Award Winning Considerate Constructors

The Denton Green project was awarded accolade of ‘Most Considerate Site’ in the UK for a project under £500,000. This placed the project in the top 0.004% of all CCS Registered Sites.

Construction sites across the UK register with the Considerate Constructors Scheme and agree to abide by the Code of Considerate Practice, designed to encourage best practice beyond statutory requirements. The Denton Green project scored the following out of 50;

Care about appearance 8/10

Respect the community 9/10

Protect the environment 9/10

Secure everyone’s Safety 9/10

Value their workforce 10/10

Total 45/50

A socially enterprising partnership BESTBuild

BESTBuild provide construction, employment and apprenticeship opportunities for local people. Their aim is to teach transferable workplace skills, encourage a positive work ethic and empower local people to take control of their own lives. The partnership between Nottingham City Homes, Nottingham City Council, BESTBuild and Woodhead delivered:

• Most considerate site under £500,000 in the U.K
• Considerate Constructor Gold Award
• 15 BESTBuild employees worked on the project to further their skills at site and office level
• 12 local residents were supported through City and Guilds Safety Level 1 and Construction Safety Certification Scheme Qualifications.
• Winner of Corporate Responsibility award at BCEM 2016 awards - its innovative approach to delivering a community-focused sustainable housing project
• Completed within 25 weeks (5 weeks ahead of schedule)
• An apprentice Site Manager shadowed the experienced Woodhead Site Management team for the duration of the 25 week project.
• All homes achieved Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4
• All homes built to Life Time Homes Standards
• For every £1 invested on the project, it has generated £1.57 within Nottingham and £2.88 within Nottinghamshire.
• Considerate Constructors score of 45/50 - Placing the site in the top 1% of the UK.
• Travel to site; 54% travel to site by car share, bike, or walking to site
• Delivered 100% of local spend and local employment within 20 miles of site
• Local spend 5 miles > 35% 10 miles > 85% 20 miles > 100%
• Average supplier located 7.7 miles from site.
• Woodhead were winner of ‘BEST Build Awards 2015 - Partner of The Year

Key Challenges

Busy Residential Area

The site was located in close proximity to the local community in a residential area, on a large traffic circus in the heart of Broxtowe, Nottingham. In addition to an already tight site, the traffic circus was on a main bus route within a one way system.

This created a logistical challenge, as deliveries and movement on and off the site would need to be strategically planned in order to ensure minimal impact to the local community. All deliveries were routed and timed to avoid the school rush hour (when traffic was at its optimum).

All delivery drivers received detailed information prior to arriving on site and were informed that they needed to ring ahead of arrival to ensure nominal disruption.

Building a Better Broxtowe

The location of the site was in a part of the City that is acknowledged as a socially deprived area. It is an element of responsible contracting that during ‘out of hours’ the site was safe and secure to eliminate any potential anti-social behaviour onsite and to protect the surrounding public. The project helped to inspire people to consider a career in construction.

Modifying public highway

As a result of the four new driveways the existing curbs to the front of the properties needed to be dropped, and the public footpath had to be re-tarmacked. This presented a challenge as due to the site location it would render an area with a high footfall out of bounds.

Heras fencing was used to create a new temporary footpath for the public, with clear re-routing signage displayed during the works. This area was also the entry point for deliveries, and to ensure this area was hazard free the pavement and road outside site were cleaned regularly and well maintained by the site team.

Added Value

• 100 letters were circulated locally to ensure that all members of the community fully understood the works that would be taking place
• An open door event was held for the locals, giving the opportunity for Woodhead to advise residents directly about the project
• A monthly newsletter was issued to local residents to keep them updated with how the project was progressing.
• Local businesses were provided with the opportunity to post adverts on the site noticeboard to generate business and capital for the local economy.
• A ‘Women in Construction’ campaign delivered on site helped an unemployed single mother from the local area to gain site experience and received a CSCS card. The support for the individual included flexible working hours, child care, and invaluable onsite training.
• Facilitated two separate site visits from BTEC pupils studying at Fernwood School (3 miles from site). The visits included a hunt the hazard exercise and also advised on career progression within the industry.
• Students from local school engaged with 2 separate site visits

Feedback

“As a client member of the CCS, we are delighted that the site at Denton Green has received such a high score. The contractors are to be commended for their hard work and commitment. Both Robert Woodhead and BESTbuild have been instrumental in involving the local community. Twenty local people have been able to take part in work experience at the site and half of the people working on site come from the Aspley area.”

Steve Hale, Director of Property Services at Nottingham City Homes