Urban Vision Staff lend a helping hand to St Anne's Hospice

Eight members of our Urban Vision team in Salford took part in a gardening project at St Ann’s Hospice recently.

The hospice – Urban Vision’s chosen charity for 2009 – is the largest hospice in Greater Manchester and provides specialist care for people who have progressive and life-threatening illnesses – as well as support for their carers and families.

With summer approaching, the aim of the day was to dramatically improve the gardens and outdoor break areas for the patients and their families. A couple of hours of mowing, digging and planting transformed the hospice’s surroundings, much to the delight of Andy, the hospice’s caretaker!

The volunteers insisted that they’ll be back again next year with their gardening gloves and spades in tow.

Back row: Paul Clayden, Cathy Mitchell, Toni Bullen, Stephen Lawton.
Front row: Amanda Cordina, Hayley Watson.

Links:

• Go to the St Anne's Hospice Website
• Find out more about Urban Vision
• Go to the Urban Vision website

New edition of Renewal

Just to let you all know, the latest version of our update magazine Renewal is now online.

Click on the front cover, below, to open:

In this edition: News, school security, M6 Extension, the green economy, Shuttleworth College, Hoddinott Hall, urban trees

Mountian Bike Trail Design Service Launched

We like a bit of variety here at Capita Symonds, especially when it comes to the services we offer. And now we have even more exciting expertise to offer!

Our Countryside Management team has just launched a new service - designing mountain bike trails, in conjunction with internationally renowned mountain bike course sculptor Phil Saxena and specialist contractor Dinsdale Moorland services.

Links:

• Find out more about the new service
• 'Meet' Phil Saxena

Video:

Watch riders in action on the Phil Saxena designed Pietermaritzburg course in South Africa

Success for Capita Symonds at the 2009 Microsoft Challenge.

2 teams from Capita Symonds took part in this years Microsoft Challenge. The challenge is one of the UK’s most gruelling corporate events and this year was held in the Cambrian mountains near Aberystwyth, Wales.

Our teams, lead by Tom Davies and John Kinnear from the East Grinstead office, finished 21st and 27th out of 93 teams. The teams were drawn from across the business with individuals from Procter Street, Fetter Lane, Carlisle, Sefton, Blackburn, Cheadle Hulme and Manchester.

The challenge involved 8 stages spread over 4 days and nights including mountain biking, pentango (a strategic board game), running, canoeing and constructing a device to retrieve an egg from behind a barrier 8 ft away! All of the stages were extremely complex and required a great deal of planning and strategic thinking in addition to the physical element in order to score well.

As part of the challenge teams had to raise money for the NSPCC and between our teams we managed to raise a total of over £3,400 for the charity through a combination of personal sponsorship, selling raffle tickets and matched funding from Capita Group. The grand total for the event was more than £435,000 for the NSPCC, resulting in an emotional speech of thanks from Sir Christopher Kelly (chairman of the NSPCC) at the prize giving ceremony.

Our MD (and team member) Jonathan Goring commented on the event that:
“The bond of teamwork was immense and the way everyone supported others before themselves drove us all to find new reserves. Thanks to all of the team members for making us all proud ”

The teams would like to thank all their colleagues, family and friends for their generous encouragement and support in helping them work towards their fundraising target for NSPCC.

We are planning to enter more adventure races and other outdoor events throughout the year and all Capita Symonds staff are welcome to join the fun. Our ambition is to send both a mens and a mixed team to next year’s Microsoft Challenge event in Aviemore, Scotland.

A BIG THANKS to everyone who took part and everyone who donated!

You can still make a donation - go to www.justgiving.com/teamcapitasymonds

Have a look at the photos:

Photos from the Microsoft Challenge

View more OpenOffice presentations from CapitaSymonds.

Capita Symonds works on Take That's stage set

We've worked on some really interesting and varied projects recently.

And they don't get much more exciting than helping to create the stage set for a massive arena tour! We provided structural engineering advice on the stage sets for the Take That's current 'Circus' tour which opened in Sunderland.

