Dexter Moren Associates (DMA) is celebrating planning approval for a new 132-room hotel on Week Street in the centre of Maidstone. Alongside a welcoming reception, lobby, café area and restaurant, the 5779sq m (GIA) hotel will include the town’s first publicly accessible rooftop bar, with views overlooking the beautiful Kentish
Regional contractor G F Tomlinson has been appointed as a partner for the Pagabo Major Works Framework, which is due to launch this week on 19 April. In its second iteration, the Major Works Framework is open to all public and private sector organisations and will see the delivery of projects
The newly-established Construction Industry Coronavirus (CICV) Forum has hailed the “speed and efficiency” of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme rollout – but says the real test will be if all claims are paid on time. The specialist body – set up to support Scotland’s construction industry during the current pandemic
Dexter Moren Associates (DMA) is celebrating planning approval for a new 132-room hotel on Week Street in the centre of Maidstone. Alongside a welcoming reception, lobby, café area and restaurant, the 5779sq m (GIA) hotel will include the town’s first publicly accessible rooftop bar, with views overlooking the beautiful Kentish hills. DMA’s design for client Assetrock Maidstone Limited gained unanimous support on the evening of the planning committee and has been very well received by local businesses and the general public who were keen to see the hotel play a key role in the revitalisation of the local high street. The landmark hotel will sit on the site of a former Mothercare building and will bring additional footfall and an estimated £650,000 in annual spending to the heart of Maidstone town centre. The scheme builds on Assetrock’s track record of developing challenging, often overlooked sites, seeing in them opportunities to create assets for communities, boosting local economies and acting as a catalyst for job creation. In keeping with the client’s aspirations, the Maidstone scheme presented for DMA another opportunity to demonstrate the practice’s strong reputation for creating deliverable hotel projects that can contribute to the revival of town centres and high streets. Explains Herbert Lui, Partner at DMA: “There were concerns about putting a new-build hotel onto such a sensitive site, fronting onto a key shopping street, surrounded by low-rise and historically important buildings and bordered by three conservation areas. However, we worked closely with planning officers, the design review panel, committee members and stakeholders to create a design that both fits in with its surroundings and brings a new energy to the high street area.” Taking into account the sensitive location, DMA has carefully sculpted the form of the building, squaring off some corners and using indents and setbacks to reduce the massing and minimising the visual impact from Week Street and other key views. The hotel stands at three storeys facing the main pedestrianised shopping area with the nine-storey element sitting modestly behind the taller Colman House office block. The long, narrow site also prevented the use of windows along the boundary, necessitating a creative use of lightwells and room planning to bring daylight into the hotel. The design has taken its materiality from the surrounding area, using multi-stock red brick, which has subtle variations in tone, to complement the character of the local buildings and settle the new build unobtrusively into the high street. The specification also includes locally sourced materials such as ragstone cladding, which will offer a muted background to the contrasting copper banding detail, giving the facade articulation. Herbert concludes: “The client’s brief was to explore the opportunity to re-develop the site with a landmark building to match the 11-storey office building next to it. We worked hard to reassure the authorities, through our designs and choices of materials, that this new hotel would be a respectful and quality piece of architecture and a positive contributor to the regeneration of the town centre -with elements such as the publicly accessible roof top bar likely to attract patrons from outside the hotel.”
