s a relatively cheap material, too, so it helped us to stay within the budget.

“We worked for a fantastic client group, who showed faith in us and allowed us to be flexible. They agreed that these buildings

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Aberdeen Sports 12H © University Aberdeen

should be more than just functional, and they agreed to take a tour of some of the most impressive sports buildings in Britain and Europe, such as the gymnastics centre in Paris and the English Institute of Sport buildings in Sheffield and Bath. The Paris building used a similar kind of poly carbonate cladding material, and the Sheffield one had the same team of engineers as we used in Aberdeen.

“It was a design and build project, and there were one or two of what I call ‘D and B moments’, but overall the construction stage went very well. We worked with Barr Construction on the project, and they were as open as we were to taking new directions – their team hadn’t worked with polycarbonate before, for example.

“Although the award wasn’t a consideration, it’s a pleasure to receive it, especially since you wouldn’t expect it of a sports village”.

Vocation Vocation Vocation

Manager in love with the job hits almost perfect H&S scores

Back for more

The award winner who’s back on site after 12 years out

Passivhaus

Innovation no barrier to outstanding site management

52 into 37

That’s houses and weeks who says a rapid builder can’t win awards?

My way or the highway

25 years in site management breeds no nonsense approach

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NHBC

NHBC’s Pride in the Job Awards

Celebrating Excellence in Site Management The National House Building council has announced the winners of its 2010 Pride in the Job Quality Awards.

Usually announced in June, the awards are presented to the best 400 site managers responsible for new build, conversion or housing association sites across the UK. In this special issue of Premier Construction, we go around the country to hear from a selection of the winners. They’ve told us the secrets to their success in getting the best out of their site teams, and their words will surely inspire the winners of the future.

Pride in the Job awards are won by site managers, not sites, site teams or companies. Site managers are automatically entered into the competition if they are working on sites of three or more homes which are registered with NHBC for warranty. There are no entry forms for Pride in the Job and no need to apply.

All site managers, whether they work for a large or small company have an equal opportunity to win an award and new build, refurbishments and housing association sites are all eligible.

Judging by the NHBC Building Inspectors begins in July and continues throughout the year with every eligible NHBC registered site manager being considered for an award.

Categories Site managers are placed into four builder categories:

Small builder - For sole traders with responsibility for site

management or site managers employed by a company (or group of companies), who register between 3 and 50 new homes with the NHBC each year.

Medium builder - For site managers employed by a company (or group of companies) who register between 51 and 1000 new homes with the NHBC each year.

Large builder - For site managers employed by a company (or group of companies) who register 1001 or more new homes with the NHBC each year.

Multi-storey builder - For site managers working on multistorey projects, this category set required o run this type of a structure over three storeys of build are eligible e.g. steel, traditional build.

recognises the different skill site. Multi-storey is defined as for multi-occupancy. All types timber or concrete frame and

Judging Criteria The NHBC’s site inspections rely on a strict set of judgement guidelines that each potential winner must tackle. Here are some examples of what the judges are looking for:

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•

Consistency - Consistently high standards of site management must be shown through quality workmanship across all trades on site.

•

Leadership - Excellent leadership skills, reflected by a

•

Technical expertise - The ability to knowledgeably

•

Interpretation - The ability to skilfully interpret drawings and specifications and successfully turn the designer’s intention into reality.

•

Health and safety - Efficient health and safety controls

•

The ‘X factor’ - The competition is intense and NHBC

high level of morale and motivation on site.

and skilfully resolve any issues on site, such as problematic ground conditions.

in place and evidence that the welfare of all employees on site is considered.

judges have to see something quite special to nominate a site manager for an award. From the standard of workmanship, to the welfare of staff, a site manager must get involved with every aspect on site and work to continually to raise standards.

About NHBC The NHBC is the standard setting body and leading warranty and insurance provider for new and newly converted homes in the UK. Started in 1936 as the National House-Builders Registration Council, NHBC has worked consistently to raise the construction standards of new homes and provide protection for new homebuyers.

As the UK’s leading warranty and insurance provider for new homes, NHBC’s Buildmark warranty cover more than 80% of new homes built in the UK and currently protects approximately 1.7 million homes. Over the past 40 years, NHBC has protected more than 30% of existing homes in the UK. There are approximately 20,000 house builders and developers on NHBC’s Register (known as registered builders or registered developers), who agree to comply with NHBC rules and standards when building new homes.

NHBC employs over 1,100 staff, including 280 building inspectors across the UK, who carry out and collect data on around one million inspections at key stages of home construction each year. As well as inspectors, there are surveyors, engineers, energy assessors, health and safety, training, registration and claims staff, who all deliver NHBC’s key services to customers.

Find out more about the organisation and the awards at www.nhbc.co.uk

DAV I D W I L S O N H O M E S

Selling like hot cakes Dave Tolmie of David Wilson Homes (Southern) won his NHBC Pride in the Job award for his work at Lowbury Gardens in Compton, near Reading.

The site consists of 33 homes, of which 23 are intended for private buyers, while 10 are designated for housing associations.

Dave spoke with fitting pride to Premier Construction: “I’m delighted with the award. There was a major focus on health and safety on this site, and I’m proud to say that we had an excellent record. There were no accidents on the site.

“It’s tempting for people to cut corners, especially in summer when the urge is to dress down. Although I go for a friendly approach to management, I won’t budge when it comes to safety. It’s something you just can’t be flexible with” Asked about the particular features of the site, Dave commented, “The homes have gone to a wide range of people – from single mums to retired couples. It’s a quiet area, which is lovely if peace and quiet is what you’re looking for.

“Previously, there was just one large home on the site, with a large area of land adjoining it. The lady owner died a few years ago, and the house had to be demolished as it was in such a state that it couldn’t really be salvaged.

“The site was unusual in that we had to bridge in, building a 30ft steel and concrete bridge over a stream at the entrance. It was also a tight site, and we couldn’t get artics in. That was a headache, I can tell you!

“We also had environmental issues to watch out for. There were

My way or the highway David Wilson Homes’ Martin Bance, the man in charge of the Beaufort Park site in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, has an old-fashioned approach that he won’t change for the world. And why should he, in light of his recent NHBC Pride in the Job award for outstanding site management?

As Martin told Premier Construction recently, “It’s definitely my way or the highway on site. I’ve been doing the job for donkeys’ years [25, to be precise – Ed.] and the older you get, at least

a lot of bats living on the site, and we were required to build bat boxes so as not to ‘evict’ them. Issues like that can be frustrating for a site manager, but I understand the need for conservation.

It’s another one of those things you just have to deal with.

“We had up to 70 people working here at the busiest times, so it took a lot of organisation to keep things running smoothly”.

When asked how he got the best out of his team, Dave replied, “I explain that we have a shared goal and that people can come and see me if there’s an issue to sort out. It’s a fairly simple approach, and I feel it’s one that lets you deal with whatever is thrown at you. It also makes the work enjoyable, especially when the development is finished and everyone involved can look back with pride at what they’ve achieved”.

Work began on the site in September 2008 and was completed

by Christmas of 2009.

in my case, the more intolerant you get!

“In the past, when sites weren’t as highly regulated as they are now, the focus was a lot more on volume.

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NHBC

to management has developed out of those days.

“Don’t get me wrong, though – I’m not a monster of a boss! I just demand that everything is done properly because it comes back to me if anything goes wrong. I look after my guys on site. Naturally, that begins with things stipulated by regulations, such as health and safety. Like all sites, mine has a rule of ‘no kit, no work’.

“The difference is that I try to go beyond that and think of the individual as well. I ask the question, ‘Can this contractor do the

work?’, or, ‘Is he qualified enough for what I need?’ I then ask, ‘Is our health and safety up to scratch so that he’s safe in our hands?’ I also make sure not to give people too much work to do, as that ends with shoddy or unfinished jobs that can’t be blamed on anyone except me”.

The development consists of a range of 2, 3, 4 and 5 bedroom homes available in a range of styles and priced between £100,000 and £250,000. Wootton Bassett is a sought-after, picturesque Wiltshire market town, with convenient access to both Swindon and the M4.

Sometimes it’s just in the blood David Wilson Homes’ Martin Wiltshire received his award for the Beaufort Vale site, just outside Bristol. He puts his success down to being “someone others can look up to, as a person who knows what he’s talking about and, touch wood, the man who has the solution to the problem”.

“I was after an award”, he adds, “as I’d won one in the 80s before leaving the job to go into hire management. I’m glad to have come back, not only to be able to show I can still do it, but because I’ve never worked for a better company.”

The 301 units represent one of the larger sites to have produced NHBC award winners, and Martin can be proud to have managed an average of 70 workers on site with just the one assistant manager.

Houses on the site, which is into its final phase, range from 1 to 6 bedrooms, and around 17% are to be used by housing associations.

“I try to be visible on-site”, Martin explains, “and that goes right down to the small touches like a greeting in the morning and a

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word of thanks when the job is done.

“I’m 60 now, and I feel that experience is my most valuable asset. Plus there’s the fact that my father was a site manager as I started working at 16, and he was a site manager himself. I suppose you could say it’s in the blood!”

B A R R AT T & DAV I D W I L S O N H O M E S

NHBC Awards spread to West Yorkshire David Wilson Homes’ Andy Briddock picks up his award for the site known as ‘The Oaks’, situated in Whitwood, near Castleford in West Yorkshire. He is said to be “over the moon” with the award.

The three bedroom Hadley house type is a shining example of the well-designed homes on offer at The Oaks. The Hadley features a spacious ground floor sitting room boasting a beautiful bay window, which allows natural light to flood into the home. Prospective purchasers will also find an open plan kitchen and dining room with French doors leading on to the patio and rear garden, providing the perfect setting for the family to come together.

Part of the Barratt group, the housebuilder has been declared one of the highest quality homebuilders in the UK, with a rating of 5 stars in a recent decision made by the Housebuilders’ Federation.

Steve Jackson, sales director for David Wilson Homes Northern, commented, “This is an exciting new development ideally suited to first time buyers or growing families looking to make the next move into a spacious and flexible family home. We are delighted to be launching... and look forward to welcoming any prospective purchasers in Castleford down to The Oaks to find out about our great offering for themselves.”

The Oaks is ideally placed for young professionals and families alike, with the urban heartland of Leeds less than 15 miles away making it an ideal choice for commuters wanting to escape the hustle and bustle of city living.

B A R R AT T H O M E S

Laying your stall out “You have to lay your stall out from day one, and make sure that everyone knows what needs to be done”. Sound advice from Barratt’s Stuart Stokes, winner of the NHBC Pride in the Job award for his work on the Kensington Gardens site in Tyseley, near Birmingham.

Like many of his fellow award winners, Stuart started out in construction after leaving school at 15. Working as a carpenter with his father, Stuart followed a succession of family members into the trades.

According to Stuart, “Every site manager goes for the award, I reckon, as it’s a benchmark in the sector. That’s not to say that it’s easy to achieve, though. I’m extremely proud to have won it – it makes you realise that you and your team are appreciated and that you’re doing something right.”

Work is being carried out on the site of a former steel works and component manufacturing plant, which is already surrounded by residential developments.

The latest development to the area consists of 105 units, most of which are complete. Work at the site will be finished by March 2011, and Stuart is handing over the reins before moving on to lend his expertise to another of Barratt’s sites in the area.

Says Stuart, “I’ve been in my current post for eight years and I’m looking forward to carrying on. I’ll be doing my best to win more awards, that’s for sure”.

You certainly have our best wishes in your ongoing quest for success, Stuart.

Comfortable modern day living Brian Boulton of Barratt Homes scooped the NHBC Pride

in the Job award in recognition of his work at Kings Park in Birstall, near Batley in West Yorkshire.

Kings Park, situated in a well established and extremely popular residential area, is a development of 63 houses. The designs selected by Barratt are the result of extensive market research into what people want in a new home. Barratt have ROMA PUBLICATIONS

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Nbarret HBC consulted designers, architects and technical advisers in order to deliver such homes which include traditional exteriors, stylish interior layouts and extra features for “comfortable modern day living”.

Speaking to Premier Construction about his achievement, Brian said, “I’ve been in the industry for 31 years, so I understand the feeling you get when your efforts are recognised. I’m proud to be able to share that feeling.

“I also get a sense of achievement in being able to mix my ‘old-fashioned values’ with the demands of a modern construction project. I don’t like to sit on problems when they come up, whether it be a delay in a delivery or a health and safety requirement”.

The development continues to grow, and Brian is satisfied with the way things have gone so far: “We’ve got 40 of the houses lived in so far, and one of the most satisfying aspects of the job for me is to walk away from a happy home that you’ve helped to create from scratch.

“I’m still hungry for awards”, says Brian, “and if I weren’t, I’d see no point in being in this job. I enjoy coming to work, and long may that continue”.

Make sure you muck in The Cottons is a large new development outside Bolton, Lancashire, comprising a mix of one and two bed apartments, plus one, two, three & four bedroom Mewsstyle and semi-detached homes. The site is another award-winner for Barratt, whose site manager Ralph Heaton counts this latest award amongst an impressive 16 during his career to date.

If you ask Ralph about it, you’ll be surprised to find that he doesn’t have a secret recipe for success: “I just try to do my job to the best of my ability and surround myself with as many good people as possible. I keep my hands on and I muck in whenever I’m needed. I can’t claim it’s any more complicated than that!

“As always, I’m immensely proud to have been recognized for my work, and I’m lucky to have been with a good company and good colleagues. I’ve been at Barratt ever since I left school at 16 and, with a little help and determination, I’ve worked my way up from the bottom by starting as an apprentice bricklayer. My

family has a strong background in construction, so I suppose you could say it’s in the blood”.

Over 100 units will have come onto the North West’s housing market once Ralph’s work is done next year. “We’ve got 18 on the go at the moment”, says Ralph, “and we’re inspecting everything on a daily basis as usual. We won’t be slacking off just because we’ve won an award!”

It’s all about communication Bobby Gibson of Barratt Homes picked up his NHBC Pride in the Job award thanks to some outstanding work at the Hudson Bay site in East Kilbride, Glasgow.

And according to Bobby, it’s all about talking: “Communication and team work is key, as far as I’m concerned.

You need to explain things properly at all levels, not just on site.

That gives everybody a chance to express an opinion, and it also gives me a chance to make sure everyone abides by the rules!

“We have a good system at Barratt, which lets me express a preference for a particular subcontractor if I have one. Naturally, I don’t always have the final say when it comes to costing and so on, but there’s no doubt that my ideas are taken into consideration when my colleagues hand out contracts. Again, that all comes down to proper communication.

“The need for dialogue also extends to our relationship with homebuyers, handing over a quality built home and receiving good feedback in return. That’s what I enjoy most about my job, and it’s what encourages me to go for awards like this. I’m

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absolutely elated.”

The development sits on the former location of a school, which has been relocated to a new building a short distance away.

In all, 50 houses and 114 flats will have sprung up by the time work is complete by 2012. Barratt have included their range of 2 bedroom semi-detached and 4 bedroom detached homes. All have energy-efficient heating, double glazing and high standards of insulation to ensure a warmer home and lower fuel bills.

H E R I TAG E H O M E S

From the helmet to the hard hat Alan Crone has surpassed himself on behalf of Dandara at their Quay West site in Douglas on the Isle of Man. Formerly a military man, Alan, who hails from Ireland, has reinvented himself as an award-winning site manager after gaining a degree in construction management.

“I didn’t see a long career for me in the military”, Alan explains, “and I suppose it was natural to go into construction like a lot of others. I worked up to my degree over seven years, which allowed me to maintain a career in construction at the same time”.

The Quay West site features 64 units and is due for completion in September. All the residential units are apartments, and they are joined by luxury penthouses designed by architects from the mainland, as well as two commercial units. The recent NHBC award handed to Alan is not the site’s only claim to fame, as it recently won “Best Development in the Isle of Man” at the 2009 Daily Mail UK Property Awards.

Asked why he chose to move to the island, Alan says, “I came over with my partner and I wanted a change from city work and the chance to travel. The change of scenery has been fantastic and I’ve no plans to leave after eight happy years. What I like

about the island is that it’s small and intimate, which means that your reputation sticks. That encourages me, my colleagues and my subcontractors to work to the highest standards”.

He adds, “At 33, I’m still relatively young. I know that you have to give respect to get it back, and I make sure I listen to other people’s opinions, especially those with years of experience. I try to run my sites democratically, and I’m always willing to learn because of the constant change and use of new materials and systems within the industry. There’s no way you can show what you know if you’ve never learnt it, so it’s an ongoing process of give and take when you’re a site manager. I’m not afraid to stand my ground in order to get the job done, though!”

MILLER HOMES

Youngster boots reputation At the tender age of 30, Miller Homes’ Rob Piper is already the proud owner of two NHBC Pride in the Job awards, the latest earned at Miller’s Abbeyfields site in Burton-onTrent.

Speaking to Premier Construction, Rob enthused, “I’ve put a lot of effort into winning this award and I’m very happy to have made it again. I had a suspicion I might be a good contender, because it’s the kind of site that often gets recognition”.

After starting his career as an assistant sote manager at Bovis, Rob moved to Fairclough before Miller acquired the company.

Rob’s father runs a construction business that contracts to NHBC sites, so Rob already had a nose for the sector when he began his career at the age of 18.

He said, “It was natural for me to go into construction, but rather than work for the family business I preferred to try to make my own name in the industry. I’d never say never, but right now I’m enjoying my career and I’m aiming to progress”.

Awards aside, Rob has already carved his name into history in an innovative way. He explains, “There was a street on the development that didn’t have a name. I was joking with the planners and I suggested they name it Piper’s Lane. I was shocked to find out they’d taken me seriously!”

44 of the 59 homes at the site are finished, and Rob’s 50-strong team is hoping to wrap up by November.

Happy with his team

his career, however, he can rightfully bask in the limelight he has earned with a stunning performance at the Miller Homes Regents Park site in Fife.

A Glasgow Celtic supporter, Livingston-born Jim Martin has what could charitably be described as a mixed relationship with the word ‘success’. When it comes to

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winners, saying, “It’s been three years since I came to Miller, after working for around ten years as a site manager elsewhere, and in that time I’ve really felt that an award was in my reach. I’ve been given the tools and backing to go for the award and I’ve never been held back”.

Approaching his 50th birthday, Jim shows no sign of letting his work rate drop any time soon. He told Premier Construction, “I love doing this job and I can see myself doing it until I retire. I have a big family and they’re all behind me. I rang my wife the day I found out about the award and I went home later to find banners all over the place congratulating me!”

Proud of the work his team has put into the award, Jim says, “I knew very soon after coming onto the site that I had people with me who were going to do a good day’s work. I wouldn’t swap

any of them”.

Jim takes inspiration for his man management technique from his days as a football coach, and says, “If you want to get the best work out of someone, you have to understand that everyone is different. Some people need the heavy handed treatment, but others respond better to the ‘kid gloves’ approach.

“I did some football coaching until recently. I’ve got 12 grandchildren now, though, and it looks like that number will increase. I’m too exhausted after work and family to be running up and down the touchline!”

Of the 37 homes to be built on the site, 17 are left to be completed by a workforce averaging around 35 per day. Work began in September 2009, and Jim expects to be finished by June 2011.

Good housekeeping

“I get massive satisfaction out of running sites, especially when they win awards! “ The £4.6 million development has provided a mix of 40 affordable new homes and forms part of one of three sites acquired by Miller Homes from Telford College, which has re-

Spick and span is the secret for Andrew Fergusson, proud recipient of a Pride in the Job award following a superlative effort at the Telford Road site in Edinburgh.

Speaking to Premier Construction about the root of his success, Andrew said, “I demand good quality workmanship and tidy housekeeping on site. That way, the job is done properly, the site is organised and as presentable as you can hope for, and there is a reduced risk of accidents. I don’t go for the shouting and bawling approach; I just try to be firm but fair. I’ve found it’s the best way to earn respect from the people you work with.

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located to the Forth Quarter area of the city.

The project was completed at the end of April 2010, work having begun in February 2009, when ground work began. The 40 apartments are split across two blocks: 23 in a 5-storey block and a further 17 in a 4-storey block.

Andrew’s first taste of the construction industry was as a self-employed bricklayer, and he now has over 20 years of experience in the sector. Asked why he chose to abandon the roving, carefree life of the self-employed tradesman, he replied: “I’d worked for a client company on various projects. I got on well with the people there, and they must have been happy with my work because they made me a great offer to go and work for

them. That’s how I started on the path to site management, and I can’t say I’m too disappointed with the decision now”.

Andrew managed a team of up to 70 workers on the bustling site, which was surrounded by a hospital, a housing development and a major road into the city. Faced with the challenge of managing such a packed scene, Andrew simply put his experience to good use: “Experience definitely plays a big part. It tells you instinctively where to put that crane or how to get this lorry in and out quickly.”

Home Scotland was allocated the properties by Miller Homes on the old West Campus as part of a Section 75 agreement, which requires developers to allocate a certain number of new homes for affordable purposes.

In this instance, the one, two and three-bedroom flats will be allocated to people on Edinburgh City Council’s housing waiting lists.

Coming back for more In what is his second stint at Miller Homes, Gary Howieson has won an NHBC Pride In The Job award for his work at Cumbrae Gardens, located in Saltcoats, one of the ‘Three Towns’ clustered at the northern end of Irvine Bay, along with neighbouring Ardrossan and Stevenston.

The development consists of over 30 homes, which benefit from seaside views and easy access to Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Ayr. Further adding to the appeal of the development is Miller’s popular ‘MiWay’ shared equity initiative. With MiWay, buyers simply arrange their own finance for 80% of the purchase price and Miller Homes provides a loan to make up the other 20%.

This means that prices at Cumbrae Garden, which are currently released from £155,000, are only £124,000 under MiWay. With MiWay, the customer still owns 100% of the property from day one and has nothing to repay for up to 10 years. After 10 years, or when they sell or transfer their home, the buyer simply pays back the 20% of their home’s market value at that time.

Speaking about his award, Gary enthused, “My favourite thing

in this job is to see happy clients. I’m proud to have helped them find well-built homes for their families.

“I’ve been in the business for 20 years. I originally worked as a chef in my younger days, and I left the restaurant industry because although the job is satisfying, the pay can be low. What it has in common with the construction sector, though, is that there’s a lot of face-to-face work, which means you have to be able to get along with people.

Asked for a few words of advice for fellow site managers still vying for the award, Gary said, “All I can say is do your best in the job. That’s how I go about it, and it seems to have paid off!”

Silver Lining “I’m delighted with the award”, says Miller’s Jim Currie, “and it shows that every cloud has a silver lining, given the nervousness we’ve all been feeling in the industry lately”. Jim picks up his sixth NHBC award for an exemplary contribution to Miller Homes’ Cairnpark site in Edinburgh.

Jim held various posts before being appointed site manager with Miller. “I left school at 16 and went to work as a joiner.

After being self employed for seven or eight years, I eventually went on the books for a firm of shop fitters, before eventually arriving here, where I’ve been for four years.

The ten units on site are an extension to a previous development, and Jim is aiming to have his work complete by Christmas. He says, “It’s a busy site because sales are good, and I’ve got around 60 people working for me here on an average day”.

“I’ve got a good team, a good product and a good location, and a company whose ethos lends itself to winning awards, so the

site was well set up to win”, Jim modestly adds. Put under a little pressure to take some of the limelight for himself, he admits, “I suppose it demonstrates that you’ve still got a little drive in you.

In fact, I approach the job the same way I’ve always approached any job I’ve done, but when you get a taste of success, the motivation increases and you want to do more”.

No doubt we’ll be hearing more about Jim’s achievements in the future.

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NHBC B OV I S L E N D L E A S E

Colourful new London landmark features groundbreaking architecture A vibrant and colourful new London landmark totalling 500,000 sq ft in three 12 storey buildings, Central Saint Giles on Oxford Street, North Central London, is a striking mixed-use development that provides office space, 56 private apartments and 53 affordable homes, plus a selection of restaurant and retail units at ground level and an outdoor public piazza.

As the development continues to wow Londoners, the construction industry has taken note of the site’s successes, as site manager Guy Braithwaite scoops an NHBC Pride in the Job award for his continued marshalling of affairs.

The development is a joint venture between Legal & General Property Ltd and and MEC UK Limited which is a UK subsidiary of Japanese leading property owner and developer Mitsubishi Estate Company Ltd. Construction Managers are Bovis Lend Lease and Architects are the internationally renowned Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Structural and Mechanical & Electrical Engineers are Arup and Cost Consultants are Davis Langdon.

The new development is being constructed on the former site of an MOD building, which was demolished.

To ensure the development’s foundations do not intrude into the adjacent Crossrail tunnel exclusion zone, a complex cantilevered foundation for the building was developed by Arup, incorporating concrete piles that are a massive 1.5 metres thick.

The building is clad on the outside in ceramic tiles in bold shades

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of yellow, orange, green and red. The development’s 20 facades, varying in colour and size, are set at slightly different angles, and will attract the light differently, metamorphosing the building while walking along and around it. By contrast, the recessed facades between the different buildings will be composed of fully glazed floor to ceiling elements.

The development also features 17,000 sq ft of roof terraces, ‘green’ roofs and winter gardens.

The building’s eye-catching design has made it look permeable and inviting. The floating island of offices and apartments above a lively public piazza will become an exemplar for high-density, mixed-use development in the city.

Inside the development, the toilets for the commercial building from basement to level 10 are equally colourful and are constructed of light stone, ‘floating’ toilet cubicle doors and moulded vanity units The building’s specification includes 150m raised floors, air conditioning; 12 21-person passenger lifts and three goods lifts.

Parking includes 30 car spaces and 206 cycle spaces.

The development, which is designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating, and has a 20 per cent better energy performance than the current Part L regulations has numerous environmentally friendly features. 80 per cent of the heat in the development will be generated by a biomass boiler and 60 per cent of the water falling on the roof and piazza will be collected and used. The ‘green’ roofs and roof gardens will attenuate rainfall and heat build-up. In addition, 90 per cent of the project’s demolition materials are being recycled.

D U R K A N LT D

A man who knows what he’s talking about One of the more contemporary projects featured in this year’s NHBC awards is Greengate House in East London.

Durkan’s Chris Surmon is overseeing the design and build of 64 new apartments for shared ownership on the site of a former YMCA building, which was originally constructed in 1919.

will be utilised to construct additional affordable homes in a lowrise mews. Green sedum-based roof technology and biomass boilers are central to the environmental and renewable energy strategy of the development. The buildings will be grouped around a private landscaped courtyard.

