A charitable organisation helping children and families in the North East by giving them help to improve and build new relationships is now moving to the next phase of development. Changing Futures North East will deliver its Hartlepool Healthy Relationships scheme, which was supported by a £1.56 million grant, as
County Tyrone construction firm McAleer & Rushe has secured a £25 million deal to build and lease out a four star hotel in Newcastle, England. ES Newgate, the company’s subsidiary, is set to develop the 226 bedroom, six storey property, which will become a Maldron Hotel when complete. The scheme
Construction work is underway on a new £15 million teaching centre at the University of Nottingham, in the latest of a number of new buildings being constructed at the university. The building will span 5,000 sq m and will stand next to Hallward Library at the University Park campus and
Standing on a prominent 14-acre site close to York city centre, the former Terry’s chocolate factory has been transformed into more than 170 luxury apartments and penthouses. Standing on a prominent 14-acre site close to York city centre, the former Terry’s chocolate factory has been transformed into more than 170
5 October 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal The importance of employee health and wellbeing has risen sharply up the public policy agenda over the past decade. Earlier in the year, the government launched a Smart Working Code to guide businesses in how to ensure better and more flexible working practices for
Distribution network operator Northern Powergrid has made accessing its website easier for customers by including the new Browsealoud service, which offers guided audio narration. The service has been added for the benefit of customers with a visual impairment or literacy difficulties so they can access information about
Queries about terminating contracts in the construction sector have been on the increase. Solicitors Digby Hebbard and Christian Charles report. Above: Digby Hebbard (left) is a partner and Christian Charles (right) is a senior associate in the construction team at Fladgate Within the construction industry there appears to be uncertainty
Events The Working Well Together campaign runs 30– 40 events across England, Scotland and Wales every year. Most of the events are free to attend and we usually feed you too! See the list below to see what’s happening in your area. For more information for each event, click on
Breedon Aggregates has appointed a human resources director for the first time in anticipation of its £336m acquisition of Hope Construction Materials completing this summer. Above: Steve Tagg Steve Tagg was until recently organisation & human resources director at Aggregate Industries, where he spent 21 years in senior HR roles,
Browser does not support script. Contact us At a special Education Forum meeting today (24 March), and in response to the 2013 European Union legislative changes to the Professional Qualifications Directive statute, the RIBA Council has agreed a set of proposals that will modernise the education of future generations of
A charitable organisation helping children and families in the North East by giving them help to improve and build new relationships is now moving to the next phase of development. Changing Futures North East will deliver its Hartlepool Healthy Relationships scheme, which was supported by a £1.56 million grant, as two new experienced professionals join their management team to help carry on its pioneering work. The organisation was set up under its current system two years ago and was initially set up as ‘Headland Future’ before being rebranded and opened up to people who live throughout the North East region. Along with carrying out ground breaking work in their Healthy Relationships project, the organisation has a team of staff and volunteers who support and help families and children who need help to overcome challenges they face in their lives. The charity also provides family mediation along with other types of help under their Moving On scheme to separated couples, including mediation to help them avoid going through court. The Early Action Neighbourhood Fund has provided the £1.56 million grant, which is a funding pot contributed to by the Big Lottery Fund, the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Comic Relief. With this investment, Changing Futures North East is well positioned to help people have even healthier relationships and hopes to ultimately ease the demand on public services. Graham Alton, Chief Executive of Changing Futures North East, said: “We are in an excellent position, and our aim to make sure we are always helping everyone involved in Hartlepool’s Children & Families Workforce to build on the good work they do and be even more effective at helping families and children have a range of happy, healthy relationships. “Hartlepool, like other areas, faces huge social and financial challenges, and limited money means that it can be difficult to support people early enough, before their problems get worse.”
County Tyrone construction firm McAleer & Rushe has secured a £25 million deal to build and lease out a four star hotel in Newcastle, England. ES Newgate, the company’s subsidiary, is set to develop the 226 bedroom, six storey property, which will become a Maldron Hotel when complete. The scheme is the firm’s latest work with Irish hotel plc Dalata Group, and will be the first Maldron Hotel in England. McAleer & Rushe will retain ownership of the property, which will be leased to Dalata through a 35-year contract. The building, located on the site of the former Newgate Centre, is expected to open in the summer of 2018. McAleer and Rushe is also set to build student accommodation as part of the same mixed used development, which is worth £100 million in total. The firm’s property director, Stephen Surphlis, commented: “The addition of this quality hotel brand reflects the wider importance of this entire mixed-use development and will be a major asset to the city as a whole, as well as attracting business and leisure travellers to Newcastle. “We look forward to working alongside Dalata, for whom we have previously delivered numerous projects.” Meanwhile, McAleer & Rushe is also working on the construction of a new Maldron Hotel at Brunswick Street in the centre of Belfast. It will be the company’s fourth hotel here. It also owns the Maldron Hotel at Belfast International Airport, the Clayton Hotel on Ormeau Avenue in the centre of the city, and the Maldron Hotel in Londonderry. Dalata currently operates five Clayton hotels in England, with two in London, and one each in Cardiff, Leeds and Manchester. It additionally owns the Croydon Park Hotel in London. Dermot Crowley, deputy chief executive for business development and finance at Dalata, said: “This development provides us with an exciting opportunity to launch our Maldron brand in the English market.”
