Welcome to the Spring 2009 edition of the Kingerlee newsletter. If anyone has any news, photos, ideas or suggestions for future newsletters please do let me know. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this edition. Best Wishes, Siân.

Kingerlee and Gormley stand out from the crowd!

Special Projects Division — New Projects Helena Kennedy Medical Centre Forming of a new medical consulting centre within an existing building. Start Date 9th March 2009 Client Oxford Brookes University Contract Value £250k Architect Ridge and Partners Contracts Manager Mike Clelland Quantity Surveyor John Bailey Site Manager Mick East

Building R8, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Refurbishment of a mezzanine floor level to create new offices and labs. Start Date April 2009 Client Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Contract Value £350k Architect ADP Contracts Manager Mike Clelland Quantity Surveyor John Burbage Site Manager Gary Conn

Kingerlee assisted Exeter College in the e r e c t i o n a n d p l a c i n g o f a n Anthony Gormley Statue [the creator of the Angel of the North] onto a building in the surrounds of the historic City of Oxford. It was placed on the skyline of the college, on the corner where Broad Street meets Turl Street. The operation required detailed planning and co-ordination in a busy, central area of Oxford. A mobile crane was used, necessitating a road closure, following close consultation with Oxfordshire Highways authorities. The statue, a life sized figure weighing around a half a tonne was carefully placed into position on the 15th February 2009, following which a ceremony was attended by Anthony Gormley, Exeter College and its benefactors along with members of the local community.

Kingerlee Contracts Manager Sam Brown said “It is a privilege to be involved is such a significant event in Oxford. We are currently working closely with Exeter College and are on site constructing a £5.5m student accommodation development for them”.

The team at Maplewood School, led by Site Manager Stuart Savage have received praise from the Headmaster. The school requested if one of their more demanding pupils Sam, who suffers from autism and has had problems in the past with his behavior, could be given a tour of the site. Sam is very keen on building and machinery, he works on a farm in his spare time. Stuart was introduced to Sam as the ‘Site Boss’, the headmaster also explained to Sam that Stuart was responsible for keeping everyone who works there safe.

Stuart then spent 40 minutes showing Sam around the site. It was an experience which Sam thoroughly enjoyed .The headmaster commented afterwards in an email to Michael Puttick “I was most impressed, and thought you should know that. Your team to date are a credit to good customer relations.”

Going that extra mile at Maplewood

Spring 2009

Considerate Contractor Award Kendrew

Training News

Wild Boar Archaeology at Sonning

As part of our ongoing work with the Considerate Contractors Scheme, Kingerlee have been awarded the Performance Beyond Compliance Certificate for the Kendrew Quadrangle Project. For those projects who have not been involved with the scheme, the aim is to improve the image of construction, encourage good communication with neighbours and general public, improve welfare facilities and greater environmental awareness. The monitoring of your compliance is gauged by both public opinion and an independent audit of the eight criteria namely, consideration, environmental, cleanliness, neighbours, respectful, safety, responsible and accountable. Each element is assessed and awarded a rating between 1-5, to achieve the certificate you must maintain a score of four and above for each of the eight sections of the Codes of Considerate Practice.

Windmill Hill Farm Kingerlee have been appointed as the preferred second stage bidder for a New £6m Archive Centre at Waddesdon Estate, Aylesbury. The focal point in the scheme is an Oak Grid Shell structure to the reading room and associated archives incorporating passive ventilation design. Subject to final negotiations, the project is due to commence on site this summer.

Wheatley Park School—Grand Opening On Friday 27th February 2009 members of the Kingerlee and client teams were invited to attend the official opening of the recently constructed John Milton English and Media Centre at Wheatley Park School. Following presentations by the school the building was opened by Mr John Howell MP for Henley. Prior to this event, Michael Puttick had received a letter from Neil Monaghan, Head of Property at Oxfordshire County Council. The following is an abstract from the letter: “I was delighted with the building which is the quality we want for all our new build projects. It seems to have been a very successful team. The head teacher said that there were no difficulties during the construction, which is right in the middle of the school site. When I visited the site during construction, the site staff were helpful and courteous.

