Yorkshire-based groundworks specialist Mabey Hire is setting up a London-based site crew to support the work of its contracts team in the south of England.

The new team will be delivering full temporary works planning, installation and removal for customers.

Projects director Peter Aramayo explained: “Currently, jobs in the south are carried out by northern site crews, taking them away from home for extended periods. The only other alternative is to use subcontractors, but increasingly our customers are requesting that their suppliers must use their own employees.

“By setting up a permanent site crew in London, we’ll be able to provide a completely seamless service from North to South, and we will be able to further reduce our response times to emergency works.”

The new team of three steel erectors and a supervisor will support rather than replace the existing crews, the company said. They will be based out of Mabey’s Iver facility and report to Sean Poulter, installation manager – south. The aim is to have the team up and running this summer.

“We will bring the team up to our facility at Garswood, St Helens, for their induction,” said Mr Aramayo. “We pre-assemble a lot of our kit in the yard at Garswood so they will be involved in that part of the process, and we will put them with existing crews to get them up to speed with our way of working.”