Construction work is underway on a new £15 million teaching centre at the University of Nottingham, in the latest of a number of new buildings being constructed at the university. The building will span 5,000 sq m and will stand next to Hallward Library at the University Park campus and will be made up of teaching rooms, collaborative lecture theatre, performing arts space, social learning hub and staff offices. Architecture firm Make has designed the building, while the project will be managed by international property and construction consultancy Gleeds. The development is set to be finished by the end of next year and was commissioned as part of a £500 million capital investment plan for the university. Gleeds director based in Nottingham, James Marshall, commented: “The new facilities seek to provide an improved educational experience and, once complete, will help to attract both national and international students to the city of Nottingham. “We are delighted to be involved in this project and look forward to see the ambitious plans come to fruition.” David Patterson, partner at Make added: “This will be a beautiful building on a beautiful campus. “We are aiming to create an inspiring environment for both students and teachers and one which will accommodate current and future demands for light, vibrant, student-focused spaces.” The University Park will span 300 acres and is the biggest of the four campuses and is widely regarded as one of the most attractive in the UK. Chief estates and facilities officer at the University of Nottingham, Chris Jagger, said the new building would correct the imbalance of teaching facilities on University Park at present. He added: “This building includes both traditional seminar rooms and lecture theatres but also spaces for informal and small group learning. “It will be technology-enabled to deliver the latest innovations in teaching practice and to provide the best learning experience for our students.”
Standing on a prominent 14-acre site close to York city centre, the former Terry’s chocolate factory has been transformed into more than 170 luxury apartments and penthouses. Standing on a prominent 14-acre site close to York city centre, the former Terry’s chocolate factory has been transformed into more than 170 luxury apartments and penthouses. Bringing new light into the restored Grade II listed building are more than 1,000 aluminium windows supplied and installed by fenestration specialist Total Glass. Working closely with developers The PJ Livesey Group and to a strict conservation specification, Total Glass provided a comprehensive fenestration solution to suit the unique development. This included the use of Reynaers CS24-SL steel replacement window system with low-e glass to improve thermal efficiency. The slim frames of the thermally-insulated three-chamber window system replicate the appearance of steel-framed windows making it the ideal choice for historic property restoration. All the windows were specified in a RAL 9002 matt white powder-coated finish and fitted into two elevations and two gables of the building. They also featured integral duplex spacer bars within the sealed glazed units and powder-coated Astragal Bars to preserve the building’s character. The Total Glass team carried out a full survey prior to manufacture, which included the design of specialist brackets to secure the windows. Stuart Holt, Total Glass Commercial Aluminium Manager commented: “This is a landmark building and it’s a privilege to have been involved with such a high-profile and successful conversion project.” The art deco factory, commissioned by Noel and Frank Terry, was opened in 1926. Taken over by Kraft in 1993, the factory finally closed in 2005. Source link
5 October 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal The importance of employee health and wellbeing has risen sharply up the public policy agenda over the past decade. Earlier in the year, the government launched a Smart Working Code to guide businesses in how to ensure better and more flexible working practices for them. In a recent interview Robin Hay co-founder of caterers Bennett Hay, told FM World that his organisation had “rigid” wellbeing policies including a nutritional programme “to help people counter the stresses of modern life and feel good, helping people to rehydrate, manage their blood sugar, and support their immune systems with more antioxidants”. You can vote below, and please do email any further comments to newsdesk@fm-world.co.uk. Source link
Distribution network operator Northern Powergrid has made accessing its website easier for customers by including the new Browsealoud service, which offers guided audio narration. The service has been added for the benefit of customers with a visual impairment or literacy difficulties so they can access information about power cuts, getting a new electricity connection and investment being undertaken in the network. The service also provides the ability to save online content as audio files and users can select simplified page layouts, with an enhanced zoom tool. Browsealoud also offers basic translation into more than 50 global languages for users that don’t speak English. Northern Powergrid’s customer experience manager Leanne Kerry said: “Keeping our customers informed is a priority for us. “We hope this new service will offer extra support and help make a real difference for thousands of people across the region. “Our customers will be able to choose and change the way they access our online information so it better meets their personal needs and will help ensure important information such as how to get a new connection, reporting or finding out about a power cut and discovering how we can offer extra support to more vulnerable customers, is more accessible than ever before.” Source link