Chris is very clear about his approach to such a tricky project, and indeed to all of his work: “I’m very keen on planning and organization. That most likely comes from my background as an estimator and quantity surveyor. In those roles, you have no choice but to be meticulous about everything you do. I suppose that background marks me out a little from other award winners, as I didn’t begin as a tradesman. I do prefer to be on site, though, so I’m sure that’s something we all have in common”.

Chris, who was born and bred in South Africa, talks us through the interesting features of the project: “The building had been empty and largely forgotten for seven years before this project got started. It’s a shame to have such a nice building unused for so long, and one of the pleasing aspects of this job is that we’re ‘saving’, if you like, a part of London” We’re retaining a 6-storey façade as part of the work, and it’s certainly the most ambitious retention I’ve been involved with.

That’s just one of the unique aspects of the job, others being the pre-fab balconies of different sizes and the non-standard ceiling heights, which added together make up a tricky task.

The former YMCA basement swimming pool will be removed to create a 36-space car park for the new residents, as the majority of the original takes its leave from the retained façade to make way for a new wing of accommodation within the original footprint.

The large car park situated behind the former Greengate House

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Work on the site is practically complete, and has been progressing well since it began in August 2008. Chris has managed his team with an approach that many would reject as too extreme, and yet he explains why it works well for him: “My approach to man management is to say, ‘you’re welcome to come to me and discuss the job, and I’ll happily explain what I want and why’. However, I won’t accept arguments because I’m right.

“I don’t take that approach out of arrogance or rudeness (in fact, I make a point of dealing with colleagues politely), but because I make it my business to be right. I take it upon myself to study drawings and other documents in great detail, and to put together a very precise mental picture of what needs to be done and what the finished work needs to look like.

“I see it as leading by example. After all, it’s not fair for me to expect the best from my team if I don’t expect the same from myself. Equally, if I don’t know what I’m talking about, I can’t demand that of others, so that’s why I see my role as being the man who has to know everything about the job. I find it’s the best way to deal with problems and keep the work moving forward.

I always say that once you’re on the front foot, you stay on the front foot”.

Asked for his reaction to the award, Chris replied, “I’m delighted, of course. I enjoy my work and things like this make it even more rewarding. I didn’t necessarily expect an award, especially as this is a very compact site on a busy street, which can make things difficult to organise. However, it goes to show that there’s no harm in doing your best. More often than not, it pays off!”

Chris has some advice for beginners in his profession: “I can only tell you what’s worked for me. First of all, make sure you’re doing something you really enjoy. Then it becomes easier to work hard at your job and be successful at it, whether that means winning awards or not.

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“Once people have seen that you’re capable, you’ll have opportunities to put yourself in a job you enjoy even more, in which there are even bigger opportunities for success, and the cycle goes on like that”.

Durkan Durkan was founded in London in 1963 by William Durkan, the present day Chairman. The company undertakes new build projects, major estate regeneration projects and conversions and has developed an excellent reputation for refurbishing homes with residents in occupation. In the health and education sectors , the firm continues to build schools, nurseries and health facilities as well as student and health worker accommodation.

Find out more about Durkan at www.durkan.co.uk

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B A N C H O RY C O N T R AC TO R S

Why wait to succeed?

Graeme Clark, of Bancon Construction, won his Pride in the Job award for his work at the Kemsley Green site for Bancon Homes Ltd Speaking to Premier Construction about his success, Graeme commented, “I’m chuffed! It’s my first award as a site manager and it’s come in my first year in the job. I’d hoped to be good enough at the job to win awards, but I never expected that they would come so soon.

I certainly didn’t expect to get such a positive reaction from the NHBC so early on”.

Asked to pinpoint the reason for his success, Graeme said, “I like to take a hands-on approach. I’ve always been a ‘doer’, and I was always building things as a youngster. I’d say I’ve carried some of that spirit into my career so far. I get on well with my colleagues and subcontractors, too. I think it’s easier to get a job done well if you’re enjoying yourself and getting along with the people you work with.

“Although the award has come early in my career, I’ve had experience of site management, for example when covering for colleagues during their leave. I graduated to this level after working as an assistant site manager, so I wasn’t exactly thrown in at the deep end, which was important because you can’t substitute for experience – that’s something you learn quickly, even as a relative newcomer like me”.

The project is expected to be complete in November 2010, with a possible further phase of 30 units on adjacent land. A team of 15, of which the majority are contracted to Bancon Construction, has been responsible for the works. The site consists of a total of 28 properties, and 13 were already complete before Graeme came onto the site. Of his share, 8 units are complete and work is ongoing on a further 7.

The site is located on Tarland Road in Aboyne, within the reaches of Aberdeen City. The houses at Kemsley Green are a selection of three, four and five bedroomed villas and bungalows and use a completely new range of styles, the design of each having been specially commissioned by Bancon Homes to

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incorporate traditional Scottish features.

Bancon Construction is part of the Bancon Group of companies, which have a workforce of around 350, are engaged in general building contracting, design and build, housing and property developments, timber frame design and manufacture and property maintenance.

Asked what he thought the future had in store for him, Graeme said, “In the short term, I’m looking forward to getting this job finished as well as it’s started. In the longer term, I suppose you could say I’m aiming for the boss’s office. Don’t tell him I said that though!”

We’re sure your secret is safe with us, Graeme.

WAT K I N J O N E S G R O U P

Now for the follow-up Nigel Pritchard, winner of the NHBC Pride in the Job award for his work at Watkin Jones’ Waunfawr site, just outside Caernarfon, is determined to go from strength to strength. Already the recipient of several NHBC awards during his career, Nigel is hungry for more: “Whenever you win an award, you get an enormous feeling of satisfaction, knowing that the work you’ve put in has paid off. It’s no good to sit back and relax once you’ve won one, though. I see mine as a milestone, and I know that if I achieve my minimum personal goal of not allowing standards to slip between this site and my next, I’ll have every chance of winning again. Of course, I’ll be aiming higher than that next time around”.

Nigel has been in charge of a 17-unit project, of which only 4 remain unbuilt. Typically, a single home can be started and finished within 14 weeks under Watkin Jones’ methods, and it has taken an on-site team averaging around 30 workers less than 6 months to put the finishing touches to the first 13.

Like so many NHBC achievers, Nigel has followed his father into the trades. However, he is of the newer generation of site managers, having accumulated a long list of qualifications. He said, “I do have plenty of training behind me, and that obviously helps me to understand how to approach my work and why certain things need to be done in certain ways. However, I would never argue that training can replace first-hand experience. You just can’t learn how to succeed at this job through books. I was

very lucky to serve as an assistant to a site manager who had won top NHBC awards himself. That taught me a lot and it gave me something to aim for and, hopefully, exceed”.

And what has Nigel learnt so far about managing a site? “I keep a cool head when I’m faced with problems”, he says, “and I deal with them methodically. I also try to get a lot of paperwork done before others turn up on site, so that I can get it out of the way and be close at hand when the actual construction work is going on.

“When it comes to management style, I think it’s best to give a firm but fair approach. I try to show either strong leadership or a tactful stance, depending on the situation. It’s difficult to label your approach, though, because there are so many sides to the job that you often have to adapt. One thing I don’t value, though, is the softly-softly approach. For me, that’s asking for trouble!”

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TAY LO R W I M PE Y

School’s out On the site of the former St. David’s high school in Dalkeith, eight-time winner Bill Torry has been putting together a 108-unit development on behalf of Taylor Wimpey that originally got under way in 2007. Now selling like hot cakes, the 10 remaining houses are all set to be complete at the turn of the year.

According to Bill, there’s no secret to his success. He told Premier Construction, “There’s nothing special about the way I work. I just work as hard as I can and I make sure everyone works as a team and with the same level of effort. I’ve learnt when to push and when to ease off whenit comes to man management, and I’m always there to tell people when things have been done right or wrong”.

This approach has seen Bill through 25 years as a site manager and he explains, “I never get bored of my job because there’s always something different to do and there are always new products and techniques to adapt to. I’ve been with the same company for 38 years, since the days when it was George Wimpey, and I started out as a joiner.

“The latest in a long line of former joiners to win a Pride in the Job award, Bill theorised, “Joiners do well as site managers because they have to adapt very quickly to the right ‘site attitude’. They’re practical and they know about ‘buildability’, so it’s a fairly easy transition to make. I’m biased, of course, but I think joiners are ideal for the job”.

Bill’s team has been putting up between 30 and 40 houses per year since work got into full swing, and he has had a similar number of workmates on site per average day.

“This is average in terms of scale”, he said, “and in terms of what we’re putting up it’s something I’ve been used to for a while. It’s a nice development with 20 different home types – from 4 bedroom semi-detached houses to one bed apartments. They’re all private, and we’ve been getting some good feedback so far. I take that as a source of pride, just as much as I do the award”.

The development is located just off the A68 in Eskbank, a pretty conservation village on the western edge of the key Midlothian town of Dalkeith. As the bustling centre of Midlothian, Dalkeith has strong links with Edinburgh, but has its own place in history and is also home to Dalkeith Palace.

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J O H N B R OW N E o f S T R O N E

Active efforts bring passive success Overlooking the beautiful River Clyde, an unusual project has been completed in Dunoon for Fyne Initiatives: In a row of 10 semi-detached houses, the UK’s first ‘Affordable Housing’ Passivhaus (Passive House) is being build. ‘Tygh-Na-Cladach’, which means ‘House by the shore’, has been such a success that site manager Ronald Willson, of John Brown (Strone), has picked up an NHBC award for his work on the site.

The 15 units at the site combine a unique range of features, including triple glazing, solar water heaters, ultra-low U values for the walls and roofs, and a mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system with a heat recovery rate of up to 99%. The heating requirement for a whole house is just 1,600 kWh/year – 10% of the requirement of the average home. The two bed rooms and the lounge room are constantly supplied with fresh air, whereas the kitchen and bathroom are extracted constantly.

Before the extract air leaves the house, it passes by a heat exchanger that extracts the heat and transfers it into the fresh supply air.

Another important feature of a Passive House is the extreme air-tightness, which is required in order to minimize heat loss through the fabric. The aim to achieve a very airtight building with an air tightness below n50=1/h was a challenge for a timber frame building. Thorough planning and detailing by the architect, as well as the careful workmanship of John Brown, the result of the pressure test turned out to be astonishing at just n50=0.38/h

(q50=0.4m3/(m2h)). It was the best result the pressure tester had ever seen.

A closed panel timber system from ’RTC Timber’, specifically developed to Passive House levels, has been used for the shell.

The SPHC played a key role in the project, supporting the architect with energy efficiency consultancy and supplying vital Passive House components.

Speaking to Premier Construction about his award, Ronald, who began his career in construction as a joiner 20 years ago, commented, “I’m surprised and honoured by the award. We have a long-standing relationship with the NHBC, so we know what to expect from them and vice versa. With such an innovative project, however, it’s unusual to have carried it through well enough for it to attract recognition”.

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Asked how he approached his job, Ronald said, “I feel that you don’t get the best out of people by just laying down the law.

You have to be able to listen to other people’s opinions and be prepared to hold your hand up if you’re wrong, although I do my best not to be wrong, of course!

“Your foot has to go down from time to time, but I think it helps to be creative and flexible in the way you do it.

“I’m always prepared to be approached if there’s a problem or a disagreement. People shouldn’t fear coming to the boss, in my opinion”.

Ronald modestly passes on the limelight of the NHBC Pride In The Job award, preferring to thank his team: “There’s only so much a site manager can do: keep things running smoothly and make sure people are aware of what’s required and what’s new on the site. After than, you need a team of committed and capable individuals and that’s what I had on this site. I had a really good core of people working for me.

It’s not really my award, but I’m proud to be associated with it nonetheless”.

Work on the site took 15 months and was completed in April 2010.

H AG A N H O M E S

The decision maker Ken Falconer’s work on the Hagan Homes Peters Hill site in central Belfast earns him a well-deserved Pride in the Job award. On a busy site, Ken was faced with a constant barrage of decisions that needed his expert touch, as he explained to Premier Construction: “Simply because it was such a tight site, and as there was no access for the delivery of materials, everything had to be lifted into site by crane, but we succeeded. We built 50 private apartments in less than a year – I was having to make decisions at a faster rate than usual. It was nothing I’m not used to – contracts, deliveries, and the rest – but the pressure of getting things right with less time to mull things over means I’m especially proud to have picked up the award”.

Ken oversaw the scheme and brought locals into the know to a greater extent than he was used to when overseeing other sites. One of the ways in which he achieved this was by making individual visits to neighbours beside the site, to explain what was happening and why. Ken said, “It was important to do that because people can feel offended if they’re unaware of the reasons for the disruption they suffer. We had the chance to meet face to face and explain that we were just doing our jobs, and that we would make every effort to do it without disturbing them too much”.

“We told them when we had early morning concrete pours, and suggested they wouldn’t need to set their alarms the next morning! This meant they knew the worst before it was upon them. We had very few unhappy neighbours, if any at all. We were so happy with the way we were got along that we bought all the neighbouring houses gifts at Christmas to thank them for their understanding”.

Ken has been a site manager for Hagan since 2004. Before that, he entered the construction sector at the age of 16 as a trainee joiner. He said, “My father and grandfather were suppliers to the building trade and my grandfather started a pre-cast concrete business, a joiner by trade himself. It would have been unnatural for me to go into any other line of work, I imagine!”

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Now feasting on the fruits of his success, Ken has been promoted to contracts manager and will find an opportunity to use more widely the management style he perfected on site.

According to Ken, “When you’re a manager, people will always try to test the boundaries. It’s only natural. But that of course is the time you set your standards with regards to workmanship and quality. When you’re new in the job, one of the first things to establish is who’s in charge and how things will be done, and the standard you expect. There’s no need to rule with an iron fist, but you have to show a strong personality and let people know that you’re firm but fair. We have built up a fantastic squad of guys over the years, who give us consistency and quality time and time again”.

“The most important thing is the project, so I’ve always to make it my priority to explain that we share a common goal: if we all work together to a high standard and hand over a quality product to the customer on time, we all get another chance of working on the next project”.

Simplistic? Possibly, but so real in our world of competition within the construction industry.

H E R I TAG E D E V E LO PM E N T S

A site for sore eyes Chris Kenny is becoming accustomed to success. The man in charge of Hertitage Homes’ site at Great Park in Devon has ticked off his seventh NHBC Pride in the Job award and he knows exactly why he’s abeen awarded again, as he explained to Premier Construction: “It’s down to good planning, good contractors, good materials and good sense”, he says. “It’s up to me to look after the planning and the sense, at least! I knew this site was a good candidate from my experience of winning sites before, as the contractors have pulled together to do a really good job for me”.

“I feel that this is the best standard we have achieved so far and we are therefore hopeful of progressing in the competition even further than we have before”.

Asked how he managed to get the best work out of his team, which has averaged 25 a day since the site became active, Chris points to high standards as the foundation of a good job: “I demand the best of my colleagues, just as I demand the best of myself. The higher you aim, the better it feels when you get there. There’s also the fact that right from the start, I’m very picky about who I bring onto my sites. I don’t go for people who I don’t trust to perform, and I’m lucky to have a direct role in choosing subcontractors as part of my job.

“Other than that, I aim to keep everyone happy on site. When people are happy, they’re that much more willing to go the extra mile for you if you ask them to”.

Chris is leading efforts to put up 29 new units at the site, which is located next to adjacent to the Teign Estuary in the town of Bishopsteignton. Externally, the new homes are built using high quality brick and/or roughcast render, coupled with high

quality traditional roofing materials such as natural slate to terracotta clay tiles and modern, eco-friendly, energy saving design including a high standard of insulation. The properties are designed for cohesion within the local area and are on the market for between £200,000 and £700,000. Heritage have designated the site plots for some of their most high-spec models, all of which are kitted out with luxury installations.

Work began on the site in February 2009, and Chris expects his work there to be done by January 2011. He says of the site, “It was a relatively simple site to build on, and we only needed minimal ground works as part of the enabling process. The site was part of a garden centre, so there was an element of demolition, but nothing challenging. It’s always pleasing to be able to see the houses going up as soon as possible. Some of the houses are occupied already and I’ve been happy to see a lot of smiles around the development, from clients as well as contractors.

“We did have to widen the access road to the site in order to get in and out, making a proper road out of a narrow path. It does the job just fine, and in fact I’ve got an artic reversing in as we speak”.

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K E E PM OAT H O M E S

Second chancer makes the grade John Bayes thought his chance of winning an NHBC award had passed him by. After a stint in site management, he moved into contracts management twelve years ago, only to come back with a bang during the recession. He related the tale to Premier Construction: “I’m 61 now, and I’d always wanted to win this award. I thought I’d lost my chance when I moved into contracts management, although I was able to help other site managers to win their own awards. While I was a site manager, I had felt like I was in with a chance a couple of times but it never seemed to happen, although I did manage to put my name on a couple of in-house awards. Then, with the recession, the company had to shuffle people around and I found myself looking after this site, so I decided to give it my best shot and the rest is history!”

John has a wealth of experience under his belt, having worked for Wainhomes, Wimpey, Morris Homes and Miller Homes before arriving at Keepmoat homes for his current role. As a contracts manager, he has operated across most of the Midlands and the North. Based in Bolton, the Lancastrian is pleased to be working locally of late on the Cog Lane site just outside Burnley.

The site is a regeneration project and John is responsible for upgrading a set of terraced houses that had fallen into disrepair.

The project began in July 2009 and John is planning a completion date in January 2011.

Fellow site managers will be familiar with the need to ‘think outside the box’ in order to get a job done and John is no exception. He said, “I’m tenacious and I put the job before everything else. I’ll put in the extra hours without question and I’ve even been known to deal with late deliveries by spending my own money to get materials in on time. I’ve not been as fortunate as I’ve hoped in getting a refund, though!”

Money can’t buy you an NHBC award, however, as John and his fellow winners well know. Asked what he thought the future

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had in store for him, he said,”Now I’ve finally got the award under my belt, and assuming I’ll have the chance, I’ll be looking to get the second and the third. It’s not my way of working to rest on my laurels”.

M c G I N N I S D E V E LO PM E N T S

Recession-buster chalks up another success A fourth NHBC Pride in the Job award has John Logue’s name written all over it, as he continues to lend his golden touch to the construction industry with another successful site. As John tells Premier Construction, “Ther was no getting away from the fact there was a recession on, but what can you do about it other than keep on working? It’s no use sitting around and moping about it – I know that much.

“Whether that was the reason for our success here I can’t say, but I do know it’s been full steam ahead here from the very beginning. Everyone here has been motivated to get the job done – not just quickly, but well”.

Based on McGinnis Development’s Coopers Mill project in East Belfast, John has overseen a new approach to McGinnis new build schemes, as he explained to Premier Construction: “We brought in a new system for this site, which involves bringing home buyers to the site two weeks before completion.

That lets us hear their requests and requirements and it lets them choose exactly what kind of installations they’d like us to put in.

The new approach means we have to be even tighter than usual and meet all our deadlines. We haven’t missed a date here so far, and I count that as one of my most important achievements. I’m sure it has something to do with the award.

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“In the end, we hand homes over completely ready and we make sure they’re welcoming places. I’d have no hesitation in moving in myself – otherwise, I wouldn’t feel any pride in putting my name to the work”.

Asked for his reaction to the latest gong, John said, “I feel grand about it, to put it simply”, he adds, “and I’m lucky to have had a good team behind me all the way. As a site manager, you know that awards are available, and I personally see no reason not to go for them with everything you’ve got”.

John is straightforward and earnest in discussing his working practices, and he maintains what he sees as a very simple approach to management: “It’s not hard to get people going and get the site running how you want it to. One people know what you expect them to be doing, that’s usually as far as you need to go as a manager.

You have to be strict at times, of course, but strictness and friendliness are not mutually exclusive. I enjoy working on construction sites and more often than not I’m with people who think the same way”.

Making his way in the construction industry since 1977, John has worked his way up to his current position in a steady fashion, and like many of his fellow winners, he agrees that experience has contributed to his achievements: “Experience teaches you how to deal with people in this work and in life in general. It’s no good to be on bad terms with people because nobody ends up winning if that’s the way you work.

Experience also teaches you simple things like knowing which subcontractors you prefer to work with, and that makes a huge difference”.

Work began at the site in March 2009 with enabling and road works before John took the reins in June of the same year with

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an average team numbering 100 working under his guidance.

Previously used for agriculture, the site required a standard cut and fill operation before it could be turned into a residential area to match its surroundings.

Coopers Mill is located just off the Belfast – Newtownards dual carriageway. The development is 15 minutes from Belfast City Centre and 5 minutes from Newtownards. The location is convenient for the Ulster Hospital and Stormont with the George Best Belfast City Airport only 15 minutes away.

The homes are available for as little as £85,000 and range in size from in excess of 500 sq ft to approximately 1,225 sq ft.

MIZEN DESIGN & BUILD A meticulous approach pays off Some people just love their jobs, and none more so than Mizen’s Andy Jobson, who has combined his enthusiasm with attention to detail on his way to scooping his first NHBC Pride in the Job Award for his achievements at the Babik Court site in London’s Shacklewell Lane.

Delighted with the news of his award, Andy spoke to Premier Construction: “I’ve loved doing this job and it’s fantastic to be praised for it.

I always try to be meticulous when I’m at work, because I think the secret to a job well done is the attention to detail. You’ll never see me sitting around and I’m always pushing for improvement.

One example of the way I try to run my sites is the health and safety record we’ve achieved here. We were awarded a grade of 98.5%, which is rare in the industry. It’s virtually unheard of to score 100%”.

Andy left no doubt that he’ll be aiming to notch up the remaining 1.5%: “It’s a fantastic firm, Mizen, and I can see myself being here for much longer than the four or five years I’ve had already. It’s something I haven’t witnessed to the same extent in other roles I’ve had, but you get a sense of wanting to work for the benefit of your colleagues”.

Now aged 43, Andy has been managing sites for the last seven years. He originally moved into the construction industry at 25 and worked with his father, a property developer, before gaining qualifications in construction from college.

When it comes to the so-called pressure of site management, Andy is dismissive: “What pressure? I see this job as an exercise in dealing with

people, which I love doing, whether it’s a colleague, a member of the public, a subcontractor or a client. I thrive on the positive feedback but I don’t mind criticism because it spurs me on to make improvements. On top of that, there’s no better feeling than the one you get when you’re enjoying your work and your team is too”.

So what does the future hold for Andy? He told us: “Now I’ve set the barrier this high, I can’t wait for the challenge of going higher. We narrowly missed out on a Considerate Contractor award on this site, so it looks like that’s my next target. The motivation to win another NHBC award is there too, and now that I’ve had a taste of success I’m hungry for more”, says Andy, who can now count Premier Construction among his growing list of well-wishers.

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BANNER HOMES

If at first you don’t succeed...

Tim O’Toole has put years of work into his first NHBC Pride in the Job Award, and his success comes as no surprise, as he told Premier Construction: “I was brought up to be a doer and I’ve always known that if I want something and I’m prepared to put the right amount of effort into getting it, there’s no reason why I can’t succeed. I respect people who have that attitude and I try to earn respect by doing things that way myself”.

“It’s been a lot of hard work and I’m delighted it’s paid off”, he adds.

The Leamington Spa-based 43-year-old spent much of his early career as a carpenter but was forced by injury to change his modus operandi. Now working for Banner Homes as a site manager, Tim hasn’t shirked when it comes to effort. He nevertheless has a lot of praise for the company and refuses to take all the credit for his success: “I enjoy my job and I’ve been happy since I first started it four years ago. There’s a family ethos at Banner and it’s reassuring to know you’re a person rather than a number – that’s probably true for anyone. It’s a company that lets you progress if you deserve it, and it’s no secret that that’s my ambition. Awards are a start, but there’s always something you can improve as you’re trying to get on. Banner is set up to help you do that”.

Tim’s words of wisdom reflect his approach to man management, as he explains:

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“I try to adopt a modern approach to management. I’ve tried shouting and bawling in the past when things have got frustrating but it never works. I’ve learnt that if you’re doing things the right way from the start, you rarely need to lose your cool because you’re on top of things. That comes from learning to organise and sequence your site properly and knowing exactly what your priorities are.

“An example that all site managers will recognise is safety.

Banner has a very good approach to safety on site and when you keep a clean and safe site, you often find that other things organise themselves that much more”.

The 9 private homes built on Tim’s site at Belwell Lane in Sutton Coldfield were completed in May 2010, after work began in March the previous year.

B E L LWAY H O M E S

Massive demand spurs rapid new build Growing demand for housing in North West Glasgow has fuelled projects like Bellway Homes’ development on Hugo Street, on the edge of Glasgow’s Ruchill Park. Site manager Angus Cameron has picked up the NHBC Pride in the Job award, and admitted to Premier Construction that it took him by surprise:

“If I want to push work through, I bring on extra labourers rather than getting on people’s backs. There’s no use falling out with people, especially as there are much bigger guys than me on site! The best way to manage is to do it diplomatically, if you ask me”.

Angus worked for many years as a joiner before, as he puts it, “quitting before I did any lasting damage to my knees and back”.

Now aged 55, he is celebrating his fourth NHBC award.

“We had 52 houses to build in 37 weeks, and when you remember that we had two months of bad weather that brought us almost to a complete standstill, you can understand why I never thought we’d be up for an award!”

Angus’ respect for his workmates comes across effortlessly as he explains how he managed to push the project forward: “It was frustrating for subcontractors, more than anything, to be delayed. They’re relying on being able to work for their pay and although I’d like to be able to pay them regardless, there’s no way that would work. I’ve found that, even with the best intentions, there’s only so much people can do at the best of times. If you’ve got a guy doing his best for you from 7 until 4 and you ask him to do more, you only have yourself to blame when the work doesn’t come up to the usual standard.

MORRIS HOMES

The fruits of industry Award winner Tim Hotchkiss can no longer account for himself as a site manager, his success at Morris Homes’ Penmere Park site having persuaded bosses to promote him to contracts manager.

Tim told Premier Construction, “It was good new again. This is the third year in a row I’ve won the award and it’s just as rewarding as the first. Now I’m my own boss and I have more flexibility in my work, I’ll be doing my best to help other site managers to win their own awards”.

Tim’s career began with the freedom of self-employment as he spent nine years working as a groundworks foreman. He said, “I had worked for a major firm who were obviously pleased with me and they offered me a job as an assistant manager on one of their sites. I found it hard to refuse and I’m glad now that I didn’t”.

