Construction Industry News Archive
Welcome to the news archive page. This is where you will find articles from May 2006. If you would like to view our current news, please click here.
- King Alfred team to think again
- Groundhog Day on road to regeneration
- Nautical look to flats on seafront
- £100m Circus Street project promises to be class act
- Factory makes way for flats
- Construction industry in recruit drive
King Alfred team to think again
A multi-million pound seafront scheme by a world-renowned architect will have to be redesigned, say councillors.
A meeting of the King Alfred Project Board at Brighton and Hove City Council ended with members recommending to the Policy and Resources Committee that it asks Karis to come back with a new application.
The board met last night to discuss the rejection of the existing scheme by English Heritage and Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.
Deputy leader of the council, Sue John, said: "Karis are having ongoing discussions with their partners and we will have to wait and see what they come back with."
Leader of the opposition Garry Peltzer-Dunn said: "It is quite inconceivable that the scheme would get planning permission without the approval of CABE and English Heritage."
Coun Bill Randall said: "We are still committed to the scheme but there are serious doubts."
Karis spokeswoman Heather Jones said: "We are still confident in the overall scheme."
From The Argus, 11th May 2006
Groundhog Day on road to regeneration
What is regeneration? Making your street a nicer place to live in? Improving your arts institutions?
Or bringing bigger business to the city to create more jobs? It seems those involved in this bureaucratic beast are not always sure themselves.
Look around the city and there are few places which have not been touched by the hand of the Brighton and Hove Regeneration Partnership.
During its ten years of dishing out Government money to revive the area, it funded everything from the refurbishment of The Dome to giving criminals a second chance to train and become gainfully employed.
The partnership had a finger in almost every pie throughout the city. Around 150 projects were funded, with the partnership giving £41m directly and generating another £90m - a grand total of £131m.
Lord Lieutenant Peter Field was on the board of the partnership. He said: "If we look behind lots of things that have gone on in the past ten years you'll see the hand of the Regeneration Partnership in there.
"We looked at the best interests of the city."
It started off ten years ago working on the traditional big projects.
Over the years these have included Westergate House, a £2m business centre using cutting edge eco-friendly building technology, Preston Barracks which is being developed into 400 homes and 20,000 sq m of business space on Lewes Road, and The Dome, where £5m of partnership money was spent.
At the beginning, regeneration was all big capital projects and pro-business planning.
The partnership was run by councillors and the discussions about where to spend the money had a stale and formal air to them.
Then there was a sea change in feeling as a greater variety of key community members joined the debate.
Overnight the kind of discussions held about regeneration changed.
The focus was less about economic regeneration and more about social regeneration - less about attracting people to the city, and more about improving the area for residents.
Community and Voluntary Sector groups were given two places on the decision-making board which gave the discussions a completely different skew. Nick Dodds, who runs The Dome and Brighton Festival, defends the money which is spent on big cultural projects.
He said: "In the four years since we reopened we've held 4,000 events. It was almost unusable before. The Dome and the Brighton Festival have an enormous impact on the city in all sorts of ways.
"The festival alone brings in £20m to the city economy and the Dome has improved this whole area. But in terms of social regeneration, one in six city households come to an event throughout the year. I think it's wrong to compare one to the other. We need regeneration in the city centre as well as the suburbs."
But Anna Wilson-Patterson, who heads up the Community and Voluntary Sector Forum, said: "We were arguing that Brighton and Hove is awarded such big funds because of the statistics of deprivation, so the money should focus on that area.
"Getting us involved increased our understanding of how business and the council works and they saw the contribution the community groups can make which can't be measured in cash terms."
In the fifth stage of Regeneration Partnership funding, a huge survey of the city was completed.
Mr Field said: "We did a massive survey of the city to find out where all the problems are, and spoke to all the hard-to-reach people. Then we spent money on what they told us they needed in the next round of funding."
By asking people what they really wanted to improve their standard of living in the more deprived communities, the funding started being spent in entirely new directions.
Money was spent in three areas: Capacity Building, Community Safety and Lifelong Learning.
Capacity Building included the setting up of The Working Together Project, a scheme training and advising community groups and The Resource Centre, providing those same groups with equipment and services.
Community safety projects included What Next? which trained ex-prisoners for a new life away from crime and other important projects such as the Women's Refuge.
Lifelong learning gave those in areas of greater deprivation a feeling of renewed hope through increasing skills with The Family Learning Programme and Brighton and Hove Albion's study support centres.
But the fact that the partnership has now finished is absolutely no indication that its work is done.
Mr Field said the main areas for concern are now the London Road and Lewes Road areas and transport in the city.
He said: "Transport is a big challenge and a big issue for people who live here. Let's get the balance of the city right. Someone said to me 'if you have got healthy back streets you'll have healthy high streets' and I agree.
"If we can use the Open Market as a catalyst for the London Road area with healthy living, arts and crafts, performance areas and Dieppe markets, we could have something that will attract others into the area."
