news
David Mortimer MD of CS Williams limited celebrates with Tom Haprer after scooping the Heritage Award at the Constructing Excellence National Awards in London on Frday 25th Nov. We congratulate CS Williams for a job well done at the Tyntesfield House Conservation project
Other SW companies and projects were also short listed and will be available on the National Constructing Excellence website soon.
Bristol’s attractiveness as a good place to set up and run a business is highlighted in the new edition of the Bristol Business Guide.
The guide gives details of over 5,000 Bristol companies and promotes the goods and services they provide. It also sets out the advantages Bristol has to offer to prospective national and international companies wishing to do business or invest in the city. Local construction companies are strongly featured.
UK BIM strategy has been launched. See the Constructing Excellence response to the strategy and the strategy download here is here: http://www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/news/article.jsp?id=11787. Adopting an industry-wide BIM process is likely to reveal a significant learning gap in many companies with people left wondering how to implement this into their own practice. In response CE South West and ARCOM, ICE, RIBA, UWE and CIOB organised a successful seminar designed to promote a deeper understanding of the impacts of BIM on your businesses and supply chain organisations.Delegates had the opportunity to voice their views on how a BIM may affect organisation and the preparation for smooth progression towards BIM adoption and use.
For more information click here.
Supported By 
We have been busy helping Climate South West create a CPD film to support construction industry professional in adapting to the impacts of extreme weather and climate change. It includes interviews with expert speakers and features case studies covering homes, commercial buildings and new developments. We will be officially launching the DVD at a conference featuring all the participants from the DVD who give more in-depth presentations on their case studies featured in the film. There will also be an opportunity to quiz the expert panel on adaptation issues all delegates will be given a free copy of the DVD.
 |  |
The conference will take place at Arup, Bristol on the 14th September 2011. Please click here for more information.
Editorial
CESW FF Director Tom Harper writes:
Are we up for the challenge ?
The Government Construction Strategy has been launched. If you have not read it you should. http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/government-construction-strategy.
It challenges client and industry alike to ‘up their game’. To quote “The strategy represents a challenging change programme which will need significant co-ordination and engagement with Government and industry stakeholders.”
We have recently held a conference on Building Information Modelling which is identified as a key goal in the strategy ( page 13 ) See report below. We also propose to maintain this momentum with further events and guidance related to the strategy.
Here at CESW and Future Foundations we regularly punch well above our weight and I am particularly proud of our regional SMEs who worked in partnership with us to call a national conference on improvement in that sector – see the involvement of Paul Morrell below.
Finally I want to say a big thank you to all who sponsored our awards this year and to everyone who came along to make a great evening. Congratulations to our winners and all who were shortlisted.
Constructing Excellence South West is proud to be partnering with the National Refurbishment Centre to support the practical delivery of green refurbishment and retrofit, based on evidence gathered from a network of up to 500 refurbishment exemplars.
The National Refurbishment Centre is using performance data held in the largest database of its kind to help industry take an evidence-based approach to delivering mass sustainable refurbishment in the UK.
The National Refurbishment Centre aims to become the evidence hub for sustainable refurbishment and to foster a more joined-up approach to delivering it on a nationwide scale.
To find out more visit www.rethinkingrefurbishment.com
QualityReviewer by HCA:The HCA’s approved practical method for appraising the design quality of development proposals and planning applications.
QUALITYREVIEWER is for everyone involved in the planning and development process: planners, councillors,clients, developers, planning applicants, communities and anyone who helps to shape places and influence design quality. They can help set an effective project brief, steer dialogue about projects, assess design quality based around acknowledged criteria and influence the eventual design quality of the places we shape. It helps us think about design, ask the right questions,obtain the right information/ drawings and challenge projects through informed inquiry. For more info click here.
The LABC Initiative
CESW is co-ordinating Low carbon refurb and H&S Training for local small construction companies. The low carbon agenda for the existing housing stock is a major new business opportunity for the local builder and this is a top briefing from key organisations in the industry. CESW and regional partners LABC, BRE, HSE, and Bradfords are pioneering this in tandem with the NRC initiative.
This will take the form of a a once a year up-date / yearly dated ‘I’ve been up-dated’ sticker for the back of the van.
Training starts in Exeter 1st Feb 2011 Matford Centre and proceeds to Bodmin 16th Feb 2011 Dragon Centre. Further events will follow in Dorset 22nd March, Taunton 5th April, Swindon 10th May, Bristol 19th May, Gloucestershire 16th June.
It will not stop in this region – plans are in place for it to go national. Invitations will be issued via Building Control Surveyors shortly.
Training is free and will include a Building regs up-date on what you need to know to comply, a health and safety quiz and up-date, and news of the cutting edge studies on the BRE Victorian Terrace and new sustainable materials being developed. Further booking details will be published on our website before Christmas.
The South West leads the country at the National CE Awards
The winners of the National Constructing Excellence Awards were announced on Friday 19th November 2010 at The Grand Connaught Rooms in London. We are very proud to be able to report that the South West Region scored better than all other regions.
Our very special congratulations are extended to 3 South West based outright winners -
- Andrew Jarvis of the CE Regional Executive and Gloucestershire Best Practice Club as winner of the Achievers Award
- C G Pitcher & Son Limited Dorset and Dorset Best Practice Club winner of the SME Award
- Stubbs Rich Architects- Komedia, Westgate Street, Bath - Heritage Project of the Year Award
and the Highly Commended entries from around the region
- Kier Moss - with Gloucestershire County Council for Health and Safety,
- ModCell - BaleHaus at Bath for Innovation.
The full list of winners are found on our awards page and at the national website of CE www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/news
The photo above shows Stuart Pratt and Alan Wooldridge from Kier Moss, Neil Corbett and Kirk Gardiner from Gloucestershire County Council, and Andrew Jarvis.
2011 AWARDS APPLICATION DATES
The Award application forms will be available from our website on 10th January 2011 or shortly after.
The entry deadline will be given on the application - the current provisional date is 14th March 2011
The Regional Award event will be on 24th June 2011
Award categories will be as last year. See www.buildsw.org.uk/winners for more details.
.jpg)