The Shrewsbury born 39-year-old had time to offer a tip or two that will come in handy as he takes a new batch of site managers under his decorated wing, saying “I’ve learnt how to talk to people properly as a site manager, in a way that earns you respect and motivates people to do the jobs you ask them to do in a way that brings awards to the site. I never talk down to people and I make sure I understand their point of view before I tell them what I’d like them to do. I’ve found it’s a good way to bring people on board”.

A mixture of 2,3 and 4 bedroom houses is springing up on the site with the input of a daily average of 20 workers. 12 of the completed residences, of a total of 116, have been handed over to housing associations, and a further 46 have reached completion. It is anticipated that the rest will follow by 2012.

Penmere Park is located on the Wales/Shropshire border in the village of Penley, ten miles from Wrexham and nine miles from Whitchurch. This development, situated on land once belonging to a hospital, is proving extremely popular with young and established families, as the development benefits from being close to a number of local amenities including one of the area’s top secondary schools.

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M O U N T A N V I L PLC

Double first for Peckham development Thanks to his endeavours at the Samuel Jones site in Peckham, London, John Mills is celebrating his first NHBC Pride in the Job Award, which is also the first to have been scooped by a Mount Anvil site manager.

John told Premier Construction, “At previous companies, I thought I was in with a chance a couple of times before I started here. It’s a pleasure to actually win it with Mount Anvil.”

John is marshalling a 195-unit site consisting of 131 shared ownership residences in the first block and another 64 housing association properties in the second. Now in its final stages, the project punctuates John’s third year with Mount Anvil. Mount Anvil is building these homes for London & Quadrant.

The recession hit the site with its customary force, and John felt solidarity with fellow site managers when it came to the restraints he had to deal with. As he explains, “We had to do a little of what is known as ‘value engineering’, which involved using one crane instead of two and accessing the craneless tower of the other block by leaving out a ground and first floor section of the building to create a drive through access to service the block.

It was a creative solution and I’m quite pleased with the way it turned out”.

After 25 years in the construction sector, which began with a stint as a site engineer, John has built up a thorough understanding of what it takes to motivate a team: “First of all, it’s important to start out with the right people. At a company like Mount Anvil, you have the advantage of being listened to. I certainly never have to tolerate working with a subcontractor I’m not happy with.

“I find that, as you would expect, the professionals we bring on to the site as subcontractors know plenty more than me about their specific areas of expertise. You can only respect that, and I always listen to their ideas and opinions.

“As every site manager will tell you, however, everything that happens here comes back to me. My role is to see the bigger

picture, whereas a subcontractor only sees the specific job.

“I’d put my success down to a combination of experience, knowledge, a great team and, above all, listening”.

PE R S I M M O N H O M E S

Victorious site livens up sleepy village The historic and quiet town of Desborough, near Kettering, is host to another NHBC Pride in the Job award winner in Paul Dearsley, site manager of Persimmon’s development known as The Grange. Only a 6 mile drive and a 1h 15m train journey from St. Pancras rail station in London, the development is aimed squarely at the commuter community.

The site features a range of one, two, four and five bedroom homes, taken from Persimmon’s aspirational range of homes named after literary champions: ‘Thackeray’, ‘Hemmingway’, ‘Auden’, ‘Keats’, ‘Wordsworth’, ‘Yeats’, ‘Tennyson’, ‘Orwell’, ‘Chaucer’, ‘Bronte’, ‘Shelley’, ‘Austen’, ‘Carroll’, ‘Thackeray’, ‘Dickens’, ‘Steinbeck’, ‘Shakespeare’, ‘Affordable’ and ‘Apartment’ ranges. The apartments on the site are naturally the most affordable properties, and sales prices are as low as £85,000.

Luckily for new and future residents of the grand abodes, The Grange is only 1.5 miles from a Main Road and a mere 4.5 miles

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from a Motorway. Situated almost equidistant from Kettering and Market Harborough, the nearest of the two burgs is only 4.5 miles away – perfect for a nice cycle ride, a hearty dog walk or an ambitious jog. Luckily, youngsters living in the development will be only 0.9 miles from the nearest Primary School, whilst their immediate seniors will find their educational needs catered for at as little as 2.1 miles away, in the nearest local Secondary School.

The closest Hospital to the new site is a short, hasty 5.7 mile dash away, and that lynchpin of the modern world, the airport, is within no more than 46.7 miles. The area is flush with unspoilt countryside – perfect for a quiet retirement or a safe, active childhood.

Winning site manager Paul Dearsley, who escaped the attentions of Premier Construction’s reporter as he jetted off on a well-earned holiday, presumably in a very sunny place, has been overseeing over 123 homes under construction on the site, and is said to be “very happy” at the national recognition he has earned.

About Persimmon Persimmon has over 25 years of experience and has put its name to 400 developments across England, Scotland and Wales.

The company, one of the UK’s largest homebuilders, offers a

wide range of properties from contemporary apartments to detached country retreats.

Like all Persimmon site managers, Paul Dearsley has been involved in the company’s programme of customer care, which involves a 24-point check of all building works, plumbing, foundations, wiring, block work and cavities. New clients are invited to a demonstration before moving in to find out how the house works, and can get involved in weekly construction clinics as new homeowners.

A full range of benefits welcome new residents at The Grange as at all Persimmon sites, including skimmed ceilings, gas central heating, white PVCU double glazed windows with security locks, white colonist 6 panel doors with grained effect and polished chrome ironmongery. Kitchens are all fitted with stainless steel ovens and hobs with extractors, and some homes even have double ovens. Bathrooms have white suites, chrome taps and tiling up to full height.

In order to encourage sales, Persimmon has introduced a 105% part exchange scheme to attract home upgraders to the site.

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N o r th We s t Construction News

Call our news team on 01706 719972

Wave of improvements reaches Barrow school Work is well under way at St Bernard’s Catholic High School in Barrow-in-Furness in the first phase of its expansion project. Main contractor Stobbarts is overseeing the £4.5m initial phase, which is expected to be complete in advance of the 2010-11 academic year Secondary schools in Barrow are currently being re-organised by Cumbria Local Authority. with. A new Academy is being built in the town and St Bernard’s school has been earmarked to increase its net intake capacity by 150 pupils to approx. 1000 over the next few years. This September there will be an additional 34 pupils into Year 7, the first of the increased cohorts.

In order to accommodate this initial increase, an additional science and a food technology room is being built as the initial stage of the larger project. This new build is a two storey steel framed building extension of approx 220m2 total area with a food technology room on the ground floor and a science lab on the first floor. There will also be space for extra music rooms in a different part of the school.

The initial phase also involves an extension to the school’s sports facilities, with a second ‘sports barn’ featuring a sports teaching space the size of two badminton courts, as well as an additional equipment store and an entrance.

The facility is known as a barn, rather than a gym, because it does not feature some of the

traditional apparatus to be found in a school gym, such as bars and ropes.

The framed courtyard building housing the food technology and science rooms will have mainly white cladding panels above a red facing brick plinth in order to maximise the reflectance of daylight.

The brickwork and cladding to the sports barn are to match the existing for continuity.

The new buildings will be constructed in a manner that will ensure that each element will achieve an overall U value better than that set out in the current part L2a of the Building Regulations. The design and on site supervision of construction methods will ensure that the air tightness of the construction also achieves better than the requirements set out in Part L2a.

Each heated space will have an adjustable temperature sensor with external sensors to provide compensated and optimised control.

Ventilation to all areas is to be natural and, where needed, will comply with regulations; fans will operate on timers and will be controlled by PIR movement detectors to

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operate only when required.

Lighting will include low energy, high frequency fittings, which will be zone switched to suit use. Lamp units will be installed in accordance with current Building Regulations at no greater than 40 lumens per circuit watt.

Phase two of the development will include a new detached two-storey block for eight general purpose classrooms, an extension to the coffee bar to ease pressure on lunchtime catering, and five new disabled car parking spaces with nearby landscaping. It is hoped that work on the second phase will be complete by late 2011, but a contract has not been awarded to date.

Sellafield stays ahead of the present Sellafield Ltd is responsible for decommissioning, reprocessing, nuclear waste management and fuel manufacturing activities across sites at Sellafield in Cumbria and Capenhurst in Cheshire. A number of major contractors are involved in maintenance, upgrade and extension projects across the facilities, which continue to invest the latest technology in the energy sector.

Sludge Packing Plant Known as SPP1, this project is responsible for hydraulically receiving legacy sludge and storing it safely, ready for future processing into a product suitable for long term storage or disposal.

Work commenced on site clearance in November 2005 and involved the demolition and clearance of a number of redundant facilities. Site preparation was completed in September 2007 and, following construction of a perimeter fence, the area was moved out of the Separation Area, improving accessibility and reducing risk to workers.

Currently, main contractors Doosan Babcock are leading a project that has already seen workers fix 820 te of steel reinforcement to date, almost all of which has had to be manually handled, and pour 3,340 m3 of concrete, all without any rework. On the 1st April 2010, a massive achievement for all involved with the project was the project achieving 6 years, and almost 700,000 man-hours, without a recordable injury or reportable incident.

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The store will take ILW arising from both reprocessing operations and clean-up work on site.

Over 1,000,000 man hours have been worked by contractors Amec and Laing O’Rourke since site work began in June 2006.

Over 7000 tonnes of reinforcing steel has been fixed and over 30,000m3 of concrete has been poured to date. A number of large single day pours (circa 1500m3) were completed for sections of the storage vault bases and roof. The concrete structure for the storage vaults is now complete.

The two large concrete infilled liners for the crane maintenance area shield door have been installed in two major lifts and the 102 tonne shield door itself was successfully lifted into position in early February 2010 using a 600 tonne capacity crawler crane.

Mechanical, electrical and instrumentation installation started in March 2010.

Evaporator D

Separation Area Ventilation Project Another of Doosan Babcock’s responsibilities at Sellafield is the SAV, which is a new discharge capability for aerial effluents from the separation area which will replace two ageing stacks and provide a long term facility for future decommissioning.

The new discharge facility will comprise a 120 metre high stack with associated plant room, monitoring room and substation.

The three storey plant room will house the fans, additional filtration and the control room.

Foundation works for the new ventilation stack have also just commenced. This involves constructing twelve 1200mm diameter piles down to bedrock (approximately 35m deep).

These will support a pile cap, which will provide the support to the stack itself, comprising an outer concrete windshield and a total of six flues carrying the various vent streams. The windshield will be constructed by slipforming, whereby the concrete is poured into a shutter that is continuously jacked up as construction progresses. In this way, the entire 120 metre high windshield can be completed in a month.

The facility will be constructed away from the main processing areas of the site with new ductwork runs and pipe bridges to connect to the various donor plants.

The SAV facility is due for completion in 2012 and, following commissioning, will be fully operational in 2014.

Highly active evaporators play a pivotal role in the delivery of reprocessing, historic clean up and hazard reduction missions across the Sellafield site. Construction of Evaporator D, a new Highly Active (HA) Liquid Evaporator will provide additional evaporator capacity to support the site’s existing evaporators.

The project relies on off-site fabrication of large scale modules which are then transported to site by sea and installed into the building’s concrete shell using a gantry system. This is the first time in the history of the Sellafield site that large- scale modular construction will be used.

The project got underway as far back as May 2009 and is ongoing under the stewardship of Costain. By the end of 2009, a total of 2879m3 of concrete had been poured, along with 809te of Rebar being fixed.

Encapsulated Product Store 3 The EPS3 will be the new Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) store, providing additional capacity to support the two existing stores.

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Preston tenants reap CGA benefits The Community Gateway Association (also known as the CGA or the Gateway for short) is a not-for-profit community business, set up to meet the housing needs of people in Preston and the surrounding areas.

Preston City Council was the first local authority in England to pursue stock transfer through the Community Gateway approach.

The council realised that the level of investment needed to bring homes up to the national Decent Homes Standard was not available from its own finances.

But transferring all the stock was not a popular option - unless there was a way that local people could get involved and make positive social change happen in the city. Developing the Community Gateway Association was the perfect solution to a tricky problem.

A housing association providing high quality homes for people in need, the CGA is also about creating friendly communities, where people want to live, in accordance with the Decent Homes Scheme. Its services include: • Improving homes and neighbourhoods • Providing tenancy advice and support • Helping people to find suitable housing for their needs • Tackling anti-social behaviour and the causes of it • Collecting rents and other charges • Working with local communities to build individuals’ skills, knowledge and confidence The CGA makes sure that tenants can influence what happens to their homes and neighbourhoods, and the services it provides. Local people are represented on the CGA Board, on the Gateway Tenant Committee, in neighbourhood groups and through ongoing, direct contact with staff and other residents.

There are lots of ways in which tenants influence the work of the CGA, including: • Suggesting how services should be delivered locally • Taking responsibility for how some services are delivered to their neighbourhood • Setting up community organisations, ranging from toddler groups to new businesses • Developing new links with partners (such as the police) to tackle local issues together.

The CGA is committed to promoting equality in everything it does - as an employer, a landlord and a community business.

Giving people an equal chance to contribute towards the Gateway’s work, and influence the business, is important to the success of the association. And the CGA recognises and values the wide range of skills, experiences and talents within its membership and workforce. This is reflected in the association’s Equality and Diversity Policy.

Commenting, Chief Executive Diane Bellinger said, “Gateway is all about empowering residents. Being the first housing association in the UK to adopt the Community Gateway model, it was significant for us that this was a strength within the report showing how much we value the input from residents and how they have contributed to the success of Gateway”.

This model was voted for by residents, and was the way they wanted to have input in the way services are delivered, and to make sure that control of strategic decisions on all areas of the housing service are consulted upon at all levels.

Over the past 3 years, Gateway and residents have worked together, to forge a unique partnership to bring real change to their communities.

A £90million improvement programme is delivering decent

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homes and improvements exceed decent homes standards.

This huge investment in properties will see Gateway fulfil its target of achieving the government’s decent homes target by 2012.

Tenants are at the heart of the decision making process in the procuring of contractors and materials, this is evidenced recently by the decision to appoint Chamois kitchens to complete 3500 kitchens across Preston.

Since 2005, over £55 million has been spent on Home improvements.

Prompt action is taken to recover rent arrears and there is effective welfare benefit and debt advice.

Gateway is committed to resident training with a full programme of basic skills and specialist training e.g. First Aid running throughout the year.

Incidents of anti-social behaviour are dealt with effectively through partnership working and tenancy support.

An award winning community safety team is making a real difference to areas of concern; working in partnership with other agencies, in 2008, the team was awarded the European crime prevention award for our work in the Farringdon area In summary, Diane Bellinger said, “I would like to thank our residents, partners, colleagues, board members and other stakeholders for the support and commitment they have given to Gateway over the past 3 years in helping us achieve this result”.

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“We will strive to ensure that residents who can work receive the necessary information and advice to enable them to work”

We recognise there are areas of weakness highlighted in the report and we know we are only at the beginning of a journey to facilitate our communities in empowering themselves to make real improvements.

“This is just the start; we have a post inspection action plan, which will form the framework for moving CGA proactively forward over the next twelve months”.

Chair of Gateway’s Board, Rose Kinsella, said, “I am proud to be the chair of Gateway’s board. Empowering residents was the reason we chose the Gateway model. As the report shows, community empowerment is at the heart of everything at Gateway.

Working together, we can now move forward to deliver real change to the lives of residents and the communities of Preston”.

CSE CGA have recently been awarded the Goverment’s Customer Service Excellence Standard.

CSE is a demanding standard requiring organisations to prove a deep understanding of their customers’ needs and to demonstrate they are building their services around them. The report highlighted: • The organisation has carried out considerable work in profiling the customer base and, as a result, has 98% profiled information.

• The organisation uses profiling data at all levels to inform both strategies and to inform team planning to ensure linkages to the customers and to individual members of staff.

• Tenants make up 50% representation of the Board and interviews strongly confirmed that customers were empowered to make decisions and that the organisation was driven by customer decisions.

• There were many examples of community based projects that had been supported with advice and funding and, given the autonomy to support people in the local area.

• There is a high degree of commitment and a professional level of support demonstrated by the staff across the teams and this was reinforced by the customers and the partners who gave many examples of staff going the extra mile in the community.

Tackling unemployment Rose Kinsella has recently spoken about CGA’s plans to help its residents stop being workless, saying, “Over the years, being the tenant of a social landlord like Gateway has more and more meant that you are likely to be without work. That is not the way it used to be - a tenant was just as likely to be a skilled or professional working person as anyone else. Now that has all changed and this state of affairs tends to lead to lots of other problems that seem to blight our estates. So working to help

others to work has got to be good for us as an organisation and good for our people.

“CGA wants to help break the link between living in social housing and being without work. We will take a proactive approach to using our spending power and influence to direct opportunity to those living in our homes who may otherwise not have such opportunity.

“We will strive to ensure that residents who can work receive the necessary information and advice to enable them to work.

And, either through our own efforts or working in partnership, we will deliver initiatives that aim to lift people from the deprivation that lack of work can lead to. In the longer term, our aim, through increased economic activity, is to reduce dependency on benefits, reduce the households who live in poverty and improve the quality of life in our neighbourhoods”.

Gateway Homes Targets When homes transferred to the Community Gateway Association in 2005, the association made a list of promises to tenants. One of those promises was that all homes would be improved to meet a new, local standard called the Gateway Homes Standard by 2010.

To meet the Gateway Homes Standard, improved homes must: • Be wind and water tight, with no damp problems • Not have structural defects that affect their soundness, safety and stability • Be easy and affordable to heat, with programmable and efficient heating and hot water systems, and be adequately ventilated to prevent condensation • Have electrical systems that conform to current accepted safety standards with adequate provision of plug sockets and light fittings • Have effective means of escape in case of fire and be resistant to the spread of fire, with appropriate fire detection and alarm systems fitted • Have adequate sanitary fittings with bathing and/or shower facilities together with hygienic surfaces, a clean supply of drinking water and satisfactory drainage • Have security measures to deter crime, both in the home and in the surrounding area • Look pleasing to the eye and have design features that satisfy tenants’ requirements • Take into account people’s disabilities in terms of design and access • Have a modern kitchen with satisfactory cupboard/storage space, worktop areas and hygienic surfaces, with space for a range of white goods (such as washing machine, fridge/freezer, cooker) wherever possible • Have garden areas appropriate to the type of home, with satisfactory approach paths, parking, clothes drying areas, fencing and gates.

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Alchemistic partnership turns housing market to gold Fusion21 is a ground breaking partnership of seven Merseyside housing associations and Knowsley Council.

The group has been experiencing unparalleled success of late, brightening up the housing sector not only with improvements to residences in the area in accordance with Decent Homes guidelines, but also with plans to contribute to training, employment and more.

According to Fusion21’s figures, the organisation has created 632 jobs, made a whopping £25 million of efficiency savings and achieved a resident satisfaction level of 95% since records began.

Fusion21 is a ‘delivery vehicle’ that was created with major Mersey based housing associations. Partners include Helena Partnerships, Knowsley Housing Trust, Arena Housing, South Liverpool Housing, The Riverside Group, Plus Dane Housing and Regenda Group. These organisations oversee both the strategic and operational management of Fusion21.

Working nationally, the Fusion21 supply chain helps to deliver clients’ capital and cyclical procurement works programmes, creating sustainable jobs for local people and generating cashable savings.

Since 2002, when Fusion21 began, the group has achieved a number of landmarks: • Delivering c£25m of cashable efficiency savings over 3 years, as well as many non-cashable benefits • Creating over 600 permanent jobs in construction • Generating an estimated financial benefit to Merseyside boroughs in excess of £22m, through regular paid work and reductions in benefit claims • Winning the first ever Housing Corporation Gold Award for ‘Innovation In Procurement’ 2006 • Winning the Women in Construction Awards 2008 ‘Best Training Scheme’ • Winning the Women in Construction Awards 2009 ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ According to a Fusion21 spokesperson, “Our aim is to help create the conditions where it is easier to deliver efficiency savings, to control costs, to create jobs, to train people and to share best practice.

“We work by collaborating with clients, residents, contractors and suppliers – delivering a wide range of planned maintenance programmes, skills training courses and commissioned consultancy projects”.

Fusion21 Frameworks Fusion21 has a unique system of frameworks which underpin its activities. Any organisation within the social housing sector, and indeed the public sector as a whole, is able to access the Fusion21 frameworks in order to meet its housing stock and planned maintenance commitments.

All the framework agreements are fully compliant with the EU Procurement Directives (OJEU), and any public sector organisation can use the framework. There are no minimum stock, expenditure or membership requirements.

The system can save Fusion21 clients between 10%-30% on market prices in addition to indirect savings related to procurement processes.

There are separate framework setups in place for each of the following requirements: • Facilities management • Gas servicing • Digital TV • Passenger lifts

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• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Domestic lifts Ground works Redecoration Central heating Energy performance certificates Scaffolding High rise refurbishment Roofing Windows Kitchens Bathrooms Void security and management Consultancy

Creating Jobs Every pound invested in using Fusion21’s supply chain makes a positive contribution to training and employment. Contractors are expected to work with Fusion21 to create employment opportunities within local communities. For every £650,000 of work awarded, the group’s target is to secure employment for a minimum of one trainee.

Upon accessing the Fusion21 model, the group’s supply chain contributes towards training and job creation through a highly acclaimed Building Skills Centre.

Training and Employment Fusion21 uses the multi-million pound investments of clients and partners to create local jobs and training opportunities within the local communities.

Since 2002, the group has helped to create sustainable employment, transforming the lives of more than 600 local people. Training courses have accommodated people in a wide range of subject areas.

A commitment to ‘improving lives’ now sees Fusion21 working on the government’s Future Jobs Fund with landlords across Merseyside to deliver over 400 jobs in the next 18 months.

The Fusion21 Building Skills Centre is a first class facility that provides trainees with the tools and techniques that will allow them to gain recognised qualifications. The range of training provided there ranges from courses on plastering and joinery to on-site health and safety.

The Building Skills Centre is a CAA accredited facility and is adjacent to the Fusion21 Head Office. The centre also offers a fully equipped ITC training Suite, training rooms, meeting rooms and a canteen.

Fusion21 also maintains a Powerhouse Office in the ideal area of Toxteth, which provides a stimulating local environment. Its IT suite and open plan layout make it an ideal location to deliver classroom based training programmes and courses.

Training Areas Fusion21’s portfolio of training courses and qualifications has increased significantly during the last 18 months. Clients range from contractors working in the private and public sector to suppliers and tenants.

The training courses on offer fall into three broad sections, the first of which is construction skill training. This covers a comprehensive range of training courses, designed to develop the wide variety of skills needed across the construction sector, prepare delegates for careers in construction and provide them with an insight into the day-to-day working environment.

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N o r th We s t The second area covered is environmental health and safety training. With growing public awareness of environmental issues and the increasing emphasis on corporate social responsibility, businesses are under increased pressure to ensure their work activities consider and respect the environment. Fusion21 has courses to meet the many and varied requirements of companies striving to improve their environmental performance.

Said courses can provide information on potential environmental impacts of construction, practical solutions to site issues, cost saving ideas and an appreciation of environmental management.

Lastly, Fusion21 has programmes to aid practical solution training to help organisations to achieve their own business objectives and to encourage individuals to improve their own performance.

Fusion21 is associated with providers of the most popular and respected qualifications, ranging from CITB to IOSH and from E2C to OSAT.

Residents Fusion21 operatives work closely with a Resident Insite Team, which ensures that residents are fully included in the ongoing management, development and performance of suppliers and contractors.

The team includes residents called up from each partner landlord and meets on a quarterly basis to discuss product specifications, quality and supplier or contractor performance.

John Phillips, member of the Fusion21 Residents Insite Team, explains: “We are involved in lots of Fusion21 activities on a continuous basis and have been since the start. Part of our work is deciding the products and specifications, visiting suppliers and contractors to see the quality of the supply and fit.

“As tenants, we know what tenants want in their homes. This is where the Insite Team uses their influence most. There is no doubt that being so involved has made a big, big difference to all of the Fusion21 residents”.

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Spirotech & Fusion 21 Boost Energy Efficiency For Local Communities Spirotech, renowned for its high performance, award winning air and dirt separation products works closely with social economy business, Fusion 21’s national supply chain, as a key member of the Fusion 21 central heating framework.

Together with Fusion 21, Spirotech has ensured that some 6,000 social housing installations have benefited from its innovative, energy saving boiler protection units.

Ensuring that the central heating system runs to its maximum potential dramatically reduces fuel wastage. Even the highest specification boiler can only be as efficient as the quality of the water flowing through it. Completely removing dirt and air from the system is the only answer. Spirotech has launched the Magnabooster 2, the most flexible dirt separation unit yet, which removes dirt – both magnetic and non magnetic – down to less than 5 microns, meaning that virtually 100% of foreign bodies in the heating system are removed.

HCA Award Fusion21 is down to the last four entries in the HCA’s Investing in Skills, tackling unemployment through training and apprenticeships, an award that is being sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Housing.

The Fusion21 skills programme has been shortlisted for the award due to its innovative approach and impressive results.

Since implementation, the skills programme has helped to create a great many sustainable jobs in the construction industry.

Funded by Fusion21’s contractors and suppliers – the programme is testament to partnership working at its best. It means the investment made by the social landlords is in large part returned to the communities in which they work – because a third of its ‘graduates’ live in RSL properties.

The skills programme has created life changing opportunities for all who successfully graduate from it, creating a real impact

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at individual level.

One graduate of the programme, Danielle McGiven, said, “I’d been unemployed for two years and was lucky to get on the

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course. I knew I could be as good at plastering as the men – and if anything, better – because I’m tidy!”

Danielle was subsequently successful in sourcing employment with a successful regional contractor working on a mix of social and private housing projects.

Over the past five years, Fusion21 has successfully integrated and promoted equality and diversity policies within its own and its partners’ operations, focusing particularly on increasing the representation of women, BME and the disabled within the construction industry.

Head of Skills at Fusion21, Jan Agger, has said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted for this prestigious award. The Fusion21 Skills team have been working extremely hard and I am enormously pleased that their hard work has been recognised on a national level.”

Fusion21 will learn of its fate at an awards ceremony held in London on 23rd September. Keep an eye on Premier Construction for news.

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New green space impresses local council leader The reclamation of the Wheldale Fryston Colliery site in Castleford has been completed as part of the Homes and Communities Agency National Coalfield Programme. Wakefield council leader Peter Box spoke enthusiastically with Premier Construction about the improvement to his area:

“This brings something to the area that wasn’t here before – a significant green space.

