Member Article

Golden recognition for Walter Thompson school project

ONE of the region’s largest construction companies is celebrating after winning a top national award.

Northallerton-based Walter Thompson Ltd was declared winner of the Most Considerate Site (£1m to £2.5m) category at this year’s prestigious Considerate Constructors Scheme’s National Site Awards.

The gold award was given in recognition of work on the Breckon Hill Primary School project in Middlesbrough, where the company completed an extension and refurbishment project.

The annual CCS awards recognise the highest levels of consideration and care shown by constructors towards their local neighbourhoods, the general public, their workforce and the environment. This year’s awards were held online in light of Covid restrictions.

Walter Thompson’s Project Manager at the Breckon Hill project was Graham Cooper and the Senior Contracts Manager was Jason Henderson.

“Working in a live school environment is especially challenging from a Health and Safety standpoint, this is why we go above and beyond the recommended standards and work closely with the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS),” said Jason.

“This included safety presentations to the children about the dangers of construction sites and involved a visit from both Honor and Ivor Goodsite, the CCS mascots, to help get the message across to the children in a fun way. All our sites are audited by the CCS and given a score - Breckon Hill scored an excellent 44 out of 50,” he added.

The CCS monitor said of Walter Thompson’s Breckon Hill project: “For its size, duration and location this is an exceptional site being managed professionally and considerately. In four of the areas under consideration (out of the five) the site has been judged as ‘exceptional.’”

The project at Breckon Hill involved building a new classroom extension, refurbishment works to a new commercial kitchen, new plant room, and an extension to the external playground areas.

As well as the Gold Award, the company also scooped three silver awards for projects at Pudsey Care Home (Senior Site Manager Eddie Dowson); Cleckheaton Care Home (Project Manager Colin Pratt) and Weaponess House, Scarborough (Senior Site Manager Mike Hamm and Assistant Site Manager Andrew Caisley).

Walter Thompson, which celebrates its centenary this year, has had repeated success at the CCS Awards, and in 2016 was awarded a Gold Award for its work at Linthorpe School in Middlesbrough, winning the national Most Considerate Site (£500k to £5m category).

Paul Hammerton, Managing Director at Walter Thompson, said: “We’re delighted that our project at Breckon Hill has been recognized by such an important award. We won our first CCS Award 15 years ago and have since strived to go above and beyond the criteria laid down by the scheme.

“CCS has definitely raised the bar in the construction industry in terms of giving constructors a real incentive to improve and look after the communities in which we operate. We are continuing to develop ways of going beyond compliance through workshops, e-learning and sharing good practices from our other sites

“A lot of our good work involves direct liaison with the local community through our letter drops and our ‘open door’ policy whereas we provide a direct contact to the manager responsible for the management of the construction project.”

With rigidly enforced Covid protocols in place, based on Government and Construction Leadership Council guidelines, the company continued to work throughout the pandemic.

Family-owned Walter Thompson was founded in 1920 and is part of the FT Group. The group incorporates Walter Thompson Ltd, Tom Willoughby Ltd, Langtons Northallerton Ltd and George Fordy Properties Ltd.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Walter Thompson .