Director Malcolm Richards worked closely with set builders Brilliant Stages and artistic designer Mark Fisher.

The action-packed show features jugglers, clowns, trapeze artists, tightrope walkers and drummerboys and a huge red big top tent. The pièce de résistance is a huge silver elephant which carries the boys (or should we call them men now?!) across the stage.

The tour continues with dates in Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and London. See Take That's website for more details.

The team also provided structural engineering advice for AC/DC's 'Black Ice' tour, which has dates in London, Glasgow and Dublin this month.

Find out more:

A full article, including an interview with Malcolm Richards can be found in this week's Building Magazine (issue 23 - 12.06.09)

Links:

• Read more on Building's website (the article mentioned above, minus the interview with Malcolm Richards)
• Look at pictures from the tour on Flickr
• Watch clips of the stage show on YouTube
• Go to Take That's official website
• Got to the Careers in Engineering supplement of The Telegraph - featuring Malcolm Richards, and the AC/DC tour
• See the AC/DC tour dates

Have a look at the elephant in action:

Health and Safety Don'ts

We all know Health and Safety is something to be taken very seriously in the workplace and on-site. So check out these photos on how NOT to do it:

Go to Construction Space's Rogues Gallery

Please don't attempt any of these!

PS - we can offer excellent Health and Safety training as well as Leisure and Event safety Consultancy. (And you are ever unfortunately enough to suffer an accident, we offer a Health and Safety Expert Witness service.)

Teams complete COINS 3 Peaks Challenge

Two teams from Capita Symonds’ recently took part (with 40 other teams) in the 'COINS 3 Peaks Challenge’ raising a total of £16,000.

Our teams were made up from memebers of the Church Village Bypass Construction Partnership. Capita Symonds’ Glamorgan office is providing client support, project management (in accordance with NEC 3) and site supervisor duties on the £90m Church Village scheme. They work alongside the project’s contractor Costain and designer Atkins.

The annual COINS 3 Peaks challenge sees teams of four walkers and two drivers climb the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales in just 24 hours. The event begins at Ben Nevis in the Scottish Highlands, moving to Scafell Pike in the Lake District, and ends at the foot of Snowdon in North Wales.

All funds raised go to projects supported by the COINS foundation which builds schools, hospitals and homes in areas of greatest poverty and need.

Liane Sheppard, Director of the Glamorgan office says: “The integrated team on the Church Village Bypass is an excellent example of partnership working to deliver what is a highly complex project. Events such as the COINS 3 Peaks Challenge really help us develop these key relationships even further.”

• Got to the the COINS 3 Peaks Challenge Website
  
• Read the COINS 3 Peaks Challenge Blog
  
• View the finish line photos

Liane Sheppard - a role model for women in the construction industry.

Liane Sheppard, Director of our Glamorgan partnership, has been recognised as a role model for women in the construction industry by ConstructionSkills Wales (the skills council for the construction industry).

At a recent awards ceremony Liane was praised for her role in running the Glamorgan partnership, her work in forging links with the local business community, and the key part she plays in the ICE and ConstructionSkills Construction Ambassador programme which aims to encourage more young people to consider a career in the industry. She is also chairwoman of the Ace Wales Progress Network and secretary for the Wales ICE executive committee. And has a black belt in karate! (So a very busy lady indeed!)

Wyn Prichard, director of ConstructionSkills Wales, said: “Women continue to be under-represented in both the craft and professional sectors of the Welsh construction industry, so it is great to be able to celebrate the success of women such as Liane. She is a credit to the industry and her commitment to the development and the future of construction is also highly commendable.”

Welsh Assembly Member Christine Chapman said: “If we are to break down the barriers and dispel the myth that construction is a male-only profession, it is women like Liane who will act as important ambassadors and role models, for those young women who wish to enter the industry. Their input is essential if we are to fill the skills gap and get the economy moving again.”

A massive "well done" Liane (again!)

Links:

• Institute of Civil Engineers
• ConstructionSkills
• ACE