It’s a significant change for an area that was once dominated by mines. In the past, you

could hardly see the river [Esk] from many places on the surrounding land, and the area was unsuitable for public use. Now, it’s a place to relax and enjoy this part of the world. I’ve been down there myself among the 40,000 new trees, as have a great many locals, and I have to say I’m delighted.”

Work in the area involves clearing up the river Esk and beautifying the surrounding banks, as well as a project to introduce modern housing to nearby land. Birse Civils have so far played a leading role in the project, and stakeholders have been invited to contribute their voices to planning and development discussions.

A local stakeholder himself, Peter is inextricably linked to the fortunes of the area, as he explains: “My father was born nearby and his father worked in the mines, whilst I still live locally.

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This development represents a great stride forward for the area compared to what my parents would have been used to.

“The new housing in particular is welcome.

This is one of the few areas within the region in which the population is growing. New, modern housing and the opportunity to enjoy leisure activities outdoors are just two of the ways we’re continuing to improve the quality of life in the area, which has been less than perfect since the days of heavy mining.”

Big build-up for Keepmoat Homes Construction of 22 new or mothballed Keepmoat Homes developments during 2010/11 means that the company has virtually doubled output on the previous year.

The 1,069 homes on these sites make up about two thirds of total construction on 36 developments across Yorkshire, the North East, North West and Midlands.

It also secures employment for around 900 construction workers and provides training and apprenticeship opportunities for many more. Kickstart funding from the Government is supporting the expansion drive on 15 of the developments.

Said Keepmoat Homes Yorkshire Regional Director, David Ward, “Our experience in regeneration and partnerships with the public sector has been a big factor in enabling us to come through an extremely challenging time for the construction industry – particularly the housing sector.

“It has enabled us to retain skilled people and be in a strong position to take advantage of the upturn in the private market place, which is now showing clear signs of recovery. Whilst still fragile, this looks set to continue during 2010/11.

“As a result and with the support of our partners and stakeholders, we are engaged in a significant increase in activity across all the regions in which we work. At the same time we are introducing a number of environmental initiatives which will drive down waste from our sites and increase the use of renewable energy sources in our homes.”

In Yorkshire the expansion includes new phases of 100 homes at Tanglewood Court in Leslie Road, Kendray. The development features a selection of two- and three-bedroom affordable homes, with the three-bedroom Ashby house type having been selected as the show home. One of the developer’s most popular properties using the most modern of trends, the show

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home demonstrates how maximising space doesn’t have to compromise style and design.

Popular with first time buyers and those with growing families, the Ashby boasts flexible living space and an affordable price The development, which is part of a £40 million investment programme, has a park by its entrance and is perfect for young families. It also has an array of local conveniences including a post office and food shops.

Nearby, Keepmoat Homes’ development include The Pastures, Darfield and a new development of 161 two, three and four bedroom homes at Thurnscoe – all near Barnsley.

In addition, there is a new development of 120 two- and threebedroom homes at The Fieldhead Estate, Kirklees in West Yorkshire. The development also includes new open space and

Woodcock Street area.

Woodcock Street is really on the up, with lots of regeneration planned for the coming years. The revitalisation is being led by Gateway, Hull’s Neighbourhood Regeneration Agency, for whom the new homes are the first part of a long term plan to restore the area to being a thriving and popular place to live.

Another major development is underway at The Village, in Grimethorpe - a small village surrounded mainly by green fields.

A large wood borders the village to the east and the A6195 runs north to south to the west of the village.

By virtually doubling output, Keepmoat Homes is demonstrating confidence that the recovery in the private housing market will be sustained.

In addition, the regeneration specialist will continue to deliver partnership projects with local councils and housing associations, creating homes for rent and shared ownership.

Around a quarter of the properties being constructed are for these projects.

Keepmoat Homes specialises in building around 1,200 high quality, attractively priced homes a year.

Their award-winning range of homes demonstrates innovation, while a wide variety of house styles and exceptional choice of fixtures and furnishings, allows customers to create their ideal home.

Keepmoat Homes work in Yorkshire, the Midlands, the North East and North West, investing not just in bricks and mortar but in local people by providing job and training opportunities; and in local initiatives - to create neighbourhoods in which people choose to live.

Despite all this growth and change, Keepmoat Homes’ values are the same as they were 75-years ago; a commitment to quality, a belief in the ability to make a difference and the desire to be the very best at what they do.

play areas for people to enjoy, a ‘village square,’ new shops and traffic calming measures. As part of the construction process, Keepmoat has provided apprenticeship opportunities for seven local people. This involves on-the-job training as well as college attendance, at the end of which they’ll have a recognised qualification as well as valuable experience Keepmoat Homes’ 10 acre Horizon development at Darnall near Sheffield features a diverse mix of 191 starter and family homes, with most benefiting from ample gardens and off-street parking.

Currently available are the two-bedroomed Normanby, threebedroomed Clarendon, Kelmscott and two-and-a-half storey Oakhurst – which is the show home house type – and the three storey, four bedroomed Somersby.

Meanwhile, at Hull, St Andrew’s Square is taking shape in a £12m development of 106 environmentally friendly homes for the

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Durham college sports new look

“We’re part of the vanguard for the BSF scheme in this area, and I’m proud to say it’s turning out so well.

The new look is miles ahead of how the school looked before.

There’s a definite wow factor about the place, and you can see it in contractors, staff, students and the local community who share our facilities. The architects have done a great job.

“We’re fortunate to have a large campus here, which is partly down to the school’s history of offering land management and agricultural qualifications through the school farm we have on site. The space has been helpful, as we’re replacing all but the farm buildings over various phases, and we’ve been able to relocate certain functions and leave room for construction work to go on without major disruption to the school”.

Costing around £17.2 million, work at Sedgefield is designed to transform teaching

One of a host of schools across the Durham area to benefit from investment under the Building Schools for the Future scheme, Sedgefield Community College in South Durham is going through an extensive rebuilding programme.

Work is currently nearing the end of the first wave of new build, which began in June 2009 under main contractor Carillion.

John Tomlinson, deputy head of the specialist sports college, spoke enthusiastically to Premier Construction about the project:

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and learning, accentuating the school’s speciality in sports. Once work is complete, locals and students alike will benefit from the highest quality artificial pitches, tennis courts, badminton courts, dance studios, fitness suites and more. The thought alone is enough to tire you out, but not if you share John’s enthusiasm for the project: “We’re very fortunate to have this much investment into the school”, he says, “and I’m looking forward to seeing the end result”.

Sabre slashes costs on new HQ Sabre Structures, a steel manufacturing firm based in West Yorkshire, has provided the steel frame for its own new facility on Bretton Park Way in Dewsbury.

The new facility covers 30,000 sq. ft. and will house the 40 people working at Sabre – management, admin and shop floor staff. The building features a first floor open plan office to match an open plan shop floor, which are accompanied by a staff canteen and meeting rooms. There is ample room for parking to the exterior.

The standard industrial building features profiled cladding on the external elevations, punctuated by aluminium doors and windows.

At a cost of approximately £2m for the project, the company has made a five-figure saving by using its own products for the work,

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and will make further savings now that it owns its premises.

The former gas works site, which is situated only 3 miles from Sabre’s current home, is being developed by architects Brewster Bye and main contractor APP construction. Sabre’s Lee Parkinson was able to speak to Premier Construction: “As a company, we mainly produce structural steel, and our products have been used in buildings like hospitals, showrooms, warehouses and industrial units like this one. We’ve produced up to 150 tonnes of steel per week, and we’re hopeful that the new premises will allow us to extend that.

“The building is almost complete and we’re at the stage of decoration and final touches, so we’re on course to be in there by the end of July.

“APP have done a fantastic job for us – we knew they would, as we’ve worked with them before. They recommended Brewster Bye, and we were happy to take their recommendation. We haven’t been disappointed, as the building is shaping up to be exactly what we need”.

Asked to share his thoughts on the future of the steel sector, Lee replied, “It looks like things are continuing to pick up after the

recession – slowly but surely, mind you. Steel prices have been high recently, so that is something we’ve had to work hard to deal with, as have other firms. However, we feel it’s the right time to make this move. We have a good client base and plenty of work ordered, and I’d say we’re a well run operation with a good group of people on board. Touch wood, with the new premises it looks like we have all the ingredients we need to carry on succeeding”.

5 Star Work in York In a £20 million investment by Acropolis Hotels, architects Mackenzie Wheeler and contractor Clay Construction have completed the conversion of the former British Rail headquarters in York into an eye-catching 5-star hotel.

The new hotel has just opened in the building that dates back over a century, and boasts 107 bedrooms - each one totally individual and enhanced by the impressive architectural features of the building. On the higher floors, the rooms are ‘loft style’, with outstanding views overlooking the city walls.

The facilities at The Cedar Court Grand, as the hotel is to be known, include five beautifully appointed meeting rooms for up to 20 people, the directors’ room (once the Chairman’s office)

which can accommodate up to 40 and the board room – a hugely impressive, wood-panelled room capable of hosting 120 guests.

A decking area overlooking the York wall is spacious enough to accommodate a marquee for 300, and a cocktail bar, restaurant and private dining rooms provide a choice of sophisticated spaces and places to meet, relax and dine.

An exclusive Spa offers luxurious, bespoke treatments, along with a sauna room, steam room, pool and gym.

Gary Clay, the main contractor’s managing director, spoke to Premier Construction: “Clay Construction have been involved in this project from the earliest stages, beginning in November 2008, which is ROMA PUBLICATIONS

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N o r th E a s t & Yo r ks h i re the view of the client – that it’s always better to have as local a workforce as possible” Asked why he preferred to hire within the area of the job, Gary replied, “I suppose it helps when there isn’t too far to travel to work, and perhaps you could say that locals have more of a stake in what’s developed in their area. Also it provides a boost to the local economy, but you shouldn’t forget that we can be a little parochial in Yorkshire – maybe that’s the main reason!”

Mackenzie Wheeler’s Raymond Shotter had this to say about his work on the hotel: “I understand one of the reasons we were selected to design the refurbishment was our experience in restoring listed buildings, which of course tend to be focal points of the areas in which they’re situated. Just one of the ways in which we’ve tried to improve the building without taking away from its natural charm is by using local York stone to build the access ramps at the main entrance.

“As well as the access ramps, there have been a number of additions to accommodate modern requirements. The fire escapes had to be altered and re-modelled to provide full availability to the hotel, for example, and there were a number of small details like that to take care of”. “This building has a cellular arrangement”, as Raymond explains, “which is no longer suitable for the requirements of a modern office, but little did the original architects know that they were designing something that was almost perfect as a basis for a luxury hotel a hundred years later. We’ve managed to have the best of both worlds, too, as we’ve been able to install conveniences like air conditioning that are a standard feature in modern offices”.

Cedar Court Grand adds to Cedar Court’s existing portfolio of four-star hotels across Yorkshire, including Harrogate, Wakefield, Huddersfield/Halifax and Leeds/Bradford.

when design work was coinciding with enabling and strip-out operations. We progressed to structural alterations and begun the bedroom refurbishments in February 2009, before moving on to the last stage earlier this year, during which we completed the public areas and fitted out the spa” The hotel presented developers with a demanding challenge, as Gary explains: “This is a grade II listed building, which meant that we had to work closely with English Heritage throughout the contract.

They’re very exacting and it’s no exaggeration to say that we had to have every last light fitting, leaded window, hinge and doorknob approved before going ahead with installation. There’s a good reason why it’s done that way, though, and the demands of this kind of work only make it more satisfying when you look at the finished job.

“It’s the preferred option to maintain the original state of the building in every possible way, whilst recognising the need for modernity. The doors are a good example. Each one was removed and repaired and they were fitted with a uniform set of knobs and hinges. Additionally, they were fireproofed to follow safety regulations, which meant applying a five coat treatment each door.

“Specialist work like the fire-proofing is something that we typically contract out to specialist subcontractors. We share

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Hands-on approach streamlines hotel extension Rudding Park Hotel, near Harrogate, is soon to benefit from an £8 million, 46 room extension, thanks to a “hands-on approach” that has minimised disruption to the operational complex.

The new build will house a spa and a gym room alongside its 46 bedrooms, many of which will boast steam rooms and private cinemas. Hotel manager Peter Banks has been working closely with main contractor R N Wooler during the construction programme, and he explained the project’s success so far to Premier Construction: “We sought a hands-on approach from the contractors to match the way we run our business. That meant hiring as many people from the local areas as possible. That way, I feel it’s easier to understand what’s going on with the project and what is required of everyone working on it.

“We’ve used local York stone, as well as other materials sourced from as near to the site as possible, and I’m happy to report that this approach has worked well so far. The same contractor had previously extended our restaurant and kitchen, and I’ve been impressed with the skills they’ve brought to the projects”.

The hotel has remained operational throughout, and Peter explains how his staff have managed to avoid major disruption: “It’s about knowing your guests. If there are areas subject to noise during working hours, then you try to use rooms nearby

for people who are only there outside working hours – people travelling for business, for example. That way, neither guests nor workers are impeded”.

Peter is confident that the extension represents a sound investment, and is already considering the possibility of further work on the hotel once the current project is finished in December 2010.

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Spa attraction Work has started on a £6.5m refurbishment project at one of Scarborough’s top entertainment venues.

The Scarborough Spa will be modernised over the next year to include a larger stage area, new lifts and a 24-hour car park, under main contractor Houlton.

The council said a new management team at the complex was taking over and hoped the revamp would enable the venue to host a wider variety of events.

Funding for the project has come from regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and the council.

Councillor Derek Bastiman, chairman of the Scarborough Spa project board, said: “This refurbishment is another chance for us to bring the conference and entertainment facilities in the town up to the first-class standard that is now expected from organisations wanting to stage events in town.”

The renovations are intended to make the spa more accessible to customers, with new lifts and public toilet facilities. The council said the complex was “changing with the times”.

It said it hoped that more acts will be encouraged to perform in Scarborough following the completion of the refurbishment project.

The Spa now has wi-fi throughout the building, several high quality plasma and projection screens in various sizes to suit all

needs and the ability to pipe through pictures and sounds from one room to another (ideal when the whole complex is in use).

High quality DVD, mini disc and video equipment is available to record conferences.

Traffic light systems with cue points and Infra-red and loop systems have also been installed. With the entrance to finish, this beautiful building has now been restored to its former glory - but with modern twist.

Recently, the new government’s decision to abolish regional development agencies has hit the project’s funding hard, and yet the council has pledged to use its own reserves to keep the project alive.

Ian Anderson, head of the council’s legal and support services, said the council would be expected to pay for the majority of the work during the 2010/11 financial year.

His report said an alternative option would be to cut costs by scaling back some of the refurbishment work, but this would impact on the attractiveness and future income of the venue and lead to increased running costs.

Contractors are said to be delighted at the opportunity to continue their work on the project, the quality of which has never been in doubt.

Major sports centre’s £4.6 million refurbishment Major work to refurbish Batley Sports and Tennis Centre in a £4.6 million project led by main contractor Clugston Construction is making great progress.

A brand new fitness suite was unveiled in January at Batley Sports and Tennis Centre as part of a major £4.6 million project.

Last summer, the swimming pool, fitness suite and sports hall were closed as part of the exciting redevelopment. The sports hall then reopened in the following October with new flooring.

The fitness suite was completely remodelled with brand new Technogym equipment.

The reception is being redesigned and remodelled, and both the swimming and the dry side changing rooms will have been totally refurbished by the time work is complete.

The pool hall will benefit from an upgrade of poolside facilities, including interactive water features for children to play on involving water cannons, slide and tipping buckets, which will be enhanced by new poolside lighting. It will reopen during summer 2010.

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Centre manager Jaime Nalson said: “We are all very excited about this fantastic opportunity for re-development and investment in the facilities here at Batley Sports and Tennis Centre.

“The water features in particular will be great for children and include interactive lighting which we can change to suit the mood of the session. For example, low and soft for relaxing swims, or flashing and multi-coloured for lively fun swims.

We would ask our customers to bear with us while the work is ongoing but are sure it will be well worth the wait.

“We would like to remind customers that the centre is still partially operational and to contact the centre for our programme of activities.”

Investment for the project has come from a £1.75m grant from the Government, a £2.75 contribution from Kirklees Council and £140,000 from Kirklees Active Leisure.

The Batley Swimming Initiative will build on the already substantial investment of £11.1 million invested by the council

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N o r th E a s t & Yo r ks h i re and Kirklees Active Leisure over the last seven years into improving and modernising sports centres and swimming pools across Kirklees.

Sport England and the Amateur Swimming Association have been actively involved in the design process for the entire scheme.

Clugston Construction The Clugston Group is a privately owned, limited, group of businesses founded over 70 years ago in construction, civil engineering, logistics, property development and facilities management. The group employs over 500 people with operations stretching across the UK. Clugston’s core activities today stem from its initial involvement with the iron and steel industry in the 1930’s.

In 1937, led by the present Chairman’s father, Clugston Cawood Ltd was incorporated and pioneered the development and use of recycled blast furnace slag from Scunthorpe’s iron and steel plants. This was initially used in a variety of building materials and later used for the construction of RAF runways in World War II. This led the company into civil engineering, road construction and sea defences on the east coast.

Steadily, Clugston expanded into related activities, such as building, transportation and the provision of bulk services to some of the UK’s largest companies.

hoard-it The adjectives queue up in praise of hoard-it’s site solutions: Affordable, eco-friendly, award-winning, secure, re-useable, adjustable and, above all, practical.

A brand new system of hoarding, hoard-it has been specifically designed to be so durable that it can withstand the toughest site and weather conditions. Thanks to heavy duty load testing and robust steel upright supports with electroplated finish. The versatile structural design also enables the hoard-it system to be placed in any location and on curves, dips and inclines.

With hoard-it’s products, there is no need to excavate foundations, which means that there is no danger of a live strike such as gas, electricity, water or telecommunications. The hoard-it team has devised a practical design that allows hoard-it site hoarding to be easily repositioned or removed.

There are also benefits for advertising. hoard-it foto-ply boards have been designed to withstand acts of vandalism and graffiti and they will not fade. This means that even after months on the same site your messages will look as good as new and can be re-used time and time again. hoard-it can provide a full service, including site surveys, technical detailing, transportation, installation, dismantling and refurbishment and inspection.

To find out what hoard-it can bring to your project, visit www.hoard-it.co.uk or call 01226 752 143, quoting Premier Construction

Better working strategies at the heart of council refurbishments Main contractor F Parkinson Ltd. is currently on site, undertaking a refurbishment of North Yorkshire County Council’s offices at Northallerton.

The works consist of refurbishment, extensions and alterations to the South Block of County Hall, which is central to the County Hall campus.

Works include demolition of exisiting partitions, the strip out of existing finishes with the installation of new partitions, new walls, floor and some ceiling finishes, New doors are to be provided together with replacment of existing windows and the addition of brise-soleil on the south facing elevations. The works is spread over three floors with the work areas vacated during the contract. However, floors above, below and adjacent to the works are occupied with the general business of the authority not being interrupted.

Also included in the works is the demolition of a small traditional construction extension and the construction of a three storey extension, which includes a passenger lift.

Judith Johnson of North Yorkshire County Council explained the reason for the refurbishment: “This is part of our strategy to re-think the way we work. Many of our staff members don’t need permanent desks and we’ve found that we can save money by having more flexibility in the way we work. We’re looking into desk-sharing and working from home as a way to reduce the space we need and the energy bills we run up.

“Depending on the nature of the work carried out from department to department, we’re aiming for 7 or 8 desks for every 10 staff members. Our flexible phone and wireless connection systems allow what we call ‘touchdown spaces’, where people can work temporarily without needing permanently reserfed office spaces. We’re making sure that cellular, enclosed offices have to be well justified. Otherwise, people are to be expected to work in open spaces with meeting rooms to be used if the need for private meetings arises.

“Another reason for the work is simply to upgrade our buildings and reduce maintenance and energy expenditure, which is something a lot of local authorities are looking into. Locally, Barnsley Council is a good example. Like other councils, some

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of our buildings are dated and the cost of maintenance and repair is beginning to outweigh the cost building of new, modern, efficient and better thoughy-out spaces”.

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Warwickshire to benefit from training facility Birmingham-based regeneration specialist St. Modwen is carrying out a multimillion pound deal to build a new college to train power workers in Warwickshire.

Work on the £35million Warwickshire College facility at Rugby, which will create jobs for hundreds of construction workers and provide a boost for the local economy, started in early February 2009 with building and civil engineering groundworks contractor Westley Plant.

The new campus is being built on 82 acres of a brown field site earlier occupied by Alstom and the first students are expected to start in September this year. .

Funding for the new college was agreed by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), plus a £6.3million addition from Advantage West Midlands, was given to help fund the Power Academy on site.

Karen Yeomans, corporate director of operations at AWM, said: “Not only will the Power Academy be a fantastic addition to the regeneration of Rugby, but it will also have a huge impact on the future of environmental technologies.”

The development agreement was signed by college principal, Ioan Morgan, and St. Modwen chairman Anthony Glossop.

Mr. Morgan said the college would provide jobs

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Midlands and apprenticeships for local people during its building phase.

It would train young people and give older people, who had perhaps suffered redundancy, the skills that they need to be ready for the economic recovery.

“This is an economic opportunity for the future of Rugby; it’s about inward investment,” said Mr. Morgan. When companies come to Rugby, they will be greeted by the college up and ready to operate as their training arm and help them with the skills they need to develop.

“The focus of this college is a commercial partnership with Converteam and Alstom, and who can think of a better area to be investing skills in than renewable energy and power in general.”

Mr. Glossop said the deal with Warwickshire College “secures an ideal anchor” for the site’s regeneration.

The college will use as many sustainable energy methods as possible, including a wind turbine, solar cells, solar water heating and rainwater harvesting.

St. Modwen has outline planning consent to develop the remainder of the site as a 70 acre urban community costing £120million, which is the largest brown field regeneration project in the town.

In addition to the college campus there are plans for more than 600 new homes, five acres (90,000 sq ft) of industrial accommodation, 15 acres of public open space and landscaping, and a new spine road linking Mill Road and Leicester Road to reduce congestion and also provide direct access to the site.

Warwickshire College is the second education facility that St. Modwen have developed in the West Midlands in the last 18 months, the other being the £84 million Bournville College at Longbridge on the site of the former MG Rover factory.

Warwickshire College Warwickshire College sits in the heart of the West Midlands and is one of the largest colleges in the area. Working with local, regional and national businesses the College enjoys a reputation for delivering high quality training to employers such as Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, National Express, Connaught and telent.

Westley Plant Hire Ltd Westley Plant Ltd is the groundworks and civil engineering contractor on the Warwick College project. The company has worked with St Modwen in the past and is looking forward to similar collaborations in the future.

Westley offer a very competitive labour, plant and materials package, taking pride in getting all contracts whatever the size, completed, on time, on budget, and to the highest standards.

Because of this approach, it’s no surprise to find that 90% of contracts are repeat business.

Formed in the early 1980s, Westley is a Birmingham based contractor. The company generally operates over a 100 mile radius around Birmingham, on contract values from£100k to £3 million. Westley’s employees boast vast experience, having worked in all sectors of the market: commercial, retail, housing, roads, demolition and ground remediation.

The company has recently started work on a new hotel complex for Multibuild in Rugeley, Staffordshire, which is due to be complete in December 2010. Westley also recently finished the new Digbeth Coach station in Birmingham for Spencer Construction and current clients include GF Tomlinson, Harper Group, Speller Metcalf and C2C Rail.

New kitchen and dining facility to provide better school meals at Birmingham School Audley Junior and Infant School in Birmingham is now able to provide even better school meals, thanks to a recently-completed refurbishment to its kitchen and dining facilities. Work on the school was carried out by Birmingham City Council’s Urban Design department in conjunction with contractors Thomas Vale as part of the Birmingham Construction Partnership (BCP).

The school, which was originally opened in 1934 had already benefitted in recent years from a new staff and admin block designed and constructed by the BCP. Now that work on the new kitchen and dining facility is complete, the school will be able to provide meals prepared on site.

Robert Edwards, of Birmingham City Council’s Urban Design department, told Premier Construction: “Projects like this are partly inspired by campaigns like Jamie Oliver’s, which encourage children to enjoy and appreciate good food prepared at school. Going along with that spirit, we aimed to design a building that the children would enjoy, and in which they would feel welcomed.

“The building has an interesting elliptical shape and is designed to maximise on the use of natural light and ventilation.

The kitchen is of a commercial standard, complete with the most modern equipment, and is fully equipped to deal with the school’s hungry youngsters.

Robert adds, “We feel we’ve achieved value for money on this project. We’ve been able to put something together that’s modern, safe, attractive and practical. This was a collaborative

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Urban Design project and we had a valuable contribution from the contractors in order to see it through In all, we are pleased with the final result”.

Thomas Vale Thomas Vale group is one of Urban Design’s contractor partners on the Birmingham Construction Partnership and is a leading provider of construction services with regional centres in Stourport, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford and Leamington. The company has a strong background in the education sector.

Through the BCP, Urban Design and Thomas Vale boast a long list of awards and sustain thousands of jobs in the region. To find out more, visit www.thomasvale.com and www.birmingham.gov. uk/urbandesign

Saving Launde Abbey Launde Abbey, in Leicestershire, is a retreat centre and a place of prayer and of welcome. Recently, the abbey has needed expensive restoration work, and a successful appeal has raised £1 million towards the abbey’s safekeeping.

The abbey’s warden, Tim Blewett, spoke to Premier Construction about the restoration scheme: “Some of the abbey dates back to the13th and 14th centuries, so it’s no surprise that the time has come to repair and renovate it, especially as the last significant works were carried out in the 1950s and the last new build was as far back as 1839.

“Part of the work involves bringing the building up to modern standards, and that includes the need for wheelchair access and a focus on the environment. We’re having a biomass boiler to run off wood pellets sourced from a local co-op.”

Elsewhere, the abbey will benefit from a new lift to the first floor of its main building, an extensive overhaul of its heating and plumbing systems to accompany the new boiler, renovation of its guest rooms to provide en-suite options, repairs to its brickwork, stonework and chimneys, and much more.

Tim added, “The contractors have been ideal. They’re very

sensitive to the specific demands of this building and they’ve respected our need to keep certain periods quiet”.