He also believes regeneration is not all about bringing new business into the city.
He said: "Inward investment is fine but if Amex decided to go tomorrow that would be our major employer out the window.
"Small and medium enterprises are 96 per cent of the economy. We need to get home-grown business sorted out, be less reliant on others and develop our own."
Meanwhile, the Regeneration Partnership has been replaced by something called the Area Investment Framework which is a pool of far less money putting the spotlight back on economic regeneration rather than correcting social deprivation.
Social regeneration has been left to a host of other initiatives - and this is where it gets complicated. Wading through the quicksand of bureaucracy surrounding social regeneration requires a scientific mind.
Initiatives involved in Brighton and Hove include the New Deal for Communities, eb4u, Sure Start, Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, Local Strategic Partnership aka the 2020 Community Partnership and now the Local Area Agreement.
The Local Area Agreement was sent to be the saviour of this plethora of schemes. It is supposed to combine every other initiative into a coherent framework which breaks up regeneration into Children and Young People, Safer and Stronger Communities, Health and Older People and, linked to these, Economic Development and Enterprise.
The focus is on a holistic approach, making sure that regeneration is a sensible combination of social and economic.
Sounds familiar? It does to those working in the field. For them the whole scheme has a whiff of Groundhog Day about it.
This is exactly what The Brighton and Hove Regeneration Partnership evolved into - so why the need to constantly reinvent the wheel? It is a great source of frustration for those involved.
Julia Reddaway, Regeneration and Renewal Manager at Brighton and Hove City Council, said: "Things are not given long enough to bed in, there's a new initiative about every two years and it's like digging a hole and filling it in again.
It's demoralising, and things are expected to be done in unrealistic times. They want things set up in months and it takes years."
Anna Wilson-Patterson said: "We've come full circle. It takes about five years for a partnership to really ensure that all of the people around the table fully understand all the issues. We brought together people with hugely different beliefs to decide what the point of regeneration is and what the focus should be."
Paul Bramwell, of The Working Together Project, said: "The Regeneration Partnership in the beginning had its difficulties as all new partnerships do and a lot of people put a lot of effort in to make it work.
"It could have morphed into the new partnership - this is just unhelpful. Most people don't respond to change very well."
Whereas The Working Together Project once filled out three funding applications, they now need 12. For each form to be filled out properly and guarantee them a successful application, it takes an average of two weeks of full-time work to complete.
That is 24 weeks of work instead of the previous six. It is not all negative news for regeneration in the city, however. The new agreement does have a strong vein of common sense.
There is a real recognition of the way that education links into health and crime. Poor education equates every time to poorer health levels and higher crime rates and this means improvement require greater integration between the council, the police and community groups.
From The Argus, 11th May 2006
Nautical look to flats on seafront
A multi-million pound revamp of Worthing has moved a vital step closer after developers unveiled plans for a prime seafront site.
Builders want to construct 107 flats, ten houses and a health centre, all served by 200 car spaces, on land at the junction of Sea Place and Eirene Road, Goring.
The £20 million scheme, submitted by Bellwinch Homes Ltd, includes the relocation of the yacht club to the west of its present site, where the boat compound is currently situated.
Roger Page, managing director of Bellwinch, said: "With a fair wind we would certainly like to make a start later this year or in the early part of next year."
Within the next fortnight, Worthing Borough Council is also expecting a planning application for the £100 million redevelopment of Teville Gate, near the main railway station.
The proposals include two high-rise glass-fronted apartment blocks, a swimming pool, multi-screen cinema, tenpin bowling alley, shops and restaurants.
James Appleton, the council's assistant director of planning, said the developers of Sea Place/Eirene Road were looking to construct a modern and innovative scheme which reflected seaside architecture.
Talks on the detailed design were taking place but the initial layout showed a development in the shape of two ships' bows pointing out to sea, wrapped around an internal courtyard.
Mr Appleton said: "It will be interesting to see what the local reaction is to that."
The flats would be in two, three and four-storey blocks on a vacant site formerly occupied by a windsurfing centre based in a long wooden hut which was knocked down more than five years ago.
The health centre, possibly replacing a surgery in Sea Lane, would cover 570sq metres and have a small number of specially designated parking spaces.
Money from Bellwinch might be used to fund a children's playground on Goring greensward, an idea which has split the community.
Mr Appleton said an application for Teville Gate was expected within a fortnight.
A masterplan for the future development of Worthing is expected to be published in June.
The council has already unveiled plans to knock down the Grafton multistorey car park, regarded as the biggest eyesore on the seafront, opposite the Lido, and turn it into a shops and flats complex.
Meanwhile, the £2.2 million restoration of the Edwardian Dome cinema is expected to be finished in August.
And workmen are putting the finishing touches to 72 luxury flats which are being constructed on the former site of the Warnes Hotel, near Splash Point.
