Member Article

Birtley Club Wins National Award

Following success at the regional round of theRoyal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Renaissance Awards earlier this year, Birtley Young People’s Club, a purpose built boxing club enjoyed a victory at the national award ceremony which took place recently at The Savoy Hotel, London.

Birtley Young People’s Club, which is the first building in the area to be constructed under the Olympic Legacy programme, beat off stiff competition from the rest of the UK when it was recognised as the winner in the Community Benefit category. The new build scheme, which was structurally engineered by Portland Consulting Engineers (Portland) specialists in civil and structural engineering design, has proved to be a real inspiration for the area and now attracts annual attendances in excess of 100,000.

Speaking about achieving such a prestigious accolade for a regional project Portland’s director, Lee Barr, who collected the award along with Darrin Marshall, Lumsdon Wood Partnership, Steve Howmans, Coach House 8 Architectural Services and Jim Houghton of North East Energy Consultants said:

“This is a project close to my heart in both a professional and personal capacity. As a former amateur boxer I have been involved with the club for many years along with my brother Gary, a senior technician at Portland, who now coaches at the club and I appreciate the many benefits the club and its new facilities bring to the local community.

“From a professional perspective, the project went through a number of ups and downs and presented a number of challenges which we managed to overcome. At the heart of overcoming these challenges, in my opinion, was the tenacity of the Portland team and the belief in the importance of the scheme that everyone involved with the scheme shared. Winning the award is great recognition of this and better still, to actually see so many in the community benefit from it is hugely rewarding. “

On the same day as the RICS awards were given out, Ron Rowe the secretary and head senior coach at Birtley Young People’s Club, was at Buckingham Palace receiving his MBE.

Portland Consulting Engineers has also been shortlisted for the Consulting Engineer of the Year Award in the forthcoming Builder and Engineer Awards.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Leigh Chelton .