The main contractor is WW Brown & Sons, and director Mark Brown found the time to speak to Premier Construction: “It’s a Grade II listed building, which means that working on ROMA PUBLICATIONS

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it is challenging and intense at times. An added challenge with the abbey is that its different components weren’t all built at once. Things have been built over centuries as the abbey has expanded, which means there are different materials and methods across the site. It’s never straightforward!

“Like every job, though, it’s a learning experience. In our case, this job continues five generations of local experience. We’re a family business from the area and the company has been involved on smaller projects at the abbey before.”

Work at Launde is expected to be complete in November 2010 after a 13 month contract period, and Mark gave us an update on the latest developments: “Currently, the housing for the new boiler is structurally complete,

New centre is biggest of its kind in the country

Now fully operational is the new £26.5 million Brierley Hill health and social care centre - the biggest of its kind in the country - constructed on a site at Venture Way, Brierley Hill.

Constructed by Carillion Building, the state-of-the-art centre provides integrated services for three GP practices collectively serving 16,000 patients, three dental surgeries, audiology, podiatry, chiropody, leg ulcer services and speech and language

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and electrical and mechanical installations are approaching completion too. There are a number of smaller aspects of the work ongoing, such as plastering, doors, windows and walls, much of which will be complete within a month or so. As you can see, we’re right in the thick of things. We’re on schedule, though, and it will be a nice moment to look at our work once it’s done.”

Tim Blewett recently issued a message of thanks on the abbey’s website, www.launde.co.uk, and has committed to walking the Leicestershire Round – a distance of 101 miles - in the space of 24 hours, as a show of thanks to those whose efforts have kept the abbey alive and in an attempt to raise even more funding for worthy causes. Please visit the website for more information about the abbey, and to find out how you can get involved with the fundraising campaign. therapy, together with providing a new home for Dudley council social care and housing services staff. The building incorporates two public lifts and one service lift.

The centre was delivered by Dudley Infracare LIFT on behalf of the Primary Care Trust and Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. Dudley Infracare LIFT was established in October 2005 to provide new primary health and social care buildings for Dudley. The company is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the NHS Primary Care Trust in Dudley, part of the innovative NHS LIFT (Local Improvement Finance Trust) National Programme.

Designed by Stephan Bradley Architects, the centre has been constructed on the former site of the Brier School, which was demolished to make way for the new development.

The 9,390 sq m building features two basement car parking levels with three storeys above and is structured around a steel frame. External elevations are in a combination of brick and cladding, with aluminium framed windows and a pitched roof.

External works on the project also included the construction of a new site access road, additional surface parking and soft landscaping.

Kevin Gaffney, Director of Finance at Dudley PCT said: “The

Brierley Hill Health and Social Care Centre is the third PCT led LIFT building in the borough and following the success of the Stourbridge Health and Social Care Centre and Ridge Hill facility, we are extremely excited that the new building is complete. We are aware that people want to be treated as close to home as possible and the wide range of services that will be delivered under one roof will really benefit local residents. The building looks fantastic and will become a great asset to Brierley Hill and the surrounding areas. “ John Coyne, Chief Executive of Dudley Infracare LIFT said: “We are delighted that this project has been delivered on time and to budget resulting in a new landmark building for the town of Brierley Hill, from which first class health and social care services can be delivered. The building is a true catalyst for urban regeneration and displays a modern design, offering a pleasant and welcoming environment for patients, visitors and staff, at the same time as encouraging and setting the standard of future health and social care developments in the Dudley area.”

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A Premier opportunity in the heart of Birmingham Two prominent buildings located on Waterloo Street in the centre of Birmingham are undergoing a radical transformation to become the latest Premier Inn hotel in the Midlands city.

Property development company, Opus Land, purchased 1-2 and 3-6 Waterloo Street in 2006 with the intention of restoring the 1960s structures to their former office development use. However, as a result of the significant downturn in the market, it became clear that this was no longer a viable idea and furious negotiations were undertaken until Premier Inn came onboard the project as new lease holder.

The two previous office space total a space of approximately 50,000sqft, including an underground car park space and the new Premier Inn construction will stay within the same eight-storey structural footprint.

The complete redevelopment, which include 150 bedrooms, began onsite by main contractor, Multibuild, in May 2009 and is due for completion any time now.

“As a result of the slighter older age of the buildings, a complete strip out was necessary within the redevelopment process,” Richard Smith, Managing Director of Opus Land, explained. “Primarily they were unsuitable for their new purpose, and secondly they no longer reached the required standard a building needs to have in the 21st Century. Works have had to be undertaken to connect the two separate structures.”

Both buildings incorporate a number of rooms on the upper levels. A Premier Inn restaurant, Table Table, will be situated on the ground floor of 3-6 Waterloo Street and a restaurant shell will be created on the round floor of 1-2 Waterloo Street, which will be leased out to a separate retailer, entirely unconnected to Premier Inn. A small number of spaces from the existing underground car park will be maintained for

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use by the Premier Inn customers; however, the majority of the area will become a lower level for the new restaurant.

“This is a highly intense pavement to pavement development located directly opposite the cathedral courtyard in the very heart of Birmingham city centre,” Richard Smith said. “Upon completion, it will be an imposing structure situated in beautiful surroundings.”

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Sainsburys expands into Wombourne The supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has opened a new £4.5m store in Wombourne, near Wolverhampton, located at Heath Mill Industrial Estate on the Bridgnorth Road.

Completed in late February, work at the 2.5 acre site saw the four-week demolition of existing industrial buildings. The project saw Mercian Developments collaborate with main contractor GF Tomlinson, whose director Colin Howell spoke to Premier Construction: “I feel the programme went very well. We were able to finish on schedule, in under a year, and accommodate a few of the client’s changes to our plan along the way. The building is not what you’d call unusual – it features the kind of glazed elevation you might find on plenty of other Sainsbury’s stores, for example – but the location is fairly novel as it’s quite uncommon to see stores built on the edge of industrial areas like this one.

“We had a team of four or five on the project at first, and then, one construction was underway, I took over GF Tomlinson’s role largely on my own. Some of the work was done on an in-house basis, such as the drainage, since civil works are a speciality of ours, but we mainly sent the work out to specialist subcontractors, all of whom have worked well for us”.

The new store is Wombourne’s first supermarket and represents a continuing expansion programme for the retail giant, which

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now has over 800 supermarkets and convenience stores across the UK. Last year, it spent £83m to buy 24 stores from the Coop, which had been ordered to sell the stores under competition regulations following its purchase of the Somerfield chain.

Sainsbury’s beat off competition from Tesco for permission from local authorities to open its Wombourne store.

Residents are benefiting from the store’s presence in their village, which is set to create up to 250 jobs, according to Sainsbury’s bosses. A survey carried out prior to construction revealed that over 90% of people were traveling outside the village for their main shopping trips, and a majority of villagers are said to have responded positively to the opportunity to work and shop more locally. This is made even easier by the ‘Bus Hopper’ service that the supermarket has introduced to the area for those without cars.

In response to some locals’ concerns, the supermarket has sponsored a website for the scheme known as ‘All the Little Shops’, which is designed to encourage interest in the small businesses around the village. Funding has meant all independent retailers and businesses in the region can create their own webpage, display up to twenty products and, if they wish, trade online totally free. It is hoped that the new supermarket will attract new visitors to Wombourne and that the website will help them to uncover the products and services available in the lively village.

This important initiative is a first for Sainsbury’s and it is hoped that local independent retailers, the soul of village life in Wombourne, will take advantage of this great opportunity and allow the website to build awareness of their businesses and encourage more people to explore their shops.

New unit remodels Victorian hospital building A £2 million investment is behind ongoing work at St. George’s Hospital in Cannock, Staffordshire, to establish a new low-security mental health unit. The unit takaes advantage of the need to remodel an existing Victorian building, Michael Flanagan House, which sits within the hospital grounds.

The new unit adds to the hopspital’s tradition as a major provider of support to people with mental illnesses and learning diffuculties in the Midlands, and will accompany an existing medium-security unit which is already well established at St. George’s.

Michael Flanagan House provides the basis of the new unit, and is being extended for bedroom space and supplemented with modern new build in a project which began on site in late August 2009 and is expected to be complete by early October 2010, ready to accept new patients later that month.

Ian Cox, who has been leading the development on behalf of South Staffordshire NHS Trust, took time out of his busy schedule to tell Premier Construction about the project. He said: “The reason why this site was chosen for the new mental health unit is that the regional commissioners for the Midlands, after having determined the need for the new facility, were looking for a spread that would balance out services in the area, given that there are already a variety of facilities, including three high security units.

“This hospital put in a bid to host the unit, and it was decided that this was the best suited location. It offers the chance to re-use an existing building, rather than building a new one from scratch, and it has the added benefit of making much better use of Michael Flanagan House, which until recently has been

little more than a ‘spare space’, which is clearly a failure to make the very most of NHS assets”.

Ian took care to explain the need for differing levels of securit between the site’s two units, and some of the ways in which the levels differ: “All the people who stay in the units are carefully assessed to establish what category of care and attention they need. It would be disruptive, from a medical point of view, to mix groups of people who require different services. In terms of security, the most obvious differences you’ll see are things like the thickness of fences, which can vary in thickness by a matter of metres, and also the number of access points to the facility. The higher you move up the levels of security, the fewer access points you can have, and even fire exits open out onto safe speces that are enclosed within the perimeter of the facility in the more secure units”.

The new unit featres a greed sedum roof and the kind of central building management system that is standard to the trust’s buildings. New brickwork has been extended, corresponding to

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Midlands the style of the original, and is topped by a pitched metal roof supported by a combintion of steel and load bearing masonry.

Ian is happy with the way work has progressed so far, and said, “The construction team has been responsive and has shown experience in dealing with NHS sites, which are always sensitive in terms of segregating construction work and normal hospital activities”.

About Wygar Wygar Construction Co. Ltd, main contractor on the St. George’s project, is a general building contractor carrying out contracts from £150k to £3m in value within the Midlands area. The company was established in 1973 and is based in Walsall.

The firm regularly takes out contracts for both new build and refurbishment and has carried out work for local and national authorities as well as both commercial and private clients.

Health care facilities and office fit-outs are a stated speciality of Wygar’s, and the award winning company boasts a long list of well known and satisfied clients.

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Project gets drivers out of a jam A new one-way system being constructed at one of the main roads in Norwich, the St Augustine’s gyratory scheme is taking shape in a £3.3 million project.

City and county councillors inaugurate the work in January

The project will make St Augustine’s Street one-way northbound and should lead to relief for the traffic-choked street.

The scheme has been developed in a bid to improve the air quality in St Augustine’s Street, which has higher levels of nitrogen dioxide than the national average, and as part of the regeneration of parts of the north of Norwich.

Norfolk County Council and Norwich City Council have worked jointly on the 10 month project being carried out by Main Contractors

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May Gurney.

As well as the one-way gyratory system, the project includes the creation of new traffic light controlled pedestrian crossings and street enhancement works including the laying of high quality paving and landscaping including new trees.

Phase 1 of the contract programme from January to mid May 2010 included the construction of a link road between Edward Street and Pitt Street, service diversions for the link road and the construction of a turning area on Bakers Road.

Phase 2 running from mid May to early July 2010 comprised works on the Esdelle Street/ Magpie Road junction including service diversions, junction realignment and carriageway construction on Edward Street (north-south section).

Phase 3 from early June to early July 2010 involved the completion of the Esdelle Street/ Magpie Road junction including a temporary mini-roundabout and the resurfacing of Magpie Road.

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In Phase 4 (from early July to mid October 2010) the contractors are reconstructing St Augustine’s Street carriageway and footpaths, constructing pedestrian crossings at St Augustine’s gate junction, replacing a gas main and constructing a turning area on Bakers Road.

Phase 5 is the final phase and is scheduled from mid October to mid November 2010.

This phase involves works at the Waterloo Road junction with Magpie Road, the completion of remaining junction islands and streetscape works, footpath construction on Edward Street and junction remodeling at Edward Street/Magdalen Street.

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Taking advantage of anaerobic digestion In February 2009 Anaerobic Digestion – Shared Goals was launched within the UK. The objective being that by 2020 anaerobic digestion will be an established technology in this country, making a significant and measurable contribution to our climate change and wider environmental objectives.

One firm is now edging closer to being one of the first to benefit from the scheme. Blackmore Vale Dairy in Shaftesbury is aiming to reduce its CO2 emissions by approximately 1,200 tonnes per year, which would equate to the environmental benefit of planting 120,000 trees. Going green should also help the dairy save an estimated £150,000 per year.

The dairy’s high-rate liquid digester has been designed and built by Clearfleau, while ENER-G is designing, supplying and operating the combined heat and power (CHP) technology that will convert biogas into renewable energy.

Clearfleau’s high rate anaerobic systems are used for the on-site treatment of liquid waste. Anaerobic digestion is a well established biological process where micro-organisms that thrive in an oxygen-free environment convert volatile solids into biogas. Clearfleau’s digestion systems operate with reduced liquid retention time on a confined footprint, and produce a useful secondary by-product that can be used as a fertiliser.

The 190kWe CHP system will be capable of generating 1,539

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MW of electricity and 1,685 MW of heat per annum from effluent, dramatically reducing the dairy’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Funding has been provided under the WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) Environment Transformation Fund, supported by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. This follows an earlier small scale pilot project to test the AD operation at the site, which was carried out by Clearfleau.

Commenting on the scheme, BV Dairy’s Jim Highnam said, “This is a fantastic opportunity, not just for BV Dairy, but for the whole UK dairy industry to be at the leading edge of renewable

Devon town invests in regeneration

energy technology. We need to release the energy value of these unavoidable liquid wastes.

“We will fully grasp the opportunity that this project presents, and we hope that ­this will be the start of a major shift towards renewable energy production from anaerobic digestion of food wastes.”

The project is backed by Dairy UK, whose environment manager Fergus McReynolds said, “Anaerobic digestion technology can play a major role in reducing the dairy sector’s environmental impact. It is also a key part of processors’ commitment under the Milk Roadmap”.

Kirk Environmental joined Clearfleau on the project team, and their representative Dan Jones spoke to Premier Construction: “Most of the installation is complete now and, with just a few minor tweaks left to make, we expect the system to be fully operational by the end of the year. I expect the project to be a resounding success, as we’ve had a very skilled and committed team at work here, on what is a pioneering project.

“I know that the whole market is looking at this type of scheme, and I fully expect others to follow once we’ve demonstrated how well it can work.

“As I speak, I’ve just returned from an exhibition in London.

There’s been so much interest that I’m exhausted!”

To find out more about the scheme, visit bvdairy.co.uk, clearfleau.com or kirk-environmental.com “This project will not only provide state-of-the-art facilities, but will also help to create further jobs in the area.”

The redevelopment of Brixham also includes a proposed retail, office and housing development in the town centre, which has attracted interest from ubiquitous supergrocer Tesco, a well as an outer harbour breakwater designed to offer extra protection to the harbour, which in turn should allow for an expansion in maritime activity, commerce and leisure in the area.

As part of its ongoing redevelopment programme, the beginnings of which can be traced back to the 1990s, the coastal Devon town of Brixham has recently replaced its 1970s fish market with a £20 million, state-of-the-art upgrade led by main contractor Mansell.

Keith Humphreys, senior develompent manager at the Torbay Development Agency, spoke to Premier Construction about the need for action in the area: “This is an ambitious area, and it’s exciting to see longanticipated improvements being brought about. Fishing is perhaps the most important area to target, as everything else hinges on it.

“The old fish market was very impractical. It was long and thin in shape and this meant that overlap between landing, selling and dispatching areas was unavoidable, This in turn meant that local health and safety inspectors had an increasingly suspicious eye on the facility and our confidence in it was dwindling.

“The old fish market has now largely been demolished and the new facility has completely separate areas for its various functions. That makes it a much more practical and hygienic place to work.

“The main purpose of the building is to re-home the businesses that used the old one, but there is some scope for attracting new business to the town – and what better way to improve your business than by taking advantage of such a fantastic facility?

“I’m particularly impressed with the whiterock cladding used on the new building. It’s affordable and easy to wash, plus it requires minimum maintenance. It’s perfect for the food industry and it’s just one example of the improvements our local fish traders are enjoying”.

Councillor Rob Horne, chairman of the Harbour Committee, said: “Fishing is at the very heart of Brixham’s economy, therefore, a new fish market is a pivotal part of the Brixham regeneration scheme and marks a significant investment by the Harbour Authority.

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Donations fund new science facility Bradfield College has appointed Feltham Construction Limited of Newbury as its main contractor to build its new Science Centre. The new Science Centre, which uses the very latest in sustainable design technology and brings all three main science subjects together in a single building, has been designed by architects MEB Design Limited of Oxford.

The state-of-the-art science block, which includes ten sophisticated laboratories, a living grass roof, a conservatory and a biomass boiler is intended to provide an educationally and environmentally exciting space for the teaching of science. Construction commenced in July 2009.

The majority of the £5m building has been funded through the generosity of Old Bradfieldians, parents and other benefactors.

In recognition of a major donation by Mr David Blackburn OBE and the Blackburn Family, the new building will be named the Blackburn Science Centre .

A school spokesperson commented “The Blackburn Science Centre will ensure that Bradfield continues to be a centre of excellence for science and that Bradfield plays its part in reversing the national decline in the number of young people studying and teaching the sciences. In addition, the Blackburn Science Centre will also provide the opportunity for hundreds of young people from outside the College to benefit from its facilities, in particular by extending Bradfield’s partnership with West Berkshire primary schools. “ The Science Centre will house all three main science subjects in a single building. This will enable the teaching staff and technicians to work together as a team, to share ideas and to help each other prepare and lead inspirational

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science. The new team approach will be a vital element in the way that science teaching is integrated and developed. Shared spaces will allow cross-fertilisation of ideas and approaches to teaching for teachers and pupils alike The project remains on time and on budget for completion by the start of the next academic year in September 2010.

Gatwick Airport makeover continues at pace Gatwick Airport’s huge programme of improvements continues to make progress, under a scheme designed to make the airport more modern and user-friendly, and able to cope with ever-increasing challenges of traffic, passengers and baggage.

Gatwick is now owned by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), who also manage London’s City Airport, after a report by the Competition Commission led to former operators BAA selling the hub in late 2009. Improvements to the airport go hand-inhand with the new operators’ stated intention to encourage more passengers and airlines to ‘make Gatwick their first choice’ in the face of competition from Heathrow, Stansted and Luton airports, amongst others in the UK. Already the 8th largest airport in Europe in terms of passenger numbers, Gatwick’s

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modernisation represents an ambitious attempt to grow even further.

Gatwick Airport’s Wayne Lonsdale spoke to Premier Construction about the scheme: “Across the project, there are two main aims. The first is to improve the passenger experience, and there are several ways in which we’re approaching the issue. One way, as an example, is to improve movement around the airport. We’ve carried out a number of computer simulations to determine the best way to encourage people to move around, and some of the conclusions we drew were that it’s much better to have more open spaces with clear lines of sight, and that lifts are better solutions than escalators for moving large numbers of people from floor to floor.

“The other main aim is to increase capacity, which is why we’re

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to grow with Gatwick and improve passenger service levels”.

Work on the system began in 2009 and should be complete by the second quarter of 2012 after an investment of around £30 million.

New technology is being applied to increase capacity, while airport operators hope to reduce costs by improving efficiency.

One of the most important considerations is to ‘future-proof’ the system against Department for Transport requirements.

North West Zone

investing so much in the baggage handling systems, for example.

The latest technology will ensure a process that’s faster and more precise and a system that can take on a great burden of baggage without struggling”.

Such a large investment into UK aviation was considered too much to hand to a single contractor, and so the project has been divided into sections, each of which has been handed to one of the UK’s major construction firms. According to a Gatwick spokesperson, “To achieve our goals, we are working together, making connections across projects, consulting with suppliers and employing expertise to develop the best solutions”. Among the major contractors awarded work packages at the airport are Costain, Rok, Carillion and VINCI. Wayne Lonsdale added, “The contractors we’ve chosen are all respected and trusted, and they bring with them a great deal of experience, not to mention hatfuls of awards. Our three main criteria in selecting contractors were their focus on safety and security, both during and after construction, their understanding of what it takes to construct a fantastic airport and their ability to offer value for money”.

North Terminal Forecourt The North Terminal forecourt is to see its facilities relocated and improved in an attempt to offer “a reassuring welcome that reflects the Gatwick of today, and the future. It reinforces, geographically, the sense of arrival”. Initial work on the forecourt has been completed at a cost of £7.4 million and is designed to increase the area’s capacity and security and to ‘de-clutter’, which should free up lines of sight and improve signage and circulation.

North Terminal Interchange Leading into the forecourt, the North Terminal interchange is “a new gateway into the terminal” for all modes of transport.

Upgrades are intended to “modernize and speed up the passenger journey into the terminal, whilst leaving a positive impression”, a further hint at the importance placed on making Gatwick attractive, as well as secure and functional. Costing around £25million, work to improve the interchange has reached practical completion and features improved wayfinding and a smoother journey from multi-storey car parks to the terminal building.

North Terminal Extension In a move to increase the terminal’s capacity and reduce the burden placed on existing installations, an £76 million programme of works has been drawn up and is due for completion in September 2011. By then, the terminal will boast 27 new check-in desks, four baggage reclamation belts and, if all goes according to plan, a surge of new passengers ready to enjoy them.

North Terminal Baggage System A hike in the number of passengers in transit at Gatwick necessitates an improved baggage handling system. According to airport representatives, contractors are “developing a new system that is fit for purpose and is robust and efficient enough

Alongside improvements for passengers and baggage handlers, airlines will soon benefit from works at Gatwick. Already virtually complete are six new large remote aircraft stands, which have come in at a cost of £40 million. The stands are a significant accomplishment, as work has progressed as planned despite the usual flurry of action around the airfield.

Transit Replacement The original transit system between terminals dated back to the 1980s and was in need of improvement. According to a Gatwick statement, improvements offer “reliability” and “better passenger service”, and “will ensure our passengers feel secure and relaxed when flying from Gatwick”. The new, safer carriages will offer up-to-date passenger information, CCTV to improve security, and greater accessibility for wheelchair users. £38 million has been spent on the transit system, and improvements are expected to be delivered ahead of schedule in July 2010.

South Terminal Forecourt and Concourse Both these areas are to be made easier to access and navigate, with improved lines of sight, fresher, more open spaces, and a seamless journey from one to the other. New flooring and lighting within the concourse will complement a contemporary, welcoming ‘front door’ to the forecourt.

South Terminal Baggage System Similar to the improvements to be made to the North Terminal’s system, the South Terminal’s baggage process focuses on innovation. New technology is designed to reduce accidents and quicken the check-in process. Strategic planning will be designed to re-route baggage directly to flights and avoid damage and loss. To be complete by 2012, the project is benefiting from an impressive £90 million investment.

South Terminal Departure Lounge This area has been refurbished in order to leave a more pleasant space for passengers to enjoy, and one in which there is a greater choice of activities, refreshment and retail. Passengers will be encouraged to spend more time in this area, which has been extended and modernised in a £37 million project completed in late 2009.

South Terminal Pier 2 Around £40 million is being spent on a project to improve and modernise Pier 2, with work to the aircraft stands and to the passenger areas, to provide a more efficient operation and a better experience for passengers. Delivered in several phases over two years, the project is working in busy airport areas where safety and minimising disruption to passengers are both top priorities.

South Terminal Immigration Hall This area will be expanded and will benefit from better wheelchair access, in a project which begins with newer, higher ceilings and will end with an area of increased capacity with more access routes. £11 million will have been spent by the time the project is complete.

Local Projects Whilst it may seem strange to class a seven-figure spend as a minor project, that’s exactly what it is when you remember that almost £1billion is being invested in the airport. Across the ROMA PUBLICATIONS

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North and South Terminals, a range of local improvements will include better escalators and WCs, improved air conditioning and ventilation and general refurbishments to small, enclosable areas.

Carillion Carillion’s contracts director, Richard Betteridge, spoke to Premier Construction about his firm’s involvement in the scheme: “We’ve been involved with the project since its early stages and throughout the buyout. A significant portion of our work has been carried out on the North West Zone, where we’ve safeguarded two spaces for the new Airbus A380 in the future.

“That side of the project is nearing completion, and I take pride in the way we’ve gone about our work, especially when it comes to environmental issues. 95% of the materials we used were recycled, and we haven’t had to transport any significant amounts of waste away from the site”.

The aviation sector is one of Carillion’s stronger areas, as Richard explains: “In general, we invest a lot in aviation. We have a strong team and we can offer post-construction maintenance packages, which can save money for clients by allowing them to give out single contracts for both. We’re vastly experienced in the area, and we’re currently involved with the work at Heathrow Airport, whilst I’ve personally been involved at Manchester Airport and I was here at Gatwick in 1988, working on the main runway. Come to think of it, I’ve worked on most of the major runways in the UK!” Richard can trace his personal success, and that of his firm, down to a simple yet effective approach: “I don’t mean to use a cliché, but this kind of work is all about people. Simply put, if you’re going to get along, you need everyone involved to have the right attitude. If there’s a problem, you solve it by talking and understanding how to move forward.

Too many people are still stuck with the approach that you’d see a lot in the 1980s – as soon as there’s a glitch, they start ranting and raving!

“During this contract, our approach has meant that our team has fit perfectly with Gatwick’s, and things have moved according to programme. There’s a lot of work to be done around the

airport, and I’m looking forward to similarly successful working relationships in the future”.

Costain Costain is engaged in a number of projects designed to make it easier for travellers to enjoy the Gatwick Airport experience when they fly in or out from the summer of 2010.

Costain is currently in the construction phase of two infrastructure projects which form part of Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal Landside Development Programme. The North Terminal Interchange (NTI) will see a new passenger interchange facility and station constructed for the train that shuttles between the North and South Terminals, while the North Terminal Forecourt (NTF) project is a road remodelling project to improve vehicle capacity in front of the terminal and meet new airport security requirements.

In terms of complexity, the proximity of other, operational airport facilities is “a significant engineering challenge”, according to Brendan Conlon, Project Director for the NTI & NTF projects.

“At the east side there is the airport hotel and we are literally digging up their front doorstep and reconstructing their hotel reception area. To the south, the new structural steelwork is just 30cm away from the existing multi-storey car park. Immediately to the west is the existing road and passenger drop-off and pick-up point. To the north are temporary buildings for airport engineering and maintenance staff. The only barrier between us and the public and airport operations is the site perimeter hoarding”.

