Merchants' Academy opens in Bristol

Merchants' Academy, a state of the art new school in Bristol, is now open for business.



A team from Capita Symonds’ Bristol office - led by Regional Director John Wormald – provided project management services on the Academy which will cater for 1500 students aged between 11 and 18.

Find out more about Capita Symonds involvement in Merchants' Academy

Go to the Marchants' Academy Website

Ken Dodd opens Southport's Lord Street

The £4m refurbishment to Southport's famous Lord Street shopping boulevard is now complete.

To celebrate the occasion local legend Ken Dodd was present to unveil a commemorative plaque.

A Team from Capita Symonds designed, supervised and project managed the redevelopment on behalf of Sefton Council’s Planning Department.

Find out More about the Lord Street redevelopment project




The video below is from the Liverpool Daily Post (courtesy of Sefton Borough Council):

A shining example

Ritchie Clapson, Managing Director of Capita Bobrowski, and Malcolm Richards – Director in Capita Bobrowski's Southampton office - are taking part the annual Lighthouse Run from John O’Groats to London this Sunday and Monday.

Now in its fourth year, the Lighthouse Run is a motoring race that sees teams driving over 1,500 miles while undertaking a variety of fiendish tasks and changes of route.

The event - a firm fixture in the Construction Industry calendar – raises funds for the Lighthouse Club Benevolent Fund which provides direct, practical, and financial assistance to construction workers and their families in time of need.

Over the past three years the race has raised well over £100,000 for the Benevolent Fund and is aiming to raise a further £50,000 at this year's event.

Good luck!

Find out more about the Lighthouse Run (and maybe even join in!)

Capita Symonds aquired Structural and Civil Engineering firm NRM Bobrowski in April 2008 to form Capita Bobrowski. Find out more about the acquisition or find out more about Capita Bobrowski

Jumping for joy

Three members of Capita Symonds’ Blackburn office have raised more than £1,400 for Macmillan Cancer Support with a sponsored skydive.

Andy Archer, Dave Richardson and Martin Haydock completed the 14,000 ft dive near Lancaster.

Well done boys!

See how they got on:

Fish out of troubled water

Capita Symonds Aquatic Resource Management (ARM) team have finished work on a project to repair one of Mid Wales’ most important tourist attractions.

The team, led by Project Manager Will Kennedy, provided preliminary design, project specification, and contractual services as part of the programme to restore the ecological balance of the water at Llandrindod Lake in Powys.

The high profile project, carried out on behalf of Powys County Council (PCC), was a result of a major ecological incident in 2006 which resulted in the death of thousands of fish.

As part of the work Capita Symonds undertook the preliminary design of major embankment enhancements utilising materials dredged from the lake, as well as planting a variety of native marginal plant species (not to mention liaising with multiple stakeholders to ensure that the work met the requirements of all parties). The team also assisted with the procurement of a specialist contractor in line with the constrained budget of the council.

Find out more about our Aquatic Resource Management Team

See what we did in the video:

Charity drive

Another story from Capita's 'Charity Week' activities.......

Capita Symonds and Capita Bobrowski managed to raise a total of £6,300 for Macmillan Cancer Support by holding a client drinks reception, including scalextric competition.

Thanks go to Cordek, Philips Lighting, Flaktwoods and Condek for sponsoring the F1 scalextric cars (this alone raised £1,000 for the charity) and to everyone for their kind support and donations.

Capita Symonds & ICE Safety Lecture 08

The 17th annual Capita Symonds & ICE Safety Lecture lecture took place yesterday (22nd October) in London

This year's guest speaker was Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, John Armitt. John presented his paper entitled "Combining Safety, Health and Environment - have we succeeded?"

Find out more about the lecture and view the transcript

NB: Further write-ups to follow.

Urban Vision saves the day for Rugby Club

Urban Vision stepped in to help Eccles & Salford Juniors Rugby League club after the team’s goal posts were sawn in half by vandals.

The timber posts were donated around 20 years ago – and were thought to be amongst the tallest in the UK.