Regional contractor G F Tomlinson has been appointed as a partner for the Pagabo Major Works Framework, which is due to launch this week on 19 April. In its second iteration, the Major Works Framework is open to all public and private sector organisations and will see the delivery of projects in sectors such as education, healthcare, government and leisure. 28 contractors have been appointed to the framework to deliver projects starting from £5million across the UK. G F Tomlinson has been assigned to deliver projects from £5million to £15million across the East and West Midlands and is one of only four SME’s chosen for the framework – as part of Pagabo’s ongoing commitment to supporting SMEs and ensuring access to major projects. In order to be successful, G F Tomlinson’s bid demonstrated strong finances, relevant experience and echoed Pagabo’s passion for social value, supporting SMEs and innovative technology. Ability to provide value for money for clients through quality, timely and on-budget delivery and solid supply chain management was also assessed and rated at the highest standard. G F Tomlinson is also partnered with Pagabo through three other frameworks – the National Framework for Refit and Refurbishment Solutions, the Dynamic Purchasing System for Small Works and the National Framework for Medium Construction Works. Most recently, the contractor delivered the £1.2million Thythorn Hill Community and Sports Centre for Oadby and Wigston Borough Council under Pagabo’s Dynamic Purchasing System framework. Carl Wiltshire, Pagabo Framework Lead at G F Tomlinson said: “We are delighted to have been appointed to the Major Works Framework, our fourth framework agreement with Pagabo and we look forward to working on significant projects in the years to come. “Now, more than ever, it is important that public sector procurement is efficient in bringing together contractors and clients to deliver projects which provide vital services in the region. Pagabo offer clients EU/UK compliant framework agreements to make public sector procurement quicker, simpler and more effective. With our experienced management team, commitment to high-quality project delivery and provision of social, economic, environmental and sustainable benefits for local communities, we are ideally placed to serve public sector clients across the Midlands region on projects between £5million and £15million. “G F Tomlinson has delivered in excess of £500million projects through public sector frameworks to date and we embrace the opportunities this provides in leaving a positive legacy in our local communities. We are looking forward to building on these achievements in the East and West Midlands through this framework to increase the community benefits we provide.” The Pagabo frameworks provide simplicity, transparency, flexibility, support and stability, supporting the public sector to achieve value for money and added social value for local communities. Simon Toplass, chief executive at Pagabo, said: “We were delighted by the quality of the responses to tender last year, and we’re really excited to see the second iteration of our Major Works framework going live. The first iteration of this framework saw the delivery of £833m worth of construction projects for the public sector in 2019 alone, and to date we have enabled the delivery of more than £2.6 billion of social value through works procured via our frameworks. “We’ve made it our mission to simplify procurement process with technology and innovation, and we place social value at the heart of everything we do. We truly believe the framework’s success is down to our customer-focused approach – and we’re pleased to see that this is something that G F Tomlinson has recognised and responded to. We’re looking forward to working with the team over the coming years.”
The newly-established Construction Industry Coronavirus (CICV) Forum has hailed the “speed and efficiency” of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme rollout – but says the real test will be if all claims are paid on time. The specialist body – set up to support Scotland’s construction industry during the current pandemic – said the successful launch by HMRC last week could provide a “vital lifeline” to companies across the country. Since the HMRC portal opened on Monday 20 April, more than 140,000 companies employing around a million workers have applied to the furlough scheme. The cost of about £1 billion is expected to rise significantly as more companies take up the offer. Vaughan Hart, Managing Director of Forum member Scottish Building Federation and chair of the Forum Employment sub-group, said: “The Forum wishes to record its appreciation of the intense amount of work that has been undertaken behind the scenes by HMRC to so effectively address a situation that, just a few short weeks ago, nobody could have envisaged. “Fears that the system might be overwhelmed seem unfounded as the rollout and handling seems to have gone smoothly so far. “Feedback also seems to suggest that payments are now being made as scheduled, so fingers crossed this continues and a vital lifeline is successfully delivered.” Andrew Renwick, Managing Director of Caltech Lifts, and also a member of the Forum Employment sub-group, said: “The Revenue has taken on a mammoth task and seems to have made a really good start, demonstrating admirable speed and efficiency. “The circumstances have been unprecedented and it is very gratifying to see the importance that government attaches to the small businesses which are the lifeblood of the economy. “However, the job is still only half done, and the real test will come over the next week or so when it will become clear if funds are paid out on time to those who need them most.” The scheme means that employers who cannot maintain their current workforce because their operations have been severely affected can “furlough” employees and apply for a grant that covers 80% of their usual monthly wage costs, up to £2,500 a month, plus the associated Employer National Insurance and pension contributions. The scheme is temporary, in place for four months starting from March 1, 2020, but it may be extended if necessary and employers can use this scheme at any time during this period. The CICV Forum has already played a major role in clarifying conflicting information for the sector and issuing practical guidance for companies, clients and employees. It has now established a series of influential sub-groups dealing with mission-critical aspects such as Health and Safety, Skills, Communication and Future Planning.