Kingerlee are in the process of constructing a £4m private house at Sonning, near Reading. As part of the planning approval, there is a requirement for an archaeologist to be in attendance whilst foundations and drainage are excavated. The house is being built on land which was previously the site of the Bishop of Salisbury’s Palace. The palace fell in to disrepair and was eventually demolished in 1574. The first archaeological excavations were carried out in 1912, on the exact site of the palace, and a keen archaeological interest in the site still remains today. Within the first week of archaeological activity on site Thames Valley Archaeological Services had unearthed a trench, believed to date back to prehistoric times. After several hours of scraping soil by hand, the archaeologist had unearthed large animal bones, medieval pottery and a number of struck flint flakes.

The flint flakes are all waste flakes of various sizes, produced when flint was being worked into tools such as knives and scrapers. The animal bones have yet to be fully analysed, but the larger bones have been identified by the TVAS bone specialist, as horse bones. Other bones would appear to belong to pigs and cattle, and it is believed that these would have been slaughtered for food. Amongst the bones, it was interesting to find a deer antler and a tusk that probably came from a wild boar. Soil samples have been taken from the site for environmental analysis, as it is not unusual to find seeds and pollen within the soil. This will help to define the age of the archaeological remains.

Since the last newsletter at Christmas we have carried out a variety of training including Asta PowerProject refresher training, first aid refreshers, asbestos awareness and SMSTS. Still to come are courses on SafeStand scaffolding systems, tele-handler training, time management, as well as CSCS refresher training and tests. We have also run Occupational Health screening for all employees in the Joinery Workshop and anyone on site with a forklift license. April will see the next stage of the new personal review process being put into action with the 6 monthly interim reviews taking place. This should be an informal discussion between reviewer and employee to catch up on the past 6 months since the main review and check up on progress on any targets set. New training plans are currently being sent out and everyone should have received their plan prior to their interim review so that it too can be discussed if necessary. I am continuing to visit sites and attend the team meetings, which I am pleased to say are now well established and being run regularly. If you have any queries or concerns regarding any aspect of training please let me know when you see me or get in contact with me in the office. Best Wishes, Sian.

Four students from local schools spent the 12th March on site at St John’s College, Oxford learning about the construction industry. The four students were kitted out with PPE and given a tour around the site. They then spent some time interviewing some of the team on site to find out a bit more about the individual roles on site and what is required to get into the construction industry. The students all commented what a great day they’d had and how it had been so much more fun than they’d expected. Thanks to Darran, Tom, Laurie, Christian and John! The four students then had to put together a presentation on the industry they had learnt about and how it had inspired them. They presented to other students who had visited other industries at a presentation day at Woodeaton Manor School. The Kingerlee students carried out their presentation dressed in borrowed Kingerlee PPE!

Kingerlee Homes

IT Update

Roman Park, Droitwich Spa – part of the site is allocated for office development and with no interest, despite an active marketing campaign, we have asked the Council to agree to residential use. We are also talking to a major house builder about a possible ‘Joint Venture’ for the whole site. Bracken Hill, Bristol – at long last, the Planning Agreement is settled and our consent will be issued ‘without delay’. The Landscape Management & Ecology Plans have been agreed, Architects at DPDS are now onto the working drawings and other consultants have been appointed. Initial tree work has been completed and protective fencing is in place. And we now have some cashflow, having sold a couple of glass houses! Colburndale – a revised scheme with extra employment land has been submitted to the Council. A decision on the mixed use scheme, including 300 dwellings, is due on 7th April. Moseley, Birmingham – our planning application is with the Council who are now going through the usual consultations. It goes to their ‘Heritage Panel’ in early April and the Planning Committee during the following month for final decision. Brightwell-cum-Sotwell – our Planning Appeal was lodged at the end of March. Sutton Courtenay – the Vale of White Horse Council has granted us planning & listed building consents. The scheme, designed by Oxford Architects, was very well received, despite the inevitable local objections to any change. Their Architects’ Panel were fulsome in their praise for the design of the contemporary house, one of three new ones on the site. Lamarsh Road, Oxford – we’ve just exchanged contracts with SOHA for the construction of five affordable homes. The retail scheme for the adjacent site is now with the City Council and out for consultation.