As if that weren’t enough, airport engineering workshops and engineering maintenance facilities occupied the lower floor of the original station building. This section of the building is fully retained and incorporated within the new structure and it is directly beneath the demolition and subsequent new build works. This section of the building remained occupied by airport operations staff until September 2009.

Work on the station began last April and, although some delays have led to re-sequencing of the work, Costain has successfully met contract milestones and handed back the train track to the train operators on schedule, says Conlon. The completion of the NTI is planned for late June 2010 but the client has been given ROMA PUBLICATIONS

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early access into the station platform areas to allow the airport operational staff time to familiarise themselves with the new building prior to opening to the public in July.

Through a combination of open communication with all stakeholders and a pro-active and flexible approach adopted

by Costain and Gatwick Airport, the site team has been able to optimise the win-win situation and deliver this prestigious project with minimal disruption to the ongoing airport operations, public and stakeholders.

VINCI VINCI have continued a 12-year relationship at Gatwick with their recent work at the airport. Currently, the group is undertaking the pier 2 upgrade at the South Terminal and the refurbishment of the southern ITTS station as well as early works on a number of other projects.

In previous years, much of the improvements to Gatwick have been down to VINCI, including construction of the South Terminal’s Pier 3 and Pier 2 segregation projects, the refurbishment and extension of the International Departure Lounge, and the construction of the goods in and waste away facility for the South Terminal IDL. Vinci also undertook the replacement of 28 passenger loading bridges and the installation of the gate guidance system. In the last year VINCI have also constructed a temporary baggage facility as part of the enabling works for the new South Terminal system, demolished Hangar 5 and the old Customs House and also completed duties as the Programme Integrator for the South Terminal capital programme.

Andrew Ridley-Barker, operational director of VINCI’s air division, spoke enthusiastically to Premier Construction about his team’s work, putting the group’s success down to experience: “Our experience at Gatwick is what allows us to get things done: we know the environment - its constraints and its interdependencies – and we know what to do to overcome challenges to the projects. We have around 60 people at the airport, many of whom have extensive experience of working at Gatwick, Asked what makes for a successful airport project, Andrew got straight to the point: “You have to keep things separate. You can’t turn an airport into a construction site; you have to find a solution that lets both airport staff and construction workers get on with their jobs, almost as if the others weren’t there.

“I’m pleased to say we’ve done that, and our experience with things such as passenger segregation and construction logistics at the airport adds to our know-how in that area. We’ve been able to keep delivering on our promises and without bringing the airport to a halt”.

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RJA Security RJA have provided secure supervision of materials and individuals entering and exiting the Gatwick site, on behalf of Carillion. Thanks to RJA, there have been no reported security breaches to date.

RJA’s director of operations, Bernard Stone, explains his firm’s success: “We have a strong background in aviation and maritime security – the two most highly regulated and sensitive branches of security. Since we were formed in 1992, we’ve relied on recommendations for over 90% of our work. This proven track record equals security experience. Our experience and company ethos are combined to produce tailor made security solutions to construction projects including governmental, aviation or marine environments”.

RJA offer a wide range of security services, from uniform guarding to dog patrols and searching with X-rays units.

Find out what RJA can bring to your project by visiting www. rjasecurity.com

VVB Engineering VVB’s involvement in the project was to ensure that the concept design was workable.”Our intention was to ensure cohesion between trade contractors and designers for the steady transition of information for a successful handover”, said Kuldeep Tej, VVB’s Project Manager.

VVB provide complete project solutions ranging from design, construction, installation, commissioning & maintenance of all M&E systems.

“We helped the client to meet the tight programme”, says Kuldeep, “with materials such as “Le Grand Trunking”, which was ordered early to avoid programme delays, VVB’s workforce increased due to the acceleration of the programme, pulling in extra labour from other projects, but still managing not to compromise them” VVB have had a strong and successful relationship with Costain for over 12 years. Contracts have ranged between £2M for the current works at Gatwick through to £20M+ for the Energy from Waste plant at Riverside. VVB are currently partnering with Costain, in the rail, power & utilities, highways, airports and tunnelling sectors for clients such as GAL, Network Rail, London Underground and the Highways Agency.

Further details are available on VVB’s website: www.vvb-eng. com You can also visit www.gatwickairport.com for more information about the changes at the airport.

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Major project will deliver new community A major development including the construction of 675 dwellings and associated commercial and community facilities on a 36 hectare site, the Telford Millennium Community project is under construction by Taylor Wimpey.

The Homes & Communities Agency (HCA) and Telford & Wrekin Council, as joint landowners, have entered into a joint venture agreement for the delivery of this project.

Taylor Wimpey was appointed lead developer in 2003 and the Sanctuary Housing group was competitively selected as Registered Provider for the development in 2004. Taylor Wimpey are

contracted to undertake the development on a phased basis within an approved masterplan.

Primary highways and utilities infrastructure works have been completed on the previously mined land which has been comprehensively remediated and masterplanned to accommodate development. The remediation works were carried out by C A Blackwell.

Taylor Wimpey is currently concluding the development of Phase 1 (103 dwellings and retail and office development. All residential properties will be built to a BREEAM ‘Excellent Rating’ as a minimum, demonstrating an innovative approach to community consultation, urban design, environmental sustainability and construction standards in alignment with Millennium Community standards.

Proposals for stage 2 are being developed ahead of a reserved matters planning

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application in summer 2010.

The project area has a high ecological value and around a third of the site has been restored and will be carefully managed as open space and ecological areas. Over 1,200 Great Crested Newts and lizards have been relocated to habitats as part of the scheme and a number of rare plant species have been translocated.

The Telford Millennium Community Trust has been established by Taylor Wimpey and Sanctuary Housing to manage and maintain the majority of the site.

Improvement Programme Watford Community Housing Trust was formed in September 2007 following the transfer of housing stock from Watford Borough Council and aims to provide modern secure homes to help create sustainable communities.

The trust promised that, in the first five years, it would spend £66 million on improvements and repairs to ensure that all its homes would meet the Government’s Decent Homes Standard and the higher Watford Quality Standard which would be agreed in consultation with its tenants. Stock transfer was a major benefit for the Trust’s tenants as Watford Borough Council would have been unable to achieve the same level of investment in the housing stock. The amount of money available to spend on improvements and repairs in the first five years amounts to an average of £13k per property.

At the outset, the Trust made a number of promises to its tenants. Some of the key promises included: • Spending up to £11 million modernising around 2,500 kitchens • Spending up to £4.5 million improving approximately 1,900 bathrooms • Allocating a £9 million fund for improvements on estates • Spending up to £9 million on energy efficiency measures such as new boilers, improved heating systems and insulation • Spending up to £2 million on new secure front and back doors Spending up to £4.5 million to install double glazed windows in homes that only have single-glazed windows.

TheTrust was founded on the principles of the Community Gateway model, which places tenants and community empowerment at the heart of everything the trust does. The trust is a membership organisation – tenants and residents optin to become members, making them legal shareholders of the

organisation and giving them full voting rights. The Community Gateway Model allows tenants and residents to not only say what they want but also make decisions about how their homes are managed and how housing services are administered.

Tenants and residents have had a major voice in developing and delivering the procurement process, with representatives drawn from various groups within the Trust, including the Gateway Committee, Improvement Working Group and Repairs Working Group.

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Lo n d o n & S o u th E a s t The elected Gateway Committee established an Improvement Working Group in 2007 to carry out the more detailed work and to make recommendations.

This group was set up to be involved in: • Developing, monitoring and evaluating an appropriate procurement process • Developing the Watford Quality Standard • Developing the strategic direction and planning of the Improvement Programme, formulating recommendations to the director of asset management, the Gateway Committee, the board and the members as appropriate.

Tina Barnard, Chief Executive of the Trust, said “This investment in putting customers at the heart of decision making has really paid off, our customer satisfaction has soared, and tenants are feeling much happier with the condition of their properties. This really impacts their daily life so much”. A tenant, Mr L Francis told us how much it means to him: “The changes to my home environment are a great improvement …my kitchen environment is much better, very nice. I loved cooking before but I will even love it more now. “

How the Trust plans its Improvement Programmes The trust decided to award the contracts to two main contractors (Mears and Mulalley) on a five-year partnering (PP2000), open book basis. The current programme commenced in June 2008.

These principles have been worked through with tenants on the Asset Management Group and agreed in consultation with tenants at member events. The trust has completed a 95% stock condition survey which has enables it to identify the work required over the next 30 years. The current improvement programme is designed to carry out all the work required in the first 5 years. The borough has been divided into two main areas with Mears carrying out works to areas north of the A41 and Mulalley works in the southern areas. They have completed works to an agreed sequence of estates, starting with those which have

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the greater number of Decent Homes Standard “failures”. The trust, in consultation with the tenants, has also decided on a ‘whole house’ approach. All works in each property required over the first five years will be carried out at the same time.

One of the trust’s core values is sustainability. Part of this is about using good quality materials that will last a long time. And part is about not replacing things before they are needed and being careful with the earth’s resources. It is also being prudent with tenants’ money. The trust recently commissioned the largest A rated windows replacement installation in the UK and are working with the energy saving trust to minimise tenants’ costs.

25,000 early generation PVC-U windows are being replaced and 200 tonnes of PVC-U are to be recovered by the end of the project. Once completed, the project could deliver a cut in emissions of up to 76,000 tonnes over a 10 year period. This Window Energy Rated (WER) A rated refurbishment programme has also been shortlisted for the Sustainable Housing Awards.

Watford Quality Standard The Trust promised to deliver Decent Homes in line with government targets and their business plan.

However, the board and gateway members involved in the improvement programme (Asset Management and Repairs Working Groups) wanted Watford to exceed the minimum standard set by the government.

To that end, the Trust developed the Watford Quality Standard so that, where possible, items that can be afforded are provided to exceed the minimum standard. Some examples of the difference between the Decent Homes Standard and the Watford Quality Standard are given below.

Achievements so far At the end of May 2010, the trust had delivered the following works: • 1,197 new kitchens (48% of the promise)

• • • •

786 new bathrooms (41% of the promise) 637 new Secure by Design front and back doors (32% of the promise) £3.6 million spent on new boilers, improved central heating and insulation (40% of the promise) Satisfaction with improvement programme works has been consistently high and is currently at 96%.

FSG FSG have been working closely with Mears since September 2008 on the North Watford Estates, tasked with the refurbishment of numerous properties. The company installed new kitchens and bathrooms, decorating, flooring, tiling, accessibility adaptations, scaffolding, fascias, soffits and rainwater goods.

FSG have positioned human resources such as a contract manager, two supervisors and full time fitting teams to ensure the smooth running of this contract. In March 2010, the firm completed the 500th Kitchen on the North Watford Decent Homes Scheme and its representatives are proud to continue the working relationship with Mears to this day.

Find out more about FSG at www.fsgpropertyservices.co.uk

New school rises in major multi-million pound project For the first time in many years, a new state-of-the-art secondary school is being built in Bracknell Forest – and contractors are on-target to open its doors for the start of the new academic year this September.

Garth Hill College, just north of Bracknell town centre, secured

£39.2 million of funding in 2006 to demolish its existing buildings (which date back to the 1950s) and construct a brand new 1550-place school.

Main Contractors are Mace Plus; Architects are Scott Brownrigg.

The funding came in part from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) (now the Department for Children, Schools and Families DCSF) Building Schools for the Future programme and there was also a significant contribution from Bracknell Forest Council.

Since the money was secured in 2006, the school has been working closely with the local community, local authority (Bracknell Forest Council) and its pupils, staff and governors to provide a new school which would benefit not just the pupils and

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teachers, but also the wider community.

The pupils have had a vital role to play in the build and the design of the new school, with members of Garth Hill’s pupil body sitting in on formal consultation sessions on many issues including design and construction, extended services and the curriculum.

The project is divided into three phases – phase one is the creation of new playing fields on an adjacent field, phase two is the construction of new school buildings on the existing playing fields and phase three is the disposal and demolition of the old school buildings.

The new school comprises four curriculum blocks around a central link space with an auditorium and sports block.

The flat roofed buildings are of concrete frame structure with external elevations in white, blue and yellow render (the school’s colours), incorporating areas of curtain walling and full height glazing to parts of the link space.

The building will consist of flexible space which will be available for a wide variety of activities including meetings, events and recreation as well as for standard classrooms.

Facilities will include a theatre auditorium, floodlit artificial sports pitch, a four-court sports hall, a fitness studio, drama and dance studios, and a music centre with recording studio, hospitality and catering centre. The school will also feature a manufacturing and product design centre, a state-of-the-art media suite and a large inner link area with plenty of space for socialising, street performance, breakout for learning, assembly, games and other activities.

External works include hard and soft landscaping, as well as the creation of a car park, an artificial turf pitch and a multi use games area.

When complete, the school will provide a flexible, robust, safe and stimulating environment with improved access to a wider range of education, leisure, recreation and other services. It will make use of the latest and best methods, systems, materials and finishes to ensure environmentally friendly, practical and sustainable use for many years to come.

Michael J Lonsdale delivered the entire mechanical and electrical building services package throughout the college. This included the building management and life safety systems, as well as ventilation, heating and cooling systems.

The primary heating and cooling to the school is provided by central bio-mass plant and packaged air cooled chillers.

Natural gas supplies serve the science laboratories and kitchen appliances, whilst a combination of natural and forced ventilation utilising air handling units and a night purging strategy optimises building performance whilst reducing energy demand.

Electrically, a new 11kV/400V substation supplies the school.

The main LV cubicle distribution panel supplies strategically positioned sub distribution panels located within each block within electrical risers. Local lighting and power supplies are obtained from split metered distribution boards to monitor power consumed via BMS interfaces.

Michael J Lonsdale Ltd worked with Mace and the design team to deliver bespoke solutions offering sustainability and low carbon emissions. To find out what they can bring to your development, visit www.mjlonsdale.com

£11 million development boosts UK science sector Work to refurbish and extend facilities at Colworth Science Park near Bedford is gathering pace under a project led by developers Goodman, main contractor Kier Marriott and architects RMJM. The site is host to a number of research and development organisations that benefit from access to a significant range of specialist services directly relevant to the science industry. It has been the location of one of Unilever’s foremost R&D centres for over 55 years.

Now Unilever and Goodman, the UK’s leading business park specialist, are working together to create the level of support and exceptional working environment that, it is hoped, will make Colworth Science Park a destination of choice for science practitioners.

Colworth Science Park is owned, developed and managed under a joint venture between Unilever and Goodman. The group is behind a replacement catering and conferencing building, a new innovation centre to provide laboratory and office accommodation for academics and start-up R&D businesses and a ‘grow-on’ space for medium sized companies.

The new development will enhance the services available at Colworth Science Park for current and future occupiers.

They will largely replace existing facilities and will provide

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modern accommodation in keeping with the attractive campus environment.

Premier Construction spoke to Kier Marriott’s Peter Sutton, who has been leading the major firm’s efforts on the £11 million project: “Work is progressing well”, he said, “and we’ve been on site since November 2009. I’m glad I moved away from being an on-

sire engineer as it was a bitterly cold winter!

“We’re aiming for BREEAM ‘very good’ accreditation as a minimum, and to that end we’ve re-used material from demolished buildings as part of the foundations underneath the new build”.

Asked whether this job put him up against a challenge, Peter replied, “I’ve been in the industry for 40 years and all jobs are challenging. I’ve found the team at this site to be perfectly suited for the job, and our level of communication has been frequent, friendly and productive.

“I’m confident that this will be a very attractive location when our work is complete. It will be highly secure and perfectly designed for research, plus staff working here will have plenty of open space to relax and wind down in. I’m looking forward to putting my name to another successful project for the company, and I’ll be proud to have contributed to the knowledge that this develpment will eventually create.

Osborne completes SE1 housing scheme South East London’s stock of affordable housing has received a significant boost following completion of Osborne’s £14.4 million redevelopment of the Falcon Works for Hexagon Housing Association.

The development is divided into 34 shared-ownership and 59 affordable-rent dwellings. There is a total of 88 apartments and five houses. The landscape is of 3 blocks varying in heights of 3, 4 and 5 stories, with a row of houses.

The units’ acoustically enhanced windows and through the wall ventilation are beyond building regulations requirements.

Solar collectors and photovoltaic cells supplement the heating and hot water systems and mean that 10% of the scheme’s energy is from a renewable source. The PV panels plug straight into the landlord’s supply, and the power levels can be monitored remotely via the internet. A grant from the Building Research Establishment supported the scheme’s eco-friendly installations, and the homes have all been developed to Lifetime Homes standards.

Every house has a private garden and all flats have terraces, balconies or shared courtyards, while residents will be able

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Lo n d o n & S o u th E a s t to make use of secure cycle storage. Communal landscaping has created pleasant pockets of secure, overlooked spaces, creating a sense of community.

The development started on site in February 2008 and completed in January 2010. Construction relied on 70% traditional brickwork and 30% cast in-situ concrete frame.

Tom McCormack, chief executive of Hexagon, said: “At a time of such severe housing shortages, we are very pleased to be able to complete this high quality development, and we hope it brings many years of happiness to the renters and shared owners who will make this their home.”

Peter Head, managing director of Osborne’s homes sector, said: “Working on a site with restricted access is demanding and requires precise planning and very careful management. I am pleased to say that we completed the project on time and on budget for Hexagon and it was also particularly satisfying for Osborne to be involved with a project that is making such a contribution to the improvement of London’s affordable housing stock.”

Hexagon’s development director, Kerry Heath, commented: “I’m proud to have been involved in the Falcon Works project.

We’ve created new homes, which people are crying out for, and we’ve done it in a way that leaves a sustainable development that’s suited to community interaction.

MPK The project’s natural smoke ventilation systems were supplied and installed by MPK Controls Ltd. The natural ventilation removed the need for mechanical extraction, supporting the client’s commitment to a sustainable built environment.

MPK design, manufacture, supply and install high performance, life-enhancing technologies for the built environment.

The company has pushed the boundaries of research and development, manufacturing and design capabilities through 25 years of problem solving. The knowledge gained has helped to create efficient buildings that harness the power of nature to provide spaces that are fully compliant and contribute towards a sustainable future.

MPK products are manufactured at the geographical heart of the UK. A dedicated team is on hand to maintain MPK systems

within short notice. This leads to a much longer product life cycle and ultimately a better relationship with clients.

To find out more, visit www.mpkcontrols.co.uk

Costain in the fast lane on major tunnel scheme Completed two months ahead of schedule, the £90.4 million M25 Bell Common Tunnel Refurbishment was a major maintenance scheme which brings the tunnel up to European Tunnel Directive standards.

The project was carried out for the Highways Agency with Costain undertaking the detailed design and construction of the scheme.

Situated in a rural location under Epping Forest north East of London, the original 470m long cut and cover Bell Common Tunnel was constructed in 1985, as part of the M25 Motorway.

The refurbishment project included the replacement of mechanical and electrical equipment that was installed when the tunnel was constructed in the early 1980s.

The equipment was reaching the end of its design life and needed to be replaced in line with current standards.

The works also included resurfacing the carriageway through the 515m long tunnel and installing replacement fire safety systems,, as well as CCTV cameras to help traffic officers spot and take care of incidents in the tunnel more quickly. The new safety and monitoring equipment was linked to new control systems in the Highways Agency’s Regional Control Centre at South Mimms.

The works involved the replacement of the tunnel’s lighting,

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power supply, and emergency equipment and upgrading the ventilation system using portal fan stations (Under normal conditions the tunnel ventilates through the action of passing vehicles. When traffic is slow moving the air quality can deteriorate and in these conditions mechanical ventilation is required. In the event of an incident involving a tunnel fire, the ventilation system will be required to keep smoke and hot gasses away from tunnel users whilst the tunnel is being evacuated).

Where practicable, works continued 24 hours a day, 7 days per week in order to minimise the works period.

The project forms part of a major government investment to improve journey time reliability and safety on Europe’s busiest motorway.

The project was officially opened by former Transport Minister Chris Mole who said: “I am delighted that this major upgrade has been delivered two months early. The 120,000 motorists and hauliers who use this busy part of the M25 every day will all benefit from the upgrade which brings the tunnel, opened in 1983, up to the highest safety standards.”

“The work is part of a major package of improvements to deliver improved journey time reliability and safety on the M25 as a whole. The Holmesdale Tunnel at junction 25, west of Bell Common, has already been upgraded and the two busiest sections of the M25, between junctions 16 and 23 and 27 and

30, widened to increase capacity.

Director of Major Projects South for the Highways Agency Peter Adams, said: “Completing the work at Bell Common Tunnel whilst maintaining three lanes of M25 traffic in both directions was a major challenge. Much of the refurbishment was done at

night when traffic flows were at their lowest.”

The Costain Group is one of the UK’s leading engineering/construction companies. The group has a famous heritage, a well defined culture with strong values and a strategy - ‘Choosing Costain’ - designed to ensure a successful future.

Their vision is to be one of the UK’s top solutions providers, with the scale and resources to meet successfully the increasingly complex and challenging needs of major customers.

In the 1980s the Costain Group had operations in contracting, mining, housing and property.

In 1982, Costain completed one of its largest ever projects (in joint venture) – the Thames Barrier. Work began at the Barrier site in 1974 and construction was largely complete by 1982.

The Barrier was officially opened on 8 May 1984

by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. During the 1980s, Costain was also heavily involved in the Channel Tunnel project. Eleven tunnel boring machines, working from both sides of the Channel, cut through chalk to construct two rail tunnels and a service tunnel.

Tunneling commenced in 1988 and the Tunnel began operating in 1994.

In the late 1990s, the Costain family ceased to have direct involvement in the company. It was a volatile period for the firm and the decision was taken, partly due to difficult market conditions and a biting recession, to focus on the core construction activities and cease the mining and housing operations. The company staged a successful recovery ensuring that the Costain name remains a leading brand in the construction industry.

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Southend makes a splash A new swimming pool complex is nearing completion in Southend, in a project led on site by main contractor ISG Jackson and designed by Archial Architects. Supported

by Sport England, the development adjoins Southend’s Garon Park leisure and tennis centre.

Paul Weston, Director at Archial said, “We are delighted to be working with Southend-on-Sea Borough Council on this exciting project and are confident that our long-standing experience in the sports and leisure sector will facilitate the success of the development. We believe that our stimulating design will enable all members of the community, whether young or old, to enjoy the swimming pool at the Southend Leisure Centre. We are particularly confident that the training facilities at the leisure centre will enable people to develop their diving and swimming skills.”

It is expected that the pool will be a key training facility for the UK’s diving and Paralympics team ahead of 2012, especially as Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre has already been named as a pre-Olympic training camp, and even more especially as a special DVD was filmed to show what the borough can offer athletes in the countdown to the London 2012 Olympics.

Southend councillors are extremely proud of their DVD, which is narrated by former Essex FM presenter, Peter Holmes, and

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focuses on the amenities at the centre – including showing a basketball match. Other famous features of Southend were highlighted to help attract interest from those embarking on their top level training.

The new facilities include: • •

•

•

• • •

A 25 metre, eight lane competition pool.

A world class diving pool with 3m, 5m, 7.5m and 10m platforms, each of which is 3m wide to allow synchronised diving. There are also two 1m springboards, two 3m springboards, and a 1m platform of normal diving width. A training harness is suspended from the roof.

The diving pool includes a water agitation and air cushion system and a moveable floor to enable swimming lessons and exercise classes to take place.

Fun pool features such as a small slide, a water shell which sprays water, a massage seat, a small fountain and a beach-style gradient allowing swimmers to walk from the poolside into the water A ‘dry diving’ training area with harness and trampolines Tiered Seats for 376 with an additional 22 wheelchair places.

Significant refurbishments to the adjacent leisure centre facilities, with a link area to the pool and a new entrance.

The steel tonnage used in the structural frame of the £13.5million building was reduced from 600t to 325t, as a result of a switch from the original planned portalised frame to a braced frame.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s executive councillor for culture, Councillor Derek Jarvis, said, “We are delighted to have ISG Jackson on board for this project, and are very much looking forward to seeing the new pool.”

The new facility is due to be handed over between now and September 2010.

Housing success story is a regeneration landmark A prestigious development known as Success House and comprising the construction of 46 high specification mixed tenure flats of seven storeys, together with a ground floor youth centre and commercial unit, is underway off the Old Kent Road in Southwark, in a £6.2 million project for the Peabody Trust.

Success House was conceived as a landmark building which forms a key component in the regeneration of the Coopers Road Estate, currently being carried out by the Peabody Trust and the London Borough of Southwark.

Main Contractors for the project at Success House are Higgins Construction. Views from the upper floor flats encompass the City, Canary Wharf, Tower Bridge, the Shard and the London Eye. The works commenced with the demolition of a disused three storey Victorian factory building on the site - a particularly difficult task requiring engineered shoring up before demolition, due to the internal walls being removed by vandals. This was successfully completed by Christmas 2007.

The build process was halted at shell in October 2008, but revived in May 2009 and is now set for a final handover soon.

The Code for Sustainable Homes Level 3 applies to this development, presenting a number of challenges, including the need for high levels of insulation and the provision of biomass woodchip boiler powered heating from a central plant.

The youth centre is being completed for the local authority as the end user, and was re-designed as a dance studio instead of the original plan for a basketball court to better reflect the perceived needs of the young people in the area.

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First new Cwmbran school in years Nant Celyn Primary School in Cwmbran, Gwent, is a £7 million development that will replace the local Brookfield and Hollybush Schools. The new 420 place school is being built on the Hollybush site and will be the first new Primary School to be built by Torfaen County Borough Council since the council’s formation in 1996.

Nant Celyn is a single storey community primary school in a modern 21st century building. It includes excellent disability access to all areas of the building and grounds with direct access from all the classrooms to outdoor areas and each infant classroom will allow access to an outdoor space with a canopy providing protection in wet weather.

Torfaen is implementing the Foundation Phase, the focus of which is on providing exciting, relevant and adventurous learning opportunities for all children aged 3-7 years.

One of the key features of the Foundation Phase is learning through play and children using outdoor areas to learn about themselves and their environment. Nant Celyn will have a wonderland of specially designed facilities including landscaped grounds and outdoor play areas where children can explore and enjoy learning through first hand experience.

Special attention has been paid to the acoustic environment throughout the school, especially sound insulation between classrooms. This setup is designed to reduce the transfer of sound around the school, and is an important part of a plan to transfer the centre for children with

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hearing problems from the current Hollybush school to the new facility.

Building of the new school commenced in July 2009 under main contractor Kier (Western) and it is due to open in time for the new academic year in September 2010.