Urban Vision paid for the replacement posts which were installed in time for the first game of the new season – a 20-18 victory over Waterhead from Oldham.

The posts feature Urban Vision branding on the post protector pads and, as a special thank you, the club has also added the company’s logo to the team’s shirts.

Alfrieda Kindon, secretary of Eccles & Salford Juniors said: “Club members were devastated at the destruction of the posts, which were historically important within rugby league, simply for their sheer scale. We are very grateful to Urban Vision for stepping in to provide us with new posts and we’re looking forward to them having just as long an association with the club as their predecessors.”

Professional rugby league player Adrian Morley - who once played for Eccles ARL - also visited the ground prior to flying out to Australia with the England team for the forthcoming Rugby League World Cup. He said: “It's such a shame what happened to the rugby posts, Urban Vision's magnificent gesture is a great support for the club”.

Bill Taylor, managing director of Urban Vision added: “As a local company heavily involved in the top ranks of rugby league through our work with Salford Reds we were very happy to get involved at grass roots level by providing Eccles & Salford Juniors with the new posts.”

Urban Vision Urban Vision is a ground breaking multi-disciplinary organisation, formed as a joint venture between Salford City Council, Capita Symonds and Morrison Highways Maintenance. Find out more about Urban Vision

The show must go on

Don't forget to remember the sparkle....

Games of conkers banned in schools ... litter bins removed for attracting wasps ... hundreds of trees cut down for fear of falling branches ... pantomime stars banned from throwing sweets into audiences ... cross country runs seen as too dangerous ... ‘outdoor’ pursuits for children banned ... pancake runs squashed... and Santa Claus in a shopping centre made to wear a body harness in his 5mph sleigh ...

Many ‘Health & Safety’ stories in the tabloids are apocryphal but there is no doubt that in recent years we have seen the growth of a risk adverse society. The madness may be under threat from Gordon Brown’s new risk assessment watchdog (The Risk and Regulation Advisory Council) - but I sometimes wonder “How did we get here?”

Having worked in entertainment and leisure safety for many years I can honestly say that some of the events I attend nowadays are, quite frankly, boring. Events are supposed to be exciting, stimulating and fun. The public now, more often than not, wish to participate rather than watch, to push the boat out, seek a buzz, an adrenalin rush …but a serous paranoia has gripped event organizers, leading to many cancellations and/or curtailment of activities.

Admittedly, this paranoia is sometimes understandable as it’s a direct result of successful compensation claims by the public fuelled by over zealous legal eagles and a lack of risk management protocols. For example, the public have been successful in even the most bizarre claims for compensation - climbing over a perimeter fence and falling down a rabbit hole being one of my particular favourites! Nevertheless, this cotton wool culture is seriously destroying the event industry’s spirit of adventure, fun, enjoyment, fulfilment and excitement. It’s time to put things into perspective and actually get to grips with certain issues.

We need a better understanding of the law and, in particular, risk assessments. Health & Safety legislation requires employers to ensure that work places/activities are safe - including events. Of course, risk assessment of the activities must be carried out to deal with significant hazards and appropriate control measures must be put in place. However, only reasonable foreseeable significant hazards are to be considered and reasonably practicable control measures put in place - based on potential likelihood and severity. It’s basically commonsense and recognises you cannot, or indeed be expected to, guarantee an event is 101% safe.

Proper risk assessments by competent persons can achieve good legal safety precautions for almost any activity. An innovative, practical, pragmatic problem solving, creative approach to hazard control can be very rewarding - resulting in more exciting, stimulating, challenging events with new diverse, unorthodox, ‘dangerous’ activities accommodated. Paranoid over zealous, nit picking, paper producing processes do nothing of any value. Properly thought out safety procedures that are put into practice on the day need to be appropriate but not stifling. Risk has to be managed, but it cannot always be removed - and nor should it.

We need to put on a show, to entertain and thrill crowds. With risk assessments and skilled, creative, event Health & Safety officials we can still put on shows of which Barnum himself would have been proud.