Queries about terminating contracts in the construction sector have been on the increase. Solicitors Digby Hebbard and Christian Charles report. Above: Digby Hebbard (left) is a partner and Christian Charles (right) is a senior associate in the construction team at Fladgate Within the construction industry there appears to be uncertainty as to the circumstances in which a party can terminate a contract and the consequences of a wrongful termination. There would also seem to be a general lack of understanding of the concept of a “repudiatory breach” of contract, and how this is relevant to termination. Disputes and differences are commonplace in construction projects; likewise their resolution (via various routes). Previously, we saw that it was only in rare circumstances that a relationship had broken down to such an extent and/or there were sufficiently serious breaches of obligations, where termination became a consideration. (Termination, in this sense, means bringing the contractual relationship to an end.) However, our perception is that the consideration and/or implementation of termination are becoming more prevalent. One can speculate as to the reasons for this perhaps dissatisfaction with dispute resolution, or an increase in “underperformance” on projects let during the downturn? Key reference points for live projects will be the contract terms and more generally, the law on termination. Contractual termination Construction contracts will normally prescribe the requisite grounds upon which a party may terminate and the steps to be taken to achieve that. More specifically, most standard form construction contracts make provision for parties to terminate the contract upon the occurrence of specified breaches of contract, typically including: insolvency; unjustified suspension of works by a contractor; a contractor’s failure to proceed regularly and diligently with the works; and a persistent failure by the employer to pay certified sums. Contracts may also contain provisions which allow an employer to terminate “at will”. Most standard form contracts provide for a series of notices to be given (to enable the party in default to remedy breaches) before a termination can become effective. In our experience, the most common “battle grounds” for contractual terminations are the purported grounds for termination and whether the procedural technicalities were followed. It is vital to be as certain as you can on these points because if it is determined that a purported termination was in breach of contract, you may be facing a substantial damages claim for wrongful termination. In this regard, such damages would cover all foreseeable losses caused by the wrongful termination including, for example, demobilisation costs, charges for the early termination of subcontracts and loss of profit claims. Practical guidance would be to focus on carefully compiling and collating the evidence of default and to ensure that any notices comply strictly with the contractual requirements. “Common law” termination Not all contracts will include termination provisions and/or permit termination in the event of breaches other than the prescribed defaults. Termination is, in those circumstances, still possible at common law because English law permits a party to terminate a contract in circumstances where the other party has committed a “repudiatory breach”. In such circumstances, the innocent party is entitled to terminate the contract immediately and claim damages. The courts have described a repudiatory breach as one which “goes to the root of the contract” and which “deprives the innocent party substantially of the whole benefit of the contract” (Hong Kong Fir Shipping Co. Ltd v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd [1962] 2 QB 26). In practical terms, the following are likely to constitute a repudiation of a construction contract: a contractor’s abandonment of the works; an employer’s decision to exclude the contractor from site without justification; and a persistent and continuing failure by an employer to pay certified sums. Critically, a right to terminate for a repudiatory breach is conditional upon the innocent party not affirming the contract. This means that if the innocent party delays in terminating, or takes some other steps under the contract (such as issuing instructions or notices), he may be deemed to have affirmed the contract and will have lost the right to terminate. So, if it appears on the above tests that the other party has repudiated the contract, the innocent party should (i) promptly notify the wrongdoer in writing to confirm that it is terminating the contract, and (ii) do nothing further in relation to its own obligations under the contract. In certain circumstances, it is possible that both contractual and common law rights of termination may arise. The courts have decided that the innocent party can elect to terminate at common law without following the contractual notice provisions (e.g. Vinergy International (PVT) Ltd v Richmond Mercantile Ltd FZC [2016] EWHC 525 (Comm)). There are clear advantages to this approach, because it is quicker and the offending party is not given opportunity to remedy breaches. It is not clear, however, whether an innocent party could avoid complying with the contractual notice provisions if the repudiatory act was itself a “specified” contractual breach. In conclusion, termination is, by its nature, a remedy of last resort. Other options may be available, such as varying the contract or negotiating an exit from the project. The courts will expect a party who wishes to terminate to ensure that (i) the grounds for termination have clearly been established, and (ii) the notice provisions of the contract have been followed to the letter. There is no room for mistakes and getting it wrong could mean that the party seeking to terminate might find itself on the receiving end of a substantial damages claim for wrongful termination. About the authors: Digby Hebbard is a partner and Christian Charles is a senior associate in the construction team at Fladgate This article was published on 2 May 2016 (last updated on 2 May 2016). Source link
