Constructing Excellence National Awards Winners
14th December 2011
Wales once again made a significant impact on England and the rest of the UK when over 400 people attended the fifth Constructing Excellence National Awards on Friday 25 November at the Brewery in Central London. The dinner celebrated the winners from the eight regional awards that took place earlier in the year in the East Midlands, London and South East, North East, North West, South West, Wales, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber.
Swansea City & County won for leadership and Costain / Church Village were highly commended at the Awards. If proof was needed it is clear that Wales is setting a strong and consistent benchmark for best practice in construction.
The awards are designed to reward performance by organisations and project teams that have achieved regional acclaim and entries were made up of organisations or project teams that had engaged with the Constructing Excellence agenda and adhered to the principles of best practice. The City & County of Swansea and Costain follow previous successful years for Welsh Winners.
After many years of minimum investment, the City & County of Swansea’s Corporate Building & Property Services (CB&PS) is currently undertaking a major programme of staff training and development. This is taking form through a number of initiatives but together they are all aiming to produce a skilled workforce to meet the needs of the 21st century. The actions of CB&PS are helping to catch up the private sector as well as influence other local authorities and client organisations.
The Church Village Bypass is a well-known landmark scheme across Britain and has achieved outstanding waste and sustainability results. It is an outstanding example of how to deliver a major project at a time when Wales is on the brink of some significant infrastructure programmes following the Chancellor’s autumn statement.
If Wales is going to heed the Chancellor’s call to build itself out of recession it must embrace the opportunity to improve the M4 and rail links into the country as well as build more homes, hospitals and schools. The key decision makers in Welsh Government, councils and major private clients must look to Costain, the City & County of Swansea and more previous CEW Award winners for best practice examples of collaborative procurement, leadership and sustainability. The answers are staring us in the face – in fact you can see them here – we just need to choose the right examples to learn from.