Business Team Challenge

I.T. is making forward progress with the recent introduction of web based access to the Outlook e mail system, this coupled with a new spam filter will enable access to Kingerlee e mails from any location in the world!! We have also introduced a web based document sharing system on the Waddesdon project which enables the client and design team to up load information to the Kingerlee managed site. This has already provided significant benefits including the reduction of paper and immediate access for all members of the team to view, download or print off as required. The system is also assisting our surveying team in the tendering process with the speed and use of electronic tender enquiries…well on the way to a paperless office!! The Maplewood school team are trialing a Causeway surveying package and all Contracts Managers [and new sites] utilizing the recently installed Asta Power Project planning package. David and Chris are making a strong headway into IT support and the number of reported issues appear to have dramatically reduced. For any future IT issues please continue to contact Chris in the first instance on chris.jackson@kingerlee.co.uk or 07590 734358 if your PC isn’t working!! David Kingerlee is being assisted by an external consultant to finalize the necessary server changes and roll out remote access during April 09. It will then be possible for us to connect all new sites and enable them direct access to the server in Kidlington. We are currently reviewing and vetting possible software options for an integrated accounts and surveying package along with options for HR and payroll.

New Starters: We would like to welcome Richard Bull to the Joinery Division. Richard joined in January 2009. Leavers: Scott Keetley has left the Joinery Division, we wish him all the very best for the future. Congratulations! Congratulations to Tom and Laura Howdill who got married in Las Vegas in January 2009. Congratulations also go to Graham Franks who is the proud father of twins Amber (5lb 12oz) and Samuel (6lb 2oz) born on 28th February 2009. Mother and babies are doing very well, but poor Graham is not getting much sleep! On a recent shopping trip to Tesco staff took pity on Graham wandering around like a zombie and took his shopping list and helped him out! Good Luck! Good luck to Christian Perkins who is running the London Marathon in April to raise money for Spinal Research.

Five minutes on site... ...with Terry Hart Current Job Title: Site Manager Current Project: Headington School, Oxford How long have you been working in construction? I left school in 1963 and worked on a farm briefly before going into construction in 1964. Why did you go into construction? No reason in particular that I can remember! At that time there was so much choice. I went into Joinery initially. What was your first job in construction? It was for CJ Clarks Timber Merchants in Witney. I earned 13 pounds and 10 shillings per week! What’s the best thing about your current project? We have a really good relationship with the client and the architect which is great. I have been lucky enough to enjoy good relationships on almost all the projects I have worked on though. What's the best project you’ve ever worked on? Probably John Hampden School, though Shinfield was a really successful project too. Again, I’m lucky most of my projects have been really enjoyable. And the worst? I worked for a housing firm in Thame. It was a good job for me as I progressed to Site Manager level there but 8 years of building 50 houses per year and dealing with the customers was really tough. It got quite crazy at times. What is your funniest or most memorable moment in construction? I once saw an Architect jump into the footings not realising the concrete was fresh! The groundworker shouted just as he was about to jump but it was too late. It went right up over his wellies and he had to be pulled out. His wellies remain in there to this day! Who makes the best tea on your current site? Me! I make my own! Sam Brown makes a good cuppa when he remembers, but I prefer it when he buys me breakfast!

And Finally…. News in Pictures Pictures of the work at St John’s College in central Oxford. Taken from the man-cage at the top of the tower crane on a very windy day by Tom Baldwin and Christian Perkins!

Staff News