From The Argus, 4th May 2006
£100m Circus Street project promises to be class act
An ultra-green £100 million development on the site of an old fruit and veg market has been given the go-ahead.
Brighton and Hove City Council has chosen the Kent-based Cathedral Group to develop the area in Circus Street, Kemp Town.
It plans to transform the rundown site into a zero-carbon complex dubbed Grow Brighton which will yield 620 jobs and 180 homes and is predicted to bring up to half a billion pounds into the city over the next ten years.
A community wind turbine, roofs covered in plants, rain water collection and irrigation and a solar power plant to provide heat and energy will form a major part of the scheme.
It will also feature facilities for recycling household waste.
Cathedral's plans contain flats, offices, space for the creative industries, a new university library, a public piazza and performance space and new studios for the South East Dance agency.
Cathedral's chief executive Richard Upton said: "We're thrilled to have been chosen to develop this important area of Brighton ñ a city with a unique character, a reputation for creativity and an unmistakable soul. Key to our proposals is a desire to create a new sustainable quarter, both ecologically and economically.
"This means we'll be supporting growth of local business through an enterprise hub and involving the community in our plans."
Scott Marshall, assistant director of economic development and regeneration at the council, said: "We selected Cathedral because they not only present a well-thought-out and exciting scheme but also demonstrated passion, energy and commitment for the project as well as the local community."
The scheme is being designed by ARUP, one of the world's leading sustainability engineering companies, and the award winning John McAslan architects, who designed the new De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill.
ARUP is creating a string of the world's first "eco-cities" in China.
Work is due to start on the Brighton project in March 2007 and be completed in 2009.
From The Argus, 3rd May 2006
Factory makes way for flats
A disused refrigerator factory is to be demolished and replaced with a four-storey block of affordable housing.
Brighton and Hove City Council has approved plans to knock the down the former Toomeys building in Roedale Road, Brighton, and build a new development of 21 flats and houses, all of which would be managed by Southern Housing Group.
The factory, which scaled down its operations in 2004 and shut last July, had been marketed on the city council's website for four months and viewed by more than 20 businesses but no potential buyers had been found.
A planning report said refurbishing the factory, used as a laundry in the Fifties, could cost almost £1 million and the site was no longer suitable for industrial use.
Councillors agreed the plans on Wednesday on the condition a car club is set up and membership for two people from each of the flats or houses is paid for two years. They also said developers should put £92,000 towards the provision of school places in the city and a further £40,000 should be spent providing an outdoor recreation space.
The development will be split into a two-storey block of seven three and four-bedroom units and a four-storey block of seven one and two-bedroom flats. Each will have its own balcony, terrace or garden and space for recycling boxes. Two disabled parking spaces and 28 cycle spaces will be built.
Neighbours raised fears over parking. Others said the proposed design would not fit in with the Victorian architecture of surrounding properties.
Councillor Les Hamilton, chairman of the planning committee, said: "This development makes maximum use of the site, will provide some much needed affordable housing for the city and offers a good mix of one to four bedroom homes.
From The Argus, 28th April 2006
Construction industry in recruit drive
A massive advertising campaign has been launched to entice 40,000 young people across the South East to join the construction industry.
ConstructionSkills, the skills council for the construction industry, has spent £1 million on television adverts as part of a one-year recruitment drive.
The ads emphasise the role young women can play in the building trade, following claims from teenagers that out-dated careers advice was letting them down.
They will show youngsters how they can "make their mark" in the industry by highlighting iconic buildings like the GLA in London and the "armadillo" SECC building in Glasgow.
The 2012 Olympic Games has guaranteed a construction boom in East London over the next ten years - but could heap pressure on building projects outside the capital.
There is approximately £2 billion-worth of building work in the pipeline for Brighton and Hove over the next decade but a shortage of skilled workers to see it through.
There are fears the Olympics will soak up much of the labour available.
Getting more women into the industry could help solve the problem.
ConstructionSkills research has found that young women feel let down by the careers advice they receive, saying that they are being put off traditionally male dominated industries.
Over two thirds of the 2,400 11 to 18-year-old girls questioned said that they felt there was a gender bias, despite the girls themselves being keen to break gender stereotypes.
Paul Sykes, recruitment manager for ConstructionSkills said: "There are job opportunities for almost 40,000 new construction recruits in the South East in the next three years to work on major projects including Pinewood Studios, a hotel, leisure and retail complex in Brighton, a retail development in Newbury and redevelopment works in Portsmouth and High Wycombe town centres.
Our evidence shows that young women want to work in our industry - applications are up, numbers applying to university and vocational courses are up - but that careers advice is not in step with the modern industry or the aspirations of young women themselves.
"As an industry, we are taking the step of getting directly to young women to show them the range of amazing jobs on offer. And we would encourage advisers to rethink their attitude to careers in construction."
From The Argus, 11th April 2006