Preserving structural importance in Wales The influence of Great Britain’s ancestors can be felt across the entire country through many remarkable constructions that still stand today and provide us with a rare glimpse into the lives of Britain’s forefathers and the buildings that they thought were worthy of creation and development.

Today, many structures that were once great in stature, splendour and presence are now feeling the effects of time, weather and general abandonment; however, Britain’s Governments are determined to maintain vital construction links to our past and have put in place various authorities to preserve and upkeep buildings of significant historical prominence throughout the UK. In England, English Heritage takes care of important structures and the Scottish Government has placed Historic Scotland in charge of the maintenance of old buildings throughout the country.

In Wales, Cadw is the historic environment service of the Welsh Assembly Government. Cadw is a Welsh word meaning ‘to keep’ and its mission is to protect, conserve and promote the built heritage of Wales. Many of Wales’ great castles, bishop’s palaces, historic houses and ruined abbeys are now in the care of Cadw.

Cadw is committed to developing and highlighting the history of Wales and, in May 2009, the Heritage Minister, Alun Ffred Jones, announced that £19m had been secured to develop Heritage Tourism in Wales. The project, which has been largely funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and EU Convergence Funds, will maximise the economic value of heritage through an increase in the volume, length and value of visits individuals make to Wales.

Cadw made a successful bid under the Environment for Growth objective of the EU Convergence Funding framework and, as a result, £8.5m will be provided by European Funding which will account for 45% of the total project costs with the remaining monies provided through the Welsh Assembly Government including Cadw and the Targeted Match Fund and various other delivery partners.

Within the project, which will run until December 2014, Cadw

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will work with communities, heritage partners and the tourism sector across the country to develop heritage tours, trails and events packages to present visitors with a more integrated range of heritage tourism products and to ensure that the project benefits the wider community and the tourism industry.

Heritage Minister, Alun Fred Jones said: “I’m delighted with the European funding received. The historic environment of Wales is diverse and striking; it is one of the main reasons why so many people like to visit Wales.”

Gwrhyd Specialist Stone Quarry Gwrhyd Specialist Stone Quarry became established in January 2000. Due to the high quality of the stone, it has expanded rapidly, providing local employment growth.

From its inauguration with just two people working the stone on a part time basis, the quarry has now grown to employ 32 full time staff.

With stone reserves which will last into the next century, Gwrhyd has expansion plans which will see it enlarge the quarry and provide further local employment opportunities.

Working with the Marshalls Group the quarry has secured funding for a new state of the art factory with the latest machinery to supplement its current production within the next year.

With its superb technical qualities which make it the best indigenous sandstone in the UK, it has quickly gained a reputation as a strong and durable material suitable for even the heaviest loading conditions.

The Blue Pennant Sandstone from Gwrhyd is available as walling, riven paving and masonry products which have been used in a variety of prestigious projects such as: • Regeneration of Bleanavon Town Centre, world heritage site.

• Blackwood Interchange Bus Station voted the best building in Wales 2008 by CLAW (Consortium of Local Authorities in Wales).

• Knightstone Island Weston-Super-Mare, winner of the World Regeneration Project of the year 2008.

• Broadmead (Cabot Circus) shopping centre, Bristol • The stone also featured as part of garden that won a silver medal at the 2009 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

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Pacific takes extra care in Glasgow A Glasgow nursing home is to expand in a project costing just under £1m, which is being led by main contractor Fleming Buildings.

Privately owned and managed by Pacific Care in partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Birdston Nursing Home in Milton of Campsie, 20 minutes fromg Glasgow city centre, provides the highest quality of care for the older person suffering from mental illness, dementia and Alzheimer’s.

The home provides 24 hour nursing care, as well as all the non-nursing needs of the residents, providing a safe, calming and homely environment which enhances their capabilities, whilst supporting declining abilities.

Work on the site is aimed at an extra 16 beds for residents, after the demolition of an old lodge which began in February this year.

Pacific Care’s John Brawley spoke to Premier Construction about the development: “The site was purchased ten years ago after a period of closure. The area had an identified need for extra health care, so it was a sensible investment, and we’ve been providing top quality care here ever since.

“The latest addition to the site is a bespoke development, designed specifically for the needs of the patients we accommodate. The architect’s brief was to achieve continuity with the other buildings in materials and scale, and you can already see the matching stonework and rendering.

Reinforcing Scotland’s mining heritage Work is ongoing at the Scottish Mining Museum at the Lady Victoria Colliery in Dalkeith, Midlothian, to bring in basic fabric repairs to the building. The latest spend of around £1 million continues a series of restoration drives funded principally by the Scottish government to maintain the attraction that has been pulling visitors since the colliery ceased to be used for mining in 1981.

Steve McDonald of Doig & Smith has been appointed the external project manager and heads a team including main contractor John Dennis & Co., who have been involved in restoration at the museum for the past decade, as well as structural engineering consultants Elliott & Co. and architects Law Dunbar Naismith.

Steve recently spoke to Premier Construction about this project and others under his supervision: “Right now, we’re putting the kind of improvements that really are a matter of life or death for the museum. The buildings are over 100 years old and the phases planned out are designed to carry out work in the order of necessity.

“Some of the works have become desperately urgent. To illustrate, a lot of the tin roofing is beyond the point of repair.

It’s a series of pitched roofs, in fact, and the valley gutters have deteriorated to allow water to seeo into the building. This in turn has been causing so much damage to the structural steel supports that I’ve been able to poke a pencil through the ones suffering the most.

“We’ve done our best to retain as much as possible, but in some areas the roof has had to be completely strippedaway and rebuilt. The current phase is tha largest wave of roofing work and it covers around 3,000 sq. ft.”

Brickwork around the building is being restored in an ongoing drive, and the major roof work getting into full swing over this summer. Steve is happy to report that work to shore up the

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“There is still some landscaping to finish off, as well as some of the internal fit-out and final touches to the roof and elevations, but we’re expecting to complete on time”.

Work on the extension is expected to be complete by August 2010.

structural columns is virtually complete, which comes as a small source of relief given his busy schedule: “I’m overseeing three or four projects at any one time, and this is just one of them. It can get quite hectic, so you’re lucky to have caught me for an interview!

“This site hasn’t always needed an external project manager like me, but the scale of the current phase has demanded my kind of input. It’s an interesting job to be doing, and it adds to the variety of sites I’m involved in. I’m concurrently looking after

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S c otl a n d a new laboratory complex outside Glasgow and a refurbishment project at a bank, so you can see the diversity in my work. It’s one of the things I enjoy most about what I do”.

Midlothian Council recently provided a grant of £20,000 towards the running and repairs of the award winning attraction to add to funds sourced from the Scottish Government.

Chair of the Trustees of the Scottish Mining Museum, former First Minister Henry McLeish, said; “I am delighted that Midlothian Council has responded so positively to the museum’s request for assistance. Midlothian Council has been a very loyal supporter of the museum since its foundation in 1984 and this recent grant continues and reinforces that highly valued relationship. I am particularly thankful to the council as this grant comes at a time when the financial environment is especially difficult for local authorities.”

Doig & Smith Founded in 1936 and working from bases in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, Doig & Smith’s 80-strong team offers consultancy to a wide variety of projects across the UK. Their services included quantity surveying, project management, advice in construction law and building curveying. Recently, work on the Scottish Mining Museum has coincided with work at Heathrow Airport in what, at a cost of £1.29 billion, is the largest mission the firm has undertaken to date.

Steve, who has recently lent his expertise to the £32 million regional sports facility at Ravenscraig in Lanarkshire, adds, “We’re an intimate and skilled team, and our selling point is that we will handle everything that’s thrown at us, no matter how challenging”.

The architectural legacy of the Commonwealth Games Situated in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland’s cultural and commercial capital, the SECC is the UK’s largest integrated venue, purpose-built to provide exhibition, conference and concert space. Capable of delivering events from two to well over 10,000 delegates, the SECC has space with flexibility; from the iconic Clyde Auditorium (or Armadillo) to the Loch Suite of meeting rooms, all joined to 22,355m2 of exhibition space.

So far, workmen have driven 401 concrete piles deep into the ground to provide the support on which the futuristic new arena will sit. The £110 million, 12,000-seat arena is designed by Foster + Partners, the same people who gave us the ‘Armadillo’. The

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cost covers the building of the arena plus infrastructure and new roads.

The roads and utilities contract is being carried out by main contractors Farrans who have been commended for their performance on the project. Project managers for this scheme and the overall development are Turner & Townsend; civil and structural engineers are Arup; planning supervisors are Halcrow and quantity surveyors are Gardiner & Theobold.

The road works include the re-routing of roads which previously crossed the site of the new arena, as well as re-routing of utilities such as gas, water and telecoms. The project also involves the extensive re-arrangement of road junctions and the pattern of

traffic flows on the site, which is bounded on the south side by the River Clyde and on the north side by an expressway.

The scheme includes the relocation of road connections onto the expressway and the construction of a new distributor road to carry ‘bendy’ bus services between the expressway and the conference centre.

Additional works on the scheme include the installation of a new SUDS drainage scheme, the installation of new street lights, signage, traffic lights and the creation of six new junctions, some of which will be traffic signal controlled The new arena is scheduled to open in 2013, by which time it is hoped the naming rights will have been awarded to a successful bidder, and founding partners are expected to have been located.

The arena is at the centre of the SECC’s wider master plan, which also includes plans for an internationally recognised hotel, a multi-storey car park and a mixed-use residential village which will be completed by 2025.

The arena’s distinctive 40- metre high façade will be clad in a translucent material which can be illuminated at night.

Chameleon-like, it will be able to change its appearance through projected images or logos to suit individual events.

Inside, beneath the 120- metre diameter roof, there will be ‘superb’ sightlines and acoustics ‘of the highest standard’.

The public seating will be a mixture of fixed and flexible which,

coupled with a stage – or event ‘pad’ – that can be altered nightly, means that a wide range of events can easily be put on.

There will be sponsors’ launches reserved for the arena’s naming-rights sponsor (an international search for a sponsor is to be launched) and the founding partners.

AVIP floor will have just 11 private boxes, with two adjacent areas that can be turned into bars or restaurants and that can be viewed from the rest of the arena.

When the 2014 Commonwealth Games hit Glasgow, the SECC complex will be home to several key events and the international broadcast centre, with the arena playing host to the netball finals and all the gymnastics.

Buried WTW prevents stain on popular landscape A project is under way to improve waste water treatment around three Highland villages. The new scheme involves six septic tanks to treat waste water from Ballachulish, Glencoe and North Ballachulish.

the plant is underground tanks, there should be no visual impact or odours. We have assured the community councils that the upgraded site will be completely below ground with grass and

High quality effluent will be dispersed in the deep waters of Loch Linnhe from a long outfall pipe. All the structures will be below ground and the landscaped site is being managed by Morrison Construction on behalf of Scottish Water.

The proposed work initially faced strong opposition from locals, and was only granted planning permission after an appeal to the Scottish government. Scottish Water has agreed to alter the first version of its plans in order to convince locals that the scheme’s benefits are worth the intrusion.

According to Scottish water, “The finished works will help protect the shellfish waters of Loch Leven and provide extra capacity to support new housing and business developments”.

“We appreciate the scenic nature of the location, adjacent to the historic Ballachulish Bridge and mouth of Loch Leven. As

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S c otl a n d shrubbery planted where appropriate. The project is in the whole area’s interest as it will protect the environment and support the economy so we want local people to be happy with how it looks”.

The original plan was for semi-underground structures, which would have left a small yet noticeable mark on the landscape.

Asked whether other sites could accommodate the works, a Scottish Water spokesperson stated, “The existing site makes the most sense as the infrastructure is in place and it is land we already own and have room to expand. We looked at a number of alternative options. Other areas of land we considered would cost possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds when we have land available to us for nothing and for which we have permission to develop”.

“Wherever we develop, we must use the outfall from North Ballachulish as this is the legally approved dispersal point for effluent”.

How the plant works The majority of the electrical and mechanical installations have been installed by ACWA services. Under ACWA’s system, raw water from the river is delivered to the water treatment works via flow monitoring. The raw water is pumped to two skid mounted fully automatic multimedia filters, operating duty / duty. The water enters the filters via distributors at the top of the vessels, passes down through the filtration media and out though a nozzle plate installed at the lower tangent. The filter bed comprises a layer of filtration sand and anthracite. Backwashing of the filters takes place on a timed basis or on detection of high turbidity at the filter outlet.

The filtered water is transferred to two GAC (granular activated carbon) vessels operating duty / duty. The filtered water enters the contactors via two distributors at the top of the vessels, passes down through the carbon media and out through a nozzle plate installed at the lower tangent. The outlet flow from the carbon contactors is monitored prior to the addition of sodium hypochlorite solution.

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The sodium hypochlorite dosing system is a proprietary unit consisting of a storage tank and duty/standby dosing pumps.

The hypochlorite solution is dosed to the filtered water (post GAC vessels) at the inlet of a static mixer prior to entry to a chlorine contact tank. The chlorinated water is measured before and after the contact tank, and a PID loop used to control the chlorine dose requirements.

The chlorinated water enters a limestone contactor via a nozzle plate installed at the lower tangent and passes upwards through the limestone chips and out through a collector at the top of the vessel. The chlorinated, pH corrected water is directed to clear water storage tanks.

A flow of filtered water from the multimedia filters is directed to a backwashing tank, which then supplies the required water for backwashing of the filters. The dirty backwash water is sent to a simple sand filter prior to discharge.

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Exciting times for education in Inverclyde Inverclyde Council’s ambitious £80 million PPP Schools Project is in full swing as the site of its latest new-build nears completion.

The former St Columba’s High School building in Gourock has been demolished to make way for a state-of-the-art new school, to be known as Clydeview Academy.

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Convener Councillor Terry Loughran said: “This is an exciting time for education in Inverclyde. We already have the stunning Newark, All Saints and Aileymill Primaries and Inverclyde Academy up and running and within a year we will have another two state-ofthe-art schools in which to give our youngsters the best possible education.”

The PPP Schools Project has provided for two new secondary and two new primary schools.

Clydeview Academy will have a capacity of 950 pupils and will replace Gourock High School and Greenock Academy when it opens in May 2011.

Phil McVey, director of developer e4i, said: “Clydeview Academy will have unrivalled views

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of the river after which it has been named and the school, with a variety of interesting and open social spaces, has been designed in order to make maximum benefit of this to inspire learning.”

Bill Pilmer, operations manager of main contractor Miller Construction, commented, “We are looking forward to delivering a school that the local community can be proud of.”

Expansive Glasgow urban regeneration scheme continues apace Set in the eastern quarter of lasgow City Centre, the Merchant City is at the historic and cultural heart of the city. A scheme is afoot to fund regeneration of a magnitude style rarely seen elsewhere in the UK. The aim of the Merchant City Initiative is to drive and support the physical, environmental, economic and social regeneration of the Merchant City and Trongate area as one of the most dynamic mixed use quarters of any city in the UK. The vision is to ensure that underused spaces and buildings

are developed using the highest standards of design and sustainability, that streets are traffic calmed and greened using traditional salvaged materials and become a haven for pedestrians and cyclists, that the creative and cultural industries are given the best opportunities to flourish hand in hand with commercial, retail and businesses that are good neighbours to our vibrant residential community.

The regeneration inintiative relies on two pillars to support it, the first being the Townscape Heritage Initiative. Funded by Glasgow ROMA PUBLICATIONS

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S c otl a n d City Council, Scottish Enterprise and the Heritage Lottery Fund, this £3 million grant scheme is aimed at owners of historic buildings within a designated area of the Merchant City and is intended to meet the ‘conservation deficit’ on projects in the area. That means the grant will meet the difference between the cost of works (minus any other grant income) and the uplift in value of the project on completion.

The second foundation of the initiative is the Five Year Action Plan.

Currently into the second five year plan (2007-2012), the initiative is using the plan build on the success of the first Five Year Action Plan, which saw a wide range of achievements from refurbishment and re-letting of 33 previously

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vacant shop units, creating employment space for over 70 people to a programme of artworks in the area. The plan is a response to the issues that affect this area in terms of the difficult economic conditions, the fabric and structural degradation of many of the historic buildings in the area and the need to raise the profile and marketing image of this part of the city centre to both locals and visitors.

14 Albion Street One of a wave of over 50 shop fronts to have been re-modelled recently thanks to grants from the initiative, 14 Albion St follows nearby units in a drive to make them more lettable and more attractive to new businesses, especially niche businesses and creative enterprises. Grants of five and six figures have been handed out, and are not only resulting in eye-catching and aesthetically sound shop fronts, but also improving the feeling of security for traders in the area by contributing towards security shutters and external grills.

16 Trongate Located a short walk from Albion Street, 16 Trongate has been fitted out by industrial electrical contractors James Findlay Ltd, and is now the home of an innovative hotspot for creativity, as new proprietor of Creative Studios David Culbert told Premier Construction: “We’ve brought a music studio to the city centre to make it accessible, as it’s not often you’ll find one within easy reach of transport and city attractions. To add to the appeal, we’ve put in a cafe with a performance space and I’m looking forward to being a part of the culture of the city.

“We’re a new business and so we have to be careful with money. In fact, we’ve don a lot of the work here ourselves! The contractors we’ve had in have been excellent, though, and there’s no way we’d be up and running without them”.

Water project puts the environment first Scottish Water has begun another key part of its work to improve the waste water infrastructure in Dunoon and protect the natural environment in the coastal waters of the Firth of Clyde.

Main Contractors GMJV are working on the construction of a large storm water chamber in the grassed area at the foot of Brandon Street, Dunoon.

The chamber will contain an overflow screen which will operate in periods of heavy rainfall and the screen will minimise the environmental impact of storm overflow discharges in storm conditions to East Bay. GMJV started work on the scheme as they continued to make progress on other parts of the Dunoon Waste Water Improvements project, which is expected to cost about £34 million and be completed in late 2011.

The scheme will remove a large number of untreated sewage discharges which currently flow into the Holy Loch and the Clyde and will provide biological (secondary) treatment at a modern treatment plant.

The same contractors have also started work at Holy Loch where they are installing a pumping station with an attached Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO), or storm overflow, at the Holy Loch Caravan Park at Hafton. This work will also be completed in about three months.

The work at Brandon Street and Holy Loch will form part of a chain of seven pumping stations which will pump sewage from the top of Holy Loch to the Dunoon Waste Water Treatment Works being constructed at Bullwood.

At West Bay, which will be the biggest pumping station in the chain, Scottish Water are making good progress and are working on a shaft or well which will collect sewage before it is pumped to the WWTW. Scottish Water are also excavating a well in rock at the East Bay pumping station adjacent to Coal Pier and they have started construction of sewers and a pumping station at Ardnadam.

At the site of the new WWTW at Bullwood, contractors Black & Veatch, have started the construction stage and recently laid the foundations for structures which will form part of the WWTW. Mr Doug Fowler, the project manager, said: “We are continuing to make good progress with this key environmental project for Dunoon and are pleased to have started the work at Holy Loch and to be starting the work in Brandon Street.

“Our construction activity is now in full swing on the chain of pumping stations and likewise at the site of the new waste water treatment works, where we successfully completed the largest of our concrete pours.”

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£7.5 million cash injection brightens Derry streets Main contractor FP McCann is at the forefront of efforts to smarten up Derry’s public realm in an extensive, ongoing project. Due for completion in mid-2010, it will create a high-quality, vibrant and modern urban environment within and adjacent to the historic walled city centre – in particular Waterloo Place and Shipquay Place.

This will set the context for social interaction, support economic activity, provide space for cultural activity and entertainment and create a positive image for the city centre as a place to live, work, invest and visit.

The project’s key objectives are to create a pedestrian-friendly environment throughout the city centre, mprove servicing and working arrangements for businesses in the area and control the movement of traffic, thereby minimising the existing conflict between vehicles and pedestrians.

Additionally, developers intend to create stronger pedestrian gateways, activity nodes and events spaces, reinforce the character of the connecting streets and spaces, introduce innovative lighting to enhance the area and explore possibilities for new public art.

The design and build scheme has been conceived as a way to create a modern, vibrant urban landscape. Work includes incorporating a new controlled traffic route through Waterloo Place across the existing pedestrian zone, to create greater social and commercial interaction, support economic renewal and provide space for cultural activity and entertainment.

The scheme also extends to upgrading buried utility services and drainage infrastructure, removing the old concrete block

Construction News

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Big spend brings health to Belfast Two new health and wellbeing centres are being built in West Belfast. The new centres, costing a total of £27million to construct, are being built on the Shankill and Andersonstown Roads.

The health minister, Michael McGimpsey, recently travelled to the Andersonstown Road to see construction of the new Beech Hall health and wellbeing centre, designed by Todd Architects and constructed by a team led by Gilbert Ash, and speak to the media about his role in the project. Speaking at the site, the minister said, “The Beech Hall centre will provide a range of services for the people of West Belfast. Services which are currently being delivered from 13 different facilities will be available under one roof, when this centre is completed in 2011”.

“All in all, I will have invested £75million in this type of project within the Belfast Trust area, which transforms and modernises the way primary care services are delivered to local

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paving and replacing it with new granite paving, renewing the street lighting with new feature columns, new tree planting, street furniture, pop-up power supplies for street traders and events, pedestrian crossings, and a new digital 80 nozzle water feature with integrated lighting, outside the Guildhall. When switched off, the water feature plaza area can be used as a unique multi use event space. Works comprise a total of 16,000m² of natural stone paving upon a fibre-reinforced concrete slab.

The site is partially within and without the scheduled city walls, the only complete city walls within the British Isles. The paving design was coordinated with the archaeologists of the NI Environment Agency, which is responsible for the walls, to provide a suitable setting for them.

Similarly, there were extensive discussions with NI Environment Agency architects, Townscape Heritage Initiative and Foyle Civic Trust regarding the integration of the design with individual listed buildings and the overall historic townscape.

The original site did not respect its historical setting, nor did it provide a safe and inviting environment for pedestrians or offer attractions for the many tourists who visit this part of the city throughout the year.

Through extensive studies and consultation, the new design was able to address the competing demands of traders, businesses, the tourist industry, heritage bodies and the general public, creating an environment with a series of pedestrian-friendly spaces that can be used for markets and major civic events.

Considerable ground investigation was carried out prior to commencement of the works on site in order to refine the design and reduce excavation volumes. This considerably reduced the amount of excavated material which had to be exported off site.

FP McCann staff have worked closely with the City Centre Initiative team, the Northern Ireland Roads Service and local traders to minimise disruption to businesses during the construction works. At an early stage of the project, local traders and businesses attended a series of design workshops. This was followed up with public exhibitions, meetings and presentations with councillors and the City Council, and further meetings with local residents and traders.

The scheme is being monitored by the Considerate Constructors Scheme and has achieved an interim CEEQUAL award of ‘Excellent’.

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people”, he claimed.

Each centre provides a range of community health and social services, including • Therapy services: podiatry • physiotherapy • speech and language therapy • occupational therapy.

Social work and nursing services: • elderly people • family and children • people with sensory impairment • people with physical disabilities.

• Rehabilitation services • Care management • Dental clinics.

Construction of both facilities will provide employment for almost 200 people. When

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construction is complete, both centres will provide employment for over 670 people. Five other centres have been completed in the Belfast Trust area: the Grove, Carlisle, Holywood Arches, Bradbury and Knockbreda.

For the period leading up to 2018, there is a total capital envelope of almost £3.3billion, against an identified need of £7.8billion for health projects in the area.

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CAI stands for professionalism in the aerial and satellite industry As the recognised body for the aerial and satellite industry, the Confederation of Aerial Industries (CAI) is committed to raising standards and the criteria for membership are extremely high.

One of the many membership requirements is that any installing member company will agree to the examination and test of any equipment manufactured or supplied, the inspection of any installation, or investigation into conduct which could have a detrimental effect on the reputation of the CAI or its members.

CAI Members employ only qualified personnel whose work is monitored by an inspector. If a CAI member is undergoing inspection, it may be that the CAI inspector will wish to accompany them to view their installing capabilities. Although this would be at no extra charge to the customer, it is within the rights of the customer to refuse to allow the installation to be inspected.

All CAI members guarantee their installations for a minimum of 12 months. In addition to this, the CAI undertakes to back this guarantee with its own 12 month guarantee, for domestic installations only.

This means that should a CAI member fail to honour their 12 month guarantee on a domestic installation, the consumer can seek redress via the CAI. Provided that the problems concerned fall within the realms of the original guarantee, the CAI will arrange to have the work corrected - at no extra cost to the consumer.

In addition, all members are required to work to the exacting standards laid down in the CAI’s Codes of Practice.

CAI Members should also carry identity cards that clearly state their name and company details, together with a photograph. If you are in any doubt about the validity of an installer, ring the CAI on 01923 803030 during normal office hours.

All CAI Members are required to have full insurance cover for all aspects of their business. Most importantly there is a minimum requirement of £2,000,000 for public liability insurance. This gives the consumer total peace of mind before the company even commences work.

If a customer is unhappy with the standard of workmanship carried out by a CAI registered installer, or indeed is dissatisfied with any aspect of the job, the CAI has an official complaints procedure. The CAI will fully investigate any complaint that it receives against one of its members and is empowered to impose sanctions on members if necessary.

When it is deemed that a member has fallen outside the boundaries of the CAI Codes of Practice, they will be instructed to correct the areas that have been identified.

The CAI will monitor the complaint to ensure that the defects are rectified. The member company will then be asked to confirm to the CAI that this has been done, within the pre-determined timescale that will have been set. The CAI will then check with the customer to ensure that they are now satisfied.

Depending on the severity of the complaint, the installer may be asked to take the appropriate training and/or have their membership reviewed. A CAI member who fails to rectify work or to carry out the necessary training will be removed from membership and will no longer be authorised to use the CAI logo.

The CAI is unable to become involved in any complaints against a company that is not registered. If however, a company is not a

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member of the CAI but is displaying the logo, the matter will be reported to the local trading standards office immediately. If you are unsure whether a company is a member of the Confederation of Aerial Industries Limited, please check with the CAI office, or check the the A to Z list of all CAI members on the organisation’s website (www.cai.org.uk).

Those installers that are properly qualified and properly vetted are always the ones to choose. In order to have a professional installation carried out, its always wise to seek credentials and preferably choose one that belongs to a professional trade organisation such as Confederation of Aerial Industries.

