Local student Richard Haldane has joined the Harry Fairclough site team for an eight week work experience placement to support his civil engineering studies and future career in the construction industry. Richard has lived in Harrogate, within a five minute walk from the site with his family for a number of years and attended St John Fisher Catholic High School. He knows the area well and was keen to work for a local contractor on a significant project in his hometown.
Richard comments: “I’m currently studying for a civil engineering degree at Nottingham Trent University, having just completed my first year and was determined to use the summer break as an opportunity to gain some valuable hands on training and experience. The Harrogate Borough Council Civic Centre build is almost on my doorstep and provides the opportunity for me to gain some real practical experience to bring my studies to life and give me an insight into the workings of a live construction site.”
Richard joined the Harry Fairclough team at the beginning of August and will complete his placement around the end of September. After a thorough induction process, including health and safety briefings and all processes and systems, Richard will spend a large amount of his remaining time on site shadowing our highly experienced site engineer, Glen Wrigley.
Glen explains: “As a first year civil engineering student this is Richard’s first real taste of what it’s like to be part of the site team on a construction project of this scale. In the coming weeks he will work closely with me on setting out duties, quality assurance measures, liaising with the wider site team and subcontractors and understanding the detail around important details such as site drawings. This is all highly relevant to and will support his studies and with securing further work experience opportunities, as he progresses in his four year course.”
Councillor Graham Swift, Harrogate Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Enterprise concludes: “It is important that we do all we can to encourage young people who are considering a career in the construction industry. Work experience placements and apprenticeships are a fantastic way of providing people with the opportunity to learn valuable skills and gain practical experience, and we are pleased that this opportunity is being offered as part of the construction of our new civic headquarters. The council already employees apprentices in areas such as our In-House Maintenance Team and offers work placement opportunities, and we are delighted that our suppliers are able to offer such opportunities.”
Work experience placements on our sites are just one of the ways in which we demonstrate our ongoing commitment to promoting careers in construction to the next generation. Read more about our latest schools initiative here.
We are now eight months into this exciting project and you may have noticed that construction activity on-site has really picked up pace recently, as we enter the next exciting phase of construction. The steel frame for the main section of the offices is up and throughout the summer we will be working on the public access section, the heart of the building, where the local community will access council services. Over the next few months, the site will become a lot busier, with more vehicles making deliveries back and forth, bringing the materials we need to site. We will, as always do our utmost to minimise any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding during this busy time.
For those of you who have not met our new project manager we are pleased to announce that Peter Blackburn has joined our on-site team. Peter’s role is to look after the day to day management of all construction activity, planning and coordinating all aspects of the build, including appointing subcontractors and working with engineers, architects and Harrogate Borough Council to bring the vision for the building to life. Peter is looking forward to getting to know local residents and to learning more about the Harrogate community and if you wish to contact him with any questions or comments please email him at 
An important part of this project is to ensure that it is built to BREEAM ‘Excellent’ standards and we are on track to achieve this. BREEAM sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation and has become one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building’s environmental performance, ensuring future running costs are greatly reduced.
The CCS is a non-profit-making, independent organisation founded in 1997 by the construction industry to improve its image. Construction sites voluntarily register with the Scheme and agree to abide by the Code of Considerate Practice, designed to encourage best practice beyond statutory requirements. The Scheme is concerned about any area of construction activity that may have a direct or indirect impact on the image of the industry as a whole.
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