Whistl, the second largest postal operator in the UK, has announced that it is to move into a new super depot for its northern operations in late Spring. The company has taken a ten year lease on M&G Real Estate’s Logistics 225 unit at Harworth Group’s flagship Logistics North development in Bolton – the seventh deal at the site in the past three years, reaffirming the site’s position as one of the North West’s leading Logistics and Distribution locations. The new site allows Whistl to consolidate existing operations in Leeds and Warrington onto one site that has 33% greater capacity for future expansion of its existing mail, packet and parcel and ecommerce business.  lt also chose the 224,938 sq. ft Grade A warehouse at Logistics North, Bolton, due to its immediate access onto Junction 4 of the M61 and, by combining two existing depots onto one site, it will be able to further improve efficiencies in its operations. Logistics 225 and its neighbouring Logistics 175 unit was fully funded by M&G Real Estate as one of the largest property investors in the UK, with Harworth Group constructing the units on the company’s behalf.  Both units practically completed in December 2016 prior to Whistl confirming its move to the larger unit. As part of the move Whistl will begin its recruitment campaign in the Bolton area in conjunction with Bolton Council, through its Team Bolton partnership, to recruit people to the site.  Whistl has offered staff employed at the existing Leeds and Warrington depots the opportunity to work at the new site. The move to Bolton will significantly improve the operational efficiency of Whistl as the state of the art building has 4 level access doors, 20 dock levellers, 50 trailer parking spaces, 31 loading positions and 222 car parking spaces. Whistl joins Aldi, MBDA, Joy Global, Costa Coffee, Green King and Lidl as occupiers on Logistics North and it has a 550 acre country park also under construction, providing unique surroundings for employees on-site.  The whole development has strong support from Bolton Council, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and MIDAS – Greater Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency. Logistics North is one of the North West’s largest live commercial development ‘s, with outline planning consent in place for 4m sq. ft of commercial space. Nick Wells, CEO Whistl: said: “We are delighted to confirm that we are investing in this grade A facility at Logistics North in Bolton.  The new depot will enable us to provide an excellent working environment for our colleagues as well enable us to continue providing high quality and efficient services to our customers.  We look forward to working with Bolton Council on recruiting people to work at Whistl in the coming months.” Councillor Cliff Morris, Leader of Bolton Council, said: “This is great news for local people and will be of tremendous benefit to our town and residents. I am proud that our hard work behind the scenes has paid off as Whistl joins the likes of Lidl, Aldi, MBDA and Joy Global, bringing at least 100 new jobs and additional revenue into the borough. “This clearly demonstrates that Logistics North is the perfect distribution site for business and a key site for the North West. With another major company due to be announced soon, it is clear that Bolton is an attractive proposition for business growth.” David Crowley, Director of Logistics & Industrial Asset Management at M&G Real Estate, added: “The buildings we have funded at Logistics North form an important part of our current 1.4m sq. ft. speculative logistics programme.  This early pre let to Whistl underlines the strength of the location and is testament to our ongoing strategy to create core product in prime locations which will provide long term income returns for the funds.  We shall continue to look for similar opportunities into 2017 and add to our £2.4 billion industrial and logistics portfolio.” Ian Ball, Executive Director of Capital Growth at Harworth Group plc, said: “Logistics North has established itself as one of the North of England’s leading distribution locations and we are delighted to welcome another leading company like Whistl to take occupancy of Logistics 225 within six weeks of us completing it on M&G’s behalf.  Whistl’s arrival at Logistics North further proves the site’s strategic importance to distribution companies and the underlying strength of the Logistics market in the North West. We now look forward to letting M&G’s other Logistics 175 unit as one of the few remaining Grade A rated distribution warehouses development ‘s available in the North West.”

A report into safety failures that forced 17 Edinburgh schools to close has highlighted a lack of proper scrutiny of the construction work.The 250-page independent report gives a clear explanation of how the walls at the schools were badly built.There were not enough wall ties, or they were the wrong type, and the wall cavities were not uniform.The faults caused the wall at Oxgangs Primary School to collapse and they were also apparent at the 16 other schools that were declared unsafe.The report also makes clear there was a lack of scrutiny and supervision that allowed those mistakes to be made.It says the finger of blame is not pointed at one rogue builder because the work was done by multiple companies and bricklaying squads.The problem is more significant than that, both to the construction industry and those commissioning buildings. The report explains that City of Edinburgh Council could have employed someone, for example a Clerk of Works, to oversee the work on site. This costs money.It goes on to explain that the assurances the council thought they were getting were not actually the kind of checks that were taking place.This was a misplaced assumption on the part of the council.Keeping costs down is one of the factors that appears often in the report.It says “the procurers of buildings need to consider whether the drive for faster, lower cost construction may be being achieved to the detriment of its quality and safety”. Why did the failures in construction happen? An issue with finding out why the buildings failed is that none of the 66 people who gave evidence to the inquiry actually built the walls. They were not the actual bricklayers. However one of the senior staff at VB Contracts who built the walls at Oxgangs, and others, has previously said they were told to build the walls in a way that is not considered good practice. The inside and outside walls were not built at the same time, without making extra provision for the walls to be correctly connected to each other. At Oxgangs, the outer wall was ripped off after a storm, dumping nine tonnes of masonry into the playground. The independent report confirms that the two parts of the walls were not built at the same time and the report lists the problems that can cause. Some of these are problems that ultimately led to Oxgangs collapsing. Warnings ignored Crucially, the report also states that the architects spotted the way the walls were being built at one school and highlighted it to the main contractor who, they say, ignored it. The way the schools were paid for PPP was the private finance model used to fund the schools. Although the report says that aspects of the way the private finance model was put in place put the quality of the buildings at risk, it explicitly says the private finance method of funding was not the cause of the defective buildings. The use of private finance is an intensely political matter which will be continue to be discussed at length. However, the author of this report says there is nothing to stop private finance from delivering a high quality building if properly managed. The key is using best practice associated with more traditional models of funding. Impact for the whole building industry and those hiring them There are a number of points that may influence the way large public buildings are built in the future. Adequate supervision of the building work is the one the report comes back to repeatedly. It also recommends that any similar buildings are checked not just visually, but by physically looking inside the walls. That applies not just to schools and not just to Scotland. Parents, teachers and pupils expected the schools to be safe so they will want the lessons of Edinburgh to be learned far beyond the capital.