Richard Limb, Director of Capita Symonds’ Leisure and Event Safety team

Links:

• Find out more about Capita Symonds' Leisure and Event Safety Team
• Enroll on the Diploma in Events Safety Management developed by Derby University and Capita Symonds
• What to know what's true and what's myth in the world of health and safety? Have a look at the Myth of the Month page on the Health & Safety Executive website

Capita Symonds comes 6th in Top Consultancy list

Capita Symonds has been listed 6th in Building Magazine's Top 250 Consultancies list. Capita Architecture also came 6th in the Top 100 Architects list.

We are also listed as 7th in the Top 100 Fee Earners list

See full article and results in Building Magazine

Award for Street Lighting discussion paper

David Denner (Asset Manager in our Cwmbran office) has won an award from the Institution of Lighting Engineers (ILE) for Best Regional Paper 2008.

David's paper, "Street Lighting: An Engineer’s Perspective", discussed the evolving role of street lighting engineers in helping to maintain safe public highways in the face of ever decreasing budgets, greater demands from the community, increasing energy costs and changes in legislation.

Until recently, David was the Street Lighting Engineer at Caerphilly County Borough Council, responsible for the day to day management of the street lighting group. He has 18 years experience within the public sector, working for various local highway authorities in South Wales.

David has also been instrumental in the co-ordination of the energy tender for the South Wales consortium - which consists of all the Unitary Authorities in South Wales involved in the procurement of street lighting energy - along with the management of the consortium's photo cell array and associated software.

Well done David.

New Appointment for Acoustics Team

Our Acoustics team has just appointed Susan Witterick as Senior Acoustic Consultant.

Susan joins from Applied Acoustic Design and has over 10 years’ experience covering a variety of acoustical disciplines and project types.

She has recently specialised in acoustical design for offices and schools and also has significant experience in HVAC noise control - recently designing teaching, recording and performance spaces at the Cork School of Music.

Susan has also worked extensively on environmental noise projects including the Eastern Quarry development in Kent, the M50 Motorway Widening and Expansion in Dublin, and transportation noise issues at Los Angeles International Airport and The Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Dr Rukhsana Adam, Director of Acoustics & Air Quality, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Susan to the team – her experience in large architectural and environmental schemes will help us build both our internal client base within our Design and Infrastructure divisions and external clients such as Balfour Beatty and Kier.”

As well as her acoustic expertise Susan has a keen interest in Cornish history and genealogy, and has an MA in Cornish Studies.

Find out more about our Capita Symonds' Acoustics services and Projects

Capita Symonds on TV

Capita Symonds hit the small screen this weekend in a programme entitled "Careers in the Environmental Sector".

The show aired on Saturday at 6:30pm on Information TV (SKY Digital channel 166 & FreeSat channel 406).

The show, which was presented by Gail Porter, included interviews from the following Capita Symonds employees:

• John Southgate, Executive Director - Infrastructure
• Nadia Dew, Senior Environmental Consultant
• Paul Landsborough, Associate Director
• Victoria King, Graduate in the Flood Risk and Water Management Team
• Paul Hlinovsky, Senior Engineer, Flood Risk and Water Management Team

Don't worry if you missed it - the programme can also be viewed at Careers TV

Capita Symonds shortlisted for CMA 08 Award

We have been shortlisted for the Construction Marketing Awards 08 for "Best Use of Events & Exhibitions", for our stand at the 'Think 08' sustainability exhibition.

The full shortlist for all awards will be announced on 20th October on the CMA 08 website

The winners will be announced on 27th November 2008. Fingers crossed!

Find out more about our Capita Symonds at Think 08

Find out more about Sustainability within Capita Symonds

Watch our video from Think 08:

Liane Sheppard Nominated for Welsh Woman of the Year Award

Liane – Director of the new Capita Glamorgan Consultancy – has been nominated for the prestigious Welsh Woman of the Year awards.

Liane is one of three finalists in the ‘Woman in Construction & The Built Environment’ category – one of ten categories in total.