Events The Working Well Together campaign runs 30– 40 events across England, Scotland and Wales every year. Most of the events are free to attend and we usually feed you too! See the list below to see what’s happening in your area. For more information for each event, click on the link to download the programme and booking form. Bookmark this page as we are adding new events all the time. 01 October 2016 Places Available Work At Height SHAD – October 2016 Cardiff Venue and date to be confirmed Further details to follow soon!! 11 October 2016 Places Available Plant Competency, Operation and Mock Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) Interview The Bank House Hotel, Bransford, Worcester WR6 5JD. Tuesday 11th October 2016 This event provides advice on the standard of competence of operators and effective management of plant to ensure safe operation. There will be presentations on: Plant card schemes; Skills, Knowledge, Experience and Training; Manage, Supervise and Plan. There will be shared learning and best practice from larger businesses that is suitable for SME operators of plant The morning will also include a mock PACE interview where a plant operator is interviewed by the HSE under caution as a result of causing serious injury to a fellow worker. For further information call Belinda Hall 0121 607 6200 or email belinda.hall@hse.gov.uk For full event information and booking details download the flyer below. FLYER – Plant Competency, Operation and Mock PACE Interview [315.8KB] 20 October 2016 Places Available High Five and Refurbishment SHAD Petroc College of Further Education, Old Sticklepath Hill, Barnstaple, EX31 2BQ While the construction industry has made great improvements in tackling risk and reducing injury rates over recent years, there is more that can be done to improve safety and drive down accident and ill health rates even more – particularly for construction work on refurbishment projects. This FREE half day event is brought to you by the Working Well Together South West groups and is for self-employed builders and small construction companies. The event will provide practical up-to-date information, help and advice which will help you take action to protect you and your employees’ future health, safety and wellbeing. Topics covered will include: asbestos awareness; dust and face fit testing; Working at Height; Manual Handling; Scaffolding; There will be talks, practical demonstrations and the opportunity to ask questions of industry experts and a HSE inspector. Places at this event are limited and it is likely to be highly popular – BOOK NOW! Barnstaple October 2016 [461.58KB] Source link
Breedon Aggregates has appointed a human resources director for the first time in anticipation of its £336m acquisition of Hope Construction Materials completing this summer. Above: Steve Tagg Steve Tagg was until recently organisation & human resources director at Aggregate Industries, where he spent 21 years in senior HR roles, 18 of them on the executive committee. At Breedon, he re-joins his former colleague Pat Ward who moved from Aggregate Industries to become Breedon chief executive in January 2016. Prior to AI, Mr Tagg worked in HR in the mining industry with British Coal. Mr Tagg will take up his new role on 23rd May. He will join Breedon’s executive committee and in addition to his HR responsibilities will also oversee group safety. He will play a key role in the integration of Hope, which will transform Breedon into the UK’s largest independent building materials group with more than 2,000 employees across England, Scotland and Wales. Breedon group chief executive Pat Ward said: “Steve is an exceptionally skilled HR professional with an outstanding track record in our industry and we’re very fortunate that he’s agreed to join us. I look forward to working with him to create a world-class, safe working environment for all our people, drawing on best practice from both Breedon and Hope. “Steve will be focusing particularly sharply on raising the bar in our training and development programmes, as we strive to give all our colleagues the expertise and tools they need to excel at their jobs and achieve their full potential.” This article was published on 19 Apr 2016 (last updated on 19 Apr 2016). Source link
Browser does not support script. Contact us At a special Education Forum meeting today (24 March), and in response to the 2013 European Union legislative changes to the Professional Qualifications Directive statute, the RIBA Council has agreed a set of proposals that will modernise the education of future generations of architecture students, widen the path towards inclusivity and work to remove the obstacles faced by aspiring architects. The recommendations are the result of the RIBA Education Review, a two year programme developing the agenda for changes in the structure, content and delivery of UK architecture education. The review has engaged the RIBA Education Committee, SCHOSA and the UK schools of architecture, progressive practitioners of architecture, and the statutory bodies responsible for architecture in the UK and Europe. The recommendations agreed today are: A requirement for a minimum of two years of assessed professional practical experience (PPE) within, typically, a minimum seven year period of study An award that combines academic study and PPE leading to a level 7 masters degree Academic credits available for one year of work based learning, with the option for students to study within a framework of four years F/T study + three years PPE A 300 ECTS credit programme compliant with the requirements of Bologna agreement Access to the register of architects and title of the architect on successful completion of the integrated course The next steps will be to discuss the implementation of proposals in consultation with all UK schools of architecture. Stephen Hodder, President of the RIBA, said: “This has been the most rigorous and collaborative review of architectural education in fifty years via an extensive consultation with architects, students, academics and clients. I’m delighted that we have some clear recommendations for changes to architectural education ensuring that the RIBA validated architecture course represents an assured academic benchmark. These changes will ensure that future generations are inspired to become leading architects in the UK and globally.” Posted on Wednesday 25th March 2015 Search architecture.com just start typing and hit enter again × Browser does not support script. Browser does not support script. Source link