A current problem is that those regions that have still not experienced switchover are areas where a lot of money can be made by unscrupulous aerial installers. There is nothing legislatively to say an aerial installer must fulfill any requirements before they can install, and because of this, many installers are climbing ladders and fitting aerials and satellite dishes when they are inexperienced, and unqualified. As switchover is due to be completed in 2012, this is an ideal time to make a quick buck, even if the end result and the quality of work is appalling.

To be accepted as a CAI member an applicant must formally apply, and undertake a formal inspection by a member of the CAI assessment team. It is now also mandatory when joining the CAI that installers working in a domestic capacity must undertake a working safely at heights course, as well as a criminal record check.

The CAI also requires every member to carry an ID badge including a photograph of themselves, details of the company they work for and a unique ID number which can be checked with CAI HQ, if there are any doubts. The CAI also advise that

any installers who are just starting out, or wish to undertake a refresher course, should complete the organisation’s basic aerial and satellite course so that they learn to install the ‘CAI’ way.

So it seems that anyone can just have a ‘go’ at installing aerials, but this doesn’t mean that a professional job will be the result.

For the discerning customer, following and checking all the criteria listed above, will help ensure satisfaction and a job well done. Remember also that the phrase ‘you get what you pay for’ really applies. It might not be that a CAI installer is necessarily the cheapest, however do you really want the aggravation of

trying to call them back when you are not happy with the end result. The reception may not be accepted by you especially if an aerial isn’t installed properly, or worse an uncertified installer may have no insurance so you cannot make a claim in the event of any damage.

There is every reason to choose someone that has the correct and up to date qualifications and experience and no reason at all to choose someone that has none - so be sure to choose a CAI member every time.

Fire Detection and Alarm Systems – Get it right and keep it right!

The Fire Industry Association (FIA) has long chosen to set its sight on increasing the standard of fire protection installations in the UK, so that they are raised to the highest possible level and become the automatic choice for clients and specifiers.

The installation of automatic fire detection and alarm systems can significantly increase the level of fire safety by giving an early warning for fire and all new buildings should be fitted with a system that is in accordance with BS5839-1.

However its one thing to call for the appropriate system and another to make sure that it is properly designed, maintained an installed. In the UK there are Third Party Certification schemes for suppliers, installers and maintainers of fire protection systems. Third party accreditation schemes were implemented to improve the quality of the UK’s fire protection. The Fire Guidance Document (Approved Document B) to the England and Wales Building Regulations states that: ‘Since the fire performance of a product, component or structure is dependent upon satisfactory site installation and maintenance, independent schemes of certification and registration of installers will provide confidence in the appropriate standard of workmanship being provided.’

And it goes on to say: ‘Building Control Bodies may accept the certification of products, components, materials or structures under such schemes as evidence of compliance with the relevant standard.’

Under these schemes the competence of the companies and its operatives to install and maintain a particular type of fire protection system is assessed.

For new Construction work at the end of the installation, the fire protection contractor supplies a ‘Certificate of Conformity’ to his client, together with the specification and details of the work done. The FIA believes that any Certificate of Conformity that is not backed by a third party certification scheme should be treated with some distrust. Since April 2007 this supply of information has been formalised in Building Regulation 16B, the rationale of this being that the information can then be used by the Responsible Person to operate and maintain the building in reasonable safety.

For routine maintenance work the Responsible Person should look carefully at the documentation supplied by the fire protection company to see if it references a Third Party Scheme.

Also, as a building gets older, occupiers make changes and these may mean that the fire safety measures are weakened. A new tenant may, for example, increase the fire load in a certain part of the building or put in new offices that require extra smoke detectors. In theory all of these changes should be documented in the CDM (Construction, Design and Management) file, which provides a record of all matters to do with the health and safety of those concerned in the construction, management and use of a building.

In summary the FIA believes that: The highest possible standard of fire protection is the only acceptable choice for all involved in the design, construction and maintenance of buildings To raise standards in the UK, the industry should use only those companies that are third party ac credited; and A complete CDM file will enable the building’s fire protection to be properly maintained to meet the requirements of the Building Regulations.

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Getting a grip on water

By Alex Stephenson, Director of the Rainwater Harvesting Association With well-publicised alternating floods and droughts, the average observer of the UK climate could be forgiven for believing that in this country we are schizophrenic about our weather and, in terms of dealing with it, highly confused.

However, the reality remains that both floods and drought can exist side by side. Occasional heavy downpours can overwhelm the national storm drain system, whilst at the same time national supplies of mains water are under serious and increasing stress.

This serves to explain why water-related issues, both of supply and surface water management, feature to the fore on every designer’s checklist, and on the checklists of their developer clients. It also explains why Part-G of Building Regulations were updated in early 2010 to include mains water consumption criteria, along with options for the ways in which this can be controlled and reduced.

Featuring highly on the list is an option to reduce mains water consumption by substituting harvested rainwater for mains water for non-wholesome applications such as toilet flushing, clothes washing and outside uses such as garden irrigation.

Although a long and well-established approach around the world, particularly in nearby Germany, modern rainwater harvesting systems are a relatively new technology to the UK market. Developers and designers can be uncertain of when and where to use them, what the capabilities and implications are of their use and what benefits they can bring to their projects. This article is therefore intended to shed a little light into these areas.

First of all, the UK market is broadly broken down into two main sectors or systems; domestic and small-scale non-domestic projects, and commercial systems that are capable of storing

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hundreds of thousands of litres of rainwater, and of displacing millions of litres of mains water. The working principles behind all systems are the same, in that rain falling on the roof (normally) of a structure is filtered and stored in a suitably-sized underground (usually) tank from where it is pumped automatically to the service concerned when required. All necessary operations of the system are controlled by a management unit, which also controls continuity of supply in prolonged dry spells, making usage indistinguishable to using a mains supply.

The majority of the suppliers serving this market are members of the UK Rainwater Harvesting Association, with most able to supply both domestic and commercial scale systems. All share in common, compliance with the Association’s Code of Practice, which includes a commitment to supply systems that meet the requirements of the relevant British Standard (BS 8515). Most will also provide developers and their professional advisers with a free, no obligation preliminary design and budget quote service.

From a developer’s perspective, the right time to consider including a rainwater harvesting system in their project is at the outset. For minimum cost and maximum effectiveness, the system needs to form part of the underground works for the project, working seamlessly with the overall drainage and surface water management arrangements.

An important attribute of rainwater harvesting systems is that they ‘do what it says on the tin’. Although annual rainfall patterns cannot be guaranteed, Met Office statistical data provides a reliable source of annual rainfall information, whilst other variables, such as mechanical losses over different roofing materials and across filters, are well-understood and can be taken fully into account at the design and specification stage.

The interaction with any surface water attenuation requirements can also readily be integrated into a coherent design, either within a single tank configuration, or by linking to separate holding tanks or crates.

The drivers for the incorporation of rainwater harvesting into new projects and existing buildings, are increasingly stressed mains water supplies and increased public environmental awareness. Above all else, it is very hard to explain logically why we do not use water falling locally as a non-wholesome supply for suitable applications, rather than sending it on a long and expensive journey to purify it before flushing it down a toilet!

For more information see www.ukrha.org Alex Stephenson is a Director of the UK Rainwater Harvesting Association, and Director of the UK Stormwater Division of Hydro International. He is also Convenor of the British Water SUDS Focus Group, and Chairman of the UK-RHA’s Industry Liaison Group.

Taking Measures to protect you from Asbestos Employers of building maintenance and repair workers are required to carry out a risk assessment before undertaking any work which exposes, or is liable to expose, employees to asbestos. They must take the appropriate steps required by the Asbestos Regulations to prevent or reduce these risks.

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little or no information about the premises where they are going to undertake work, and are not aware if asbestos containing materials are present. Consequently, it is difficult for them to consider the risks, or if precautions may be needed. A duty to manage the risk from asbestos in non-domestic premises was therefore added to the Control of Asbestos at work Regulations in 2002 to address this. These requirements have since been brought forward unchanged in the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 as Regulation 4.

Those who own, occupy, manage or have responsibilities for premises that may contain asbestos, will either have: • A legal duty to manage the risk from asbestos material; or • A legal duty to co-operate with whoever manages that risk They will be required to manage the risk from asbestos by: • Finding out if there is asbestos in the premises, its extent and what condition it is in; • Presuming the materials contain asbestos, unless you have strong evidence that they do not; • Making and keeping up to date a record of the location and condition of the ACM’s or presumed ACM’s in their premises; • Assessing the risk from the material • Preparing a plan that sets out in detail how they are going to manage the risk from this material • Taking the steps needed to put their plan into action • Reviewing and monitoring their plan and the arrangements made to put it in place; and • Providing information on the location and condition of the material to anyone who is liable to work or disturb it.

At some point somebody has got to work with asbestos containing materials, but who is allowed to do this? In the United Kingdom work on asbestos has by law to be carried out by a contractor who holds a licence under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006, although there are exceptions. Normally, nonlicensed work includes work on asbestos-containing textured coatings, asbestos cement and certain work of short duration on asbestos insulating board.

The duties imposed by regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 supplement the provisions of some of the duties imposed by other sets of regulations, in particular the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 which require the client to provide designers and contractors who may be bidding for the work or who they intend to engage), with the projects specific health and safety information needed

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to identify hazards and risks associated with the design and construction work.

The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 place legal duties on employers and employees with regards to asbestos in the workplace, Regulation 10 states that: “Every employer shall ensure that adequate information, instruction and training are given to those of his employees who are or are liable to be exposed to asbestos or who supervise such employees...”

Therefore those who employ construction workers to carry out demolition or refurbishment work have a legal duty to ensure that they have adequate information, instruction and training regarding asbestos, as those tradesmen are always liable to be exposed to asbestos as a result of the type of work they carry out.

In fact, the Approved Code of Practice, which accompanies the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006, states that: “Asbestos awareness training is required to be given to employees whose work could expose them to asbestos. In particular it should be given to all demolition workers and those workers in the refurbishment, maintenance and allied trades where it is foreseeable that their work will disturb the fabric of the building because asbestos containing materials (ACMS) may become exposed during their work. Exemption from this requirement would apply only where the employer can demonstrate that work will only be carried out on buildings free of ACMs. This information should be available in the client’s asbestos management plan”.

Asbestos awareness training is a legal requirement for most employees and supervisors working in the construction industry.

In addition to initial training, the Approved Code of Practice which accompanies the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 also states that refresher training should be given at least every year. Therefore, there is an ongoing annual legal requirement for refresher training to be carried out for the identified employees.

ARCA is the leading supplier of asbestos awareness training aimed at building and maintenance workers.

ARCA trainers have considerable experience within the asbestos removal industry and understand the issues that are faced every day. The range of courses which ARCA have available is comprehensive. Each has been designed to ensure that your staffs acquire a real depth of knowledge and capability.

To find out more or to arrange a no obligation meeting to discuss your employees asbestos awareness training needs please contact ARCA on 01283 531126.

Wild Flower Turf

The ideal product for environmentally friendly landscaping and green roof projects

Wild Flower Turf has developed a unique product designed to give a bio-diverse wild flower turf suitable for all types of landscaping and green roof projects.

The growing system produces a very different type of turf product, ideal for today’s market. It involves mixing compost with seed, which is then laid over an impermeable membrane. It is soil-less, light to handle, quick and easy to lay and provides new solutions for civil engineering and urban development.

The speed of installing a wildflower meadow is demonstrated clearly if you visit www.wildflowerturf. co.uk. Watch the time lapse video of the growth cycle of an instant wildflower meadow, which was filmed over nine weeks from April to June this year.

It is not difficult to see from the video how Wild Flower Turf provides a bio-diverse habitat for all sorts of organisms bringing the environmental advantages of the countryside to any urban development. All species used in the turf are native to the British Isles and produce a meadow that is attractive and eye catching. There are also nectar rich species of flowers grown in the mix, providing a vital benefit to the dwindling populations of butterflies and bees.

Sainsbury’s initiative are on the endangered list. By laying Wild Flower Turf, the perfect environmental habitat for these species is instantly accessible.

Other recent installations include work at the Natural History Museum, Cardiff Castle, the Horniman Museum and the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. Not only is Wild Flower Turf visually outstanding, but when used for green roofs, as it is in many of these projects, it also improves the insulating properties of a building. The turf lends itself very well to roofs as it is hardy, light to handle and requires little maintenance. One cut per year in the autumn with a strimmer or mower, is all that is required and this provides a good over winter colour. www.wildflowerturf.co.uk Tel: 01256 771222

The company’s Managing Director, James Hewetson-Brown points to the advantages of using his turf as compared to the risk and disappointment often associated with seeding.

“So many customers come to me needing a solution when seeding has failed and I am pleased to be able to offer a guaranteed way of establishing a wild flower site. The turf is suitable for a wide range of uses and examples include orchards, green roofs and a municipal park as well as river diversion schemes, in fact anywhere that biodiversity, low maintenance and a natural environment is needed.”

When Sainsbury’s built their latest eco store in Dursley, Gloucestershire, they used Wild Flower Turf to create a landscape habitat supplying a rich diet of pollen and nectar for bees. The bees are housed in special bee hotels made from sustainable materials and thrive on the environmentally attractive wildflower meadow.

Several of the bee species being given this new home by the ROMA PUBLICATIONS

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Water Protection with Constructed Wetlands

By Dr. Sally Mackenzie, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust The water environment is in a state of decline. For many years our rivers, lakes, coasts and wetlands have been used as natural sinks - a repository for sewage, slurry, and industrial effluents – in fact almost anything which was either too difficult or too expensive to get rid of in any other way. Water quality is an issue for even the most progressive countries and how to deal with the polluting effect of growth and economic development is an ongoing problem.

Constructed wetlands offer a sustainable, low energy technological treatment solution. They’ve been used in the UK and Europe since the 1980’s and there are now over two thousand systems in place. They can treat a range of effluents including domestic wastewater, agricultural and industrial effluents.

They’ve a wide range of applications from a single home to a large town or city to a brewery or a paper mill. Compared to more mechanised conventional treatment systems they’re generally lower capital and operational expenditure.

Holistic design of constructed wetlands can bring a wealth of additional benefits which don’t compromise functioning for water quality improvements. Some benefits, for example flood storage, recreation and habitat creation may be the drivers and incentives for the creation of a constructed wetland as a water quality solution.

The CWA was formed 11 years ago to promote the application of constructed wetland technology in wastewater management and water pollution control. We visualise an industry in which best practice is shared and standards upheld.

The CWA is a professional association, representing all those who are interested in, and practising in, the field of constructed wetland technology. Our aims are twofold: • To provide quality assurance, establish and maintain the highest standards of design, installation, performance and maintenance of these systems through, research, training, seminars, conferences, peer review and accreditation.

• To promote the use of constructed wetlands for pollution control including wastewater treatment, surface water run-off management, habitat enhancement and protection of our natural water resources by the application of good environmental practice.

Our Values The Constructed Wetland Association aims to act as: • A centre of excellence • Spread good practice • Set industry standards • Maintain a global network of bona fide practitioners involved in wetland design and construction • Provide information and advice to all interested parties • Provide awareness and training in wetland design and application through online courses, workshops and seminars • Maintain a database to identify all constructed wetlands and record their details • Provide members with technical and commercial data • Promote members’ services through the website.

Membership categories range from Corporate to Charity to Student and our members include representatives from: • Water companies • Design Consultants • Constructors

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• Academic researchers • Plant Suppliers • Operators • Multi-site users • NGO’s • Engineers • Ecologists • Regulators • Database A central feature in the establishment of the CWA was the creation of a database of constructed wetland systems. The purpose of the database is to show how a properly designed and constructed system would perform and as an indication of what type of effluents could be treated. We now have information on over 1100 sites. All members receive a copy of the database and are encouraged to contribute performance data.

CWA Accreditation We are in the process of creating an industry standard for constructed wetland practitioners through an award process for our Corporate Members. Benefits of this would include quality assurance, marketing value, professional indemnity cover and publicity. For more information on the accreditation process please see our website.

Training We will shortly be offering on-line courses as part of a CIWEM training module, this will be suitable for contributing to CPD. Visit www.constructedwetland.co.uk to find out more.

Treating water naturally One company hard at work in the field of constructed wetlands is the Northern Ireland Reed Bed Company (NIRBC Ltd.), which operates from County Antrim. Specialists in sustainable drainage systems and water treatment using reed beds, constructed wetlands and SUDs systems, NIRBC Ltd offers design, installation, maintenance and consultancy for all types of reed bed systems.

NIRBC managing director William McBarnet spoke to Premier Construction about his work: “There are plenty of well-demonstrated benefits to using reed beds. The most well known is sewage management, but often that’s the only benefit people are aware of. We carry out the same kind of work as many fellow CWA members with the added benefit that we specialise in contaminated rainfall runoff management systems. That’s a secondary and often more important benefit than using the reed installation as a sewage filter, and it allows companies that need to conform to SEVESO II regulations to kill two birds with one stone.

“In fact, we recently heard of an industrial unit where an NIRBC management system was used by fire services to tap directly into the installation for a water supply, douse the fire and filter the eventual run-off. As a result, our system prevented significant damage to the environment”.

Reed beds are aesthetically pleasing and can save money on mechanical treatment installations.

Find out more about the benefits you can gain from reed beds and water management systems at www.nireedbeds.co.uk

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Traditional methods for traditional buildings When people began plastering, approximately 14,000 years ago, those professionals knew exactly what our professionals know now; from its early forms using earth plasters to slaked lime putties - a successful new plaster or repair project depends on an understanding of the materials and the science behind them.

Lime, as a plaster-render material and mortar, has its roots in the Middle East and can be traced back 140 centuries to northern Jordan. Indeed the plasterers tools used then remain the same to this very day. The earliest plastering which has survived shows great skill and excels in its composition compared to modern day materials. In Europe, historic plaster work denotes lime plaster from very early Greek and Roman times. We know of the existence of perfect plaster work in Greece dating from about five hundred years before the Christian era. In Britain, earth plasters ‘daub’ were used predominately during this period, amazingly up to 1900 commonly used repair ancient timber framed buildings still remain.

Today, traditional lime plastering is seen as a specialist method predominantly associated with buildings dating pre 1919, which require original methods to ensure they can be brought back to life using a consistent process.

The greatest advantage of using traditional lime plastering on older structures is the flexibility it gives dated buildings by allowing them to move without the damage that could be suffered by modern, more rigid materials. Traditional lime plastering also promotes breathing ability in buildings and allows the passage of moisture through the walls in contrast to modern materials that trap moisture within walls and, consequently, damage the timber frame structures.

“Old buildings tend to be of a structure that moves slightly,” Marc Delea, from MD Plastering, specialists in Traditional Lime methods, commented. “If you then put modern rigid plastering on top of this, the building will move and cracks will form which will allow water to seep in and problems such as rotting and damp are likely to appear.”

This traditional method uses time-honoured materials such as horse hair, animal hair, straw, earth plasters and, of course, lime.

Slaked lime putty is unlike other cement and plasters that regularly have a chemical reaction when mixed with water and set hard. In contrast to this, lime putty undergoes a lime cycle through which it sets by absorbing oxygen, crystallising, and then returning to its original rock form.

Limestone is taken from the rock and then powdered down before being added to water, when it then undergoes a chemical reaction, which turns it into putty which is then mixed with sand and hair. Once the plaster form is then applied to a structure, it begins to absorb the oxygen and crystallises back to its original rock state.

It is then decorated using a lime wash which comprises watered down lime putty with pigment in it. This is washed over the plaster through which water evaporates leaving the pigment on the plaster with the putty.

Despite new technology, modern methods and quicker processes constantly coming through the industry, the requirement for traditional lime plastering has not dissipated.

“On a lot of listed buildings you simply cannot use modern day materials because it would cause a bad reaction,” Marc Delea said. “As soon as modern day materials are used on an old building, the house is no longer compatible with what was originally there. You spoil the fundamental building design and create potential structural problems.

There are also only a few companies that have a reputation for working on historic buildings,” Marc Delea added, “and clients

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who require the use of traditional lime plastering seek out these specialist companies to complete the works. Companies or individuals tend to specialise in traditional lime plastering for their love of old buildings and because of a desire to preserve the old fashioned ways,” Marc Delea said. “We try to replicate how plastering was originally done and conserve beautiful buildings that the public enjoy all around the country.”

A ‘Secured’ way to live Secured by Design recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2009 and Premier Construction spoke to Alan McInnes, General Manager of ACPO Secured by Design, to discuss the vital role the initiative continues to play in everyday life What is the background to Secured by Design?

The Secured by Design (SBD) initiative has its origins in 1989 and began as a regional crime prevention project in south England.

Within 18 months it had become a national police project.

The scheme is owned by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and is the corporate title for a group of national police projects that focuses on the design and security of new and refurbished homes, commercial premises and car parks, in addition to acknowledging quality security products and effective crime prevention projects.

Achieving Secured by Design status will mean a particular building will have a police accreditation for the level of security it has obtained.

significant proportion of refurbished properties.

By insisting on the Secured by Design award, Housing Associations ensure that effective levels of security are installed and through the proven reduction of crime this leads to a reduction in maintenance costs and a higher tenancy rate if it is an environment that is thought to be more secure. All of which is cost effective and welcome when spending public money.

The project is very well established in public buildings and shopping malls; for example, Bluewater, in Kent and Brindley Place, Birmingham have Secured by Design awards. The scheme is also quite prominent in commercial industrial units, schools and hospitals.

When working on such big projects as these, officers can often be involved with the contractors for a number of years. However, we are committed not to slow or frustrate the planning process, so early consultation is essential.

What is Secured by Design’s main objective and how does the initiative work?

The main idea of Secured by Design is to design out crime. We look at numerous aspects of different sites including the layout, location and building features and assess what may generate a crime risk.

There are numerous easy methods and features that can be used to prevent the possibility of crime and anti-social behaviour.

An example of this would be if there is a terrace of houses and the end wall was left entirely blank. With no windows placed on the wall, the chances of the spot becoming a congregation point with people playing ball games or spraying graffiti is significantly higher. Simply placing a window on that end wall introduces natural surveillance by the occupiers and significantly reduces the risks. Unrestricted footpath access to the rear of homes is also a high risk feature.

In addition to improving design specifications, there are also physical requirements that can help to secure a property, including prerequisite security standards for doors and windows.

The doors must reach British Standard PAS 24 and the windows must be British Standard BS:7950.

Nationally, Secured by Design is offered by approximately 300 police officers who specialise in the SBD security discipline and who are readily available to help contractors or architects on how they improve their construction to meet Secured by Design status. If the recommendations are adopted, a Secured by Design award will be given.

Is Secured by Design a nationally recognised initiative and is it something that builders seek to achieve as a focal selling point?

The SBD standard has been adopted by Housing Associations right across the country and the standard applied to all new social housing that is constructed throughout the UK and a ROMA PUBLICATIONS

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The BWEA: a gathering force for wind and marine power The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) has well and truly come of age as an umbrella body for Britain’s wind and marine renewable industries. The Association now encompasses more than 300 companies active in the renewable sector and its role as a champion for renewable power sources becomes increasingly prominent with each passing year.

In its early years, the BWEA purported to provide advice, guidance and support to its members, and offer a directory of the UK’s leading renewable firms. In 2004, the Association decided to expand its mission to embrace a more public position and become a figurehead for wave and tidal energy. Over the past five years, the Association has lobbied tirelessly for the promotion of renewable energy and is now recognised as a font of facts and figures illustrating the benefits of wind and marinebased power.

The BWEA’s findings have earned a stream of support in high places. In October 2008, the Association published a report emphasising that the wind industry is one of Europe’s highestgrowth sectors and arguing that wind wave and tidal energy projects could drive job creation and stimulate sectors of the economy crucial to delivering the country’s 2020 renewable energy targets. In March 2009, this report received the backing of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the Association believes his endorsement will pave the way for firm action on renewable energy.

In addition to publishing research about the benefits of wind and marine energy, the Association is now a familiar presence in the corridors of the Houses of Parliament and holds regular gala receptions. In January last year, the BWEA held its first parliamentary reception of 2009, featuring a keynote speech from Huw Irranca-Davies MP, the Parliamentary UnderSecretary at Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who has Ministerial responsibility for the Marine bill.

The event was attended by several ministers and shadow ministers, including the Rt. Hon Stephen Timms MP, financial secretary to the treasury; Richard Benyon MP, shadow marine minister and Lord Teverson, climate change spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats.

As well as working closely with the Government and senior politicians, the BWEA endeavours to build firm relations with regional bodies and local authorities throughout the UK, as well as the business community, the media and the public. The Association organises a series of annual conferences as well as the industry’s annual conference and exhibition, BWEA31, and runs a series of networking events, BWEA Connect, which are free for members.

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These flagship occasions are augmented with regular meetings and informal workshops and the BWEA lends its support to a host of conferences and exhibitions run by other similarly prominent umbrella bodies. Each activity is conducted with openness and accessibility; indeed all information provided by the BWEA on behalf of the renewable industry is made freely available on its website (www.bwea.com), which has won awards for presentation and content.

Renewable firms clearly see the benefits of alignment with the BWEA. In 2007, the Association’s membership grew by 15% - a rate of increase that compares favourably with any other umbrella trade body in the UK. In the same year the BWEA’s executive complement increased from 14 to 21 staff, almost entirely devoted to policy and communications which reflects the Association’s commitment to getting its point across and hitting the right audience with the right message.

The BWEA is committed to cementing its position in the vanguard of the UK renewable industry through a raft of events over the coming months. In April 2009, the BWEA spearheaded the inaugural International Small Wind Conference, the first ever global event for small wind system providers ever held in the UK. The event was co-hosted by the BRE, a world leader in sustainable development, and was held at the BRE’s offices in Watford. The conference included seminars, educational sessions and networking opportunities and brought all constituents of the global sector together with a common focus on renewable energy policy, international markets, technology awareness, technical research, and educational issues.

Attendees were drawn from the international micro-generation industry, national government bodies, policy making agencies, the financial sector, the construction sector, academia, the media, as well as consumers and businesses who were interested in generating their own clean green renewable energy.

Later in the same month, the BWEA hosted the world’s largest event dedicated to wave and tidal stream energy. Known as BWEA Wave and Tidal 09, the event took place in Bath with sponsorship from the South West Regional Development Agency.

Over 300 government and industry professionals attended and over 25 companies were on display at the accompanying exhibition, which had to be extended due to demand. A networking reception the evening before the conference, at Bath’s historic Pump Rooms also provided an early opportunity for attendees to meet, socialise and bounce ideas off one another and created a melting pot for new theories and initiatives.

For information on these and other events please visit the BWEA’s website or phone 020 7689 1960.

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