The winners of each category will be announced - along with the overall winner (the Welsh Woman of the Year) – at a gala ceremony on Friday 21st November at Cardiff International Arena.

Liane has 15 years experience in civil engineering - from graduate up to Chartered Engineer status – and has worked on a wide variety of schemes from traffic calming to major infrastructure projects.

Mark Rees-Williams, Director of the Capita Gwent Consultancy (Cwmbran) office, said: “Liane’s energy, enthusiasm and positive approach to business is obvious to all who meet her and her achievements to date are a great motivation to the many women in our company.”

Capita Glamorgan Consultancy is a ground breaking joint ventures with Capita Symonds and Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Councils. The JV is worth £75m and will deliver major highways, transportation, engineering, construction, environmental and related projects across the local authorities and the rest of South Wales.

We could be heros......

Our East Grinstead office recently held “Heroes Day” which saw staff dressing as their favourite superhero to raise money for numerous worthy causes - part of Capita’s “Charity Week” festivities.

The prize for best fancy dress had to go to Matt Quilty for his brilliant outfit - there’s nothing more bizarre than seeing Superman stood at the photocopier. Highly honorable mentions also have to go to Mark Hirst’s Milk Tray Man and Jackie Fraser’s Supergirl outfits.

Mark, Jackie and Matt

For some extra fun a group of ‘willing’ volunteers from the senior staff took the stocks for a wet sponge attack - with everyone paying £1 for four sponges to soak their victims.

Huge thanks go to Dave Baird, Tony Blake, Simon Reeves, Mark Hirst and special guest Jonathan Goring (our MD) who were all good sports and took their turn in the stocks.

The East Grinstead team managed to raise £355 which now brings them very close to their £10,000 fundraising target for the year.

A big thanks to everyone who took part and donated money.

First BSF schools open in Lancashire

The first major wave of schools designed and built by the government’s BSF (Building Schools for the Future) programme have opened now in Lancashire.

Seven new ground-breaking schools – catering for over 2000 students - have opened over three sites - Burnley (Burnley Campus), Nelson (Pendle Vale) and Padiham (Shuttleworth College).

Capita Symonds is providing educational, partnering, architectural and engineering services on a number of the projects which have been specifically designed to transform the way that learning takes place – a core objective of the BSF initiative – as well as reflecting the needs of the wider community.

The Capita Symonds multi-disciplinary team has been led by Project Director, Simon Jones; Design Director, Richard Dinsdale; Lead Consultant Lucy Dean and Alan Ayre; Director of Educational Projects James Cowlishaw; and with educational support from Jane Longfield.

The £29m Pendle Vale College and Pendle Vale High School site in Nelson (below) brings together two schools under one roof with the aim of achieving greater integration between the two. The sloping site has been used to create a new local landmark with a building that rises in tiers to four storeys and is capped by a sweeping roofline. Sports pitches and indoor sports resources are all built to Sports England standards to support the school’s aims to achieve specialist sports college status.

Burnley Campus (below) is the biggest of three sites and contains schools for both sixth form and primary students, costing £31 million to build and equip . It boasts a 50-place nursery and children’s centre; a library and faith centre; all-weather sports pitches; fitness centre; climbing wall; sports hall; and hydrotherapy pool.

Finally, the £20m Shuttleworth College in Padiham (below) features an entrance area dominated by a dramatic floor-to-ceiling atrium that echoes the designs of modern office buildings. Facilities include a dance studio, sports hall, fitness room, tennis courts, all weather sports pitches, a café and faith centre.

“The projects demonstrate the positive impact design can have on developing new ways of learning, supporting the 14- 19 agenda around vocational learning, and encouraging students to stay on for Further Education,” said James Cowlishaw Capita Symonds' Director of Educational Projects, and LEP Director.

This year marks the biggest opening of new schools for decades with 51 new academies, 24 funded by Building Schools for the Future and more than 150 other new build schools.

Forthcoming Events

Capita Symonds will be attending a number of conferences and events over the coming months.

Why not come along and meet us:

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INTEGRATED TRANSPORT LONDON - Silver Sponsors
Thursday 6th November, Novotel London St Pancras

The Capital’s most prestigious and topical event surrounding the delivery of the Transport Strategy for London and the implementation of a sustainable post-Olympic infrastructure.

Find out more about Integrate Transport London

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PASSENGER TRANSPORT 2008 - Exhibitors
Thursday 13 November 2008, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Planning for our Future Passenger Transport Needs

Find out more about Passenger Transport 2008

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ASSET 2008 - Exhibitor
Thursday 20th November, QEII Centre, London

Managing and relocating the Government estates

Find out more about Asset 08

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THAMES GATEWAY FORUM 2008
Wednesday 26th – Thursday 27th November, ExCel, Docklands

The only event dedicated to bringing together the organisations involved in regenerating the Thames Gateway

Find out more about Thames Gateway Forum 2008
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New Appointment - Alistair Kirk, Director of Engineering and Technology

We have recently appointed Alistair Kirk as our new Director of Engineering and Technology for our Infrastructure Division.

Alistair was previously Director of Controls at Laing O'Rourke, responsible for mitigating pre-contract business risk and assuring project outturns.

He has also worked as Programme Controls Director for Network Rail, managing their projects and engineering works nationally encompassing planning, project controls, estimating and risk management functions.

He also spent 15 years in the defence industry with BAE Systems holding a number of senior management positions, latterly as programme director for the Royal Navy's latest batch of warships and leading one of its aerospace support business units.

Alistair Kirk will be based across our London and East Grinstead offices.

Mossband Viaduct and Eask Bridge videos

NCE (New Civil Engineer) magazine have recently posted a couple of videos on YouTube featuring projects Capita Symonds have been involved in.

Mossband Viaduct and Esk Bridge Move
Both of these projects are part of the bigger "M6 Extension project" to fill the missing link between Scotland and England - currently there is a 9km gap in motorway from the top of the M6 in Carlisle to the A74(M) near Gretna. The new stretch of motorway should ease safety concerns and create a through flow of traffic to and from Scotland on this major route.

Capita Symonds are providing Environmental Assessment, Management and Design, Geotechnical Engineering, Highway Design and Structural Engineering on the project.

Find out more about the M6 Extension project and our involvement


Mossband Viaduct


Esk Bridge Move

http://www.nce.co.uk/

New - Book Health & Safety Training Courses Online

Our Health & Safety Training team, have now launched an online booking form, to make it easier and quicker to sign up for their courses.

Capita Symonds provides many health and safety courses including, IOSH, NEBOSH, CDM 2007, Managing Contractors Safely and Health and Safety leadership.

Find out more about our Health and Safety Training Courses, including courses, dates, venues and presenters.

She bangs the drums.....well a marimba anyway

Justine Lloyd - Project Support for Capita Symonds’ Telecomms division in Cheadle Hulme – has won two major Drum Corp (an American style marching band) awards recently.

Every Saturday Justine (5th from left below) gets up at 0430am to travel from Poynton in the North West to Eastleigh in Hampshire (over 200 miles) to play the ‘Marimba’ (similar to a xylophone) in The Senators band.

The effort is certainly worth it as the team recently won the Drum Corp UK (DCUK) Championship for the eighth time.

What’s more, a week later they beat 20 teams from five countires to win the European Championships (DCE) in the Netherlands - the second year running they’ve won the award – 'drumming' up (sorry) a spectacular 90.20 points out of a 100 in the process.

Capita Symonds Video

If you want to find out more about life in Capita Symonds, our projects, working for us and more, have a look at some of our videos:

Go to our YouTube Channel
See videos on the Capita Symonds website

or watch some of them below:

Capita Symonds at Think 08


Jonathan Goring (our MD) talks about Successful People, Projects and Performance


Rob Firth talks about Capita Architecture


Working at Capita Symonds


Working at Capita Architecture


Wales Millennium Centre - Cardiff


Regeneration and Communities