Washington Primary Healthcare Centre has scooped the LABC National award for Best Healthcare Building.  Developed for Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust with Laing O’Rourke, the Washington building is also shortlisted for the Building Better Healthcare Awards next month.  Congratulations to the team!

P+HS is delighted with two new appointments to its management team.

Joining the Board of Directors is Phil Bentley based in Leeds, whilst in the Stokesley office, Adrian Evans is appointed as an Associate.

The announcement comes as P+HS celebrates its 25th successful year in business, and indicates its commitment to maintaining the stability and growth of the company.  Congratulations and good luck to both Phil and Adrian in their new roles.

Stokesley fought back bravely scoring three goals in the final ten minutes only to lose 6-4 to a talented Leeds team in this fiercely contested football match. The home advantage paid off with the Stokesley players appearing rattled in front of a partisan crowd as Leeds’ new boys Shoaib Mahmood and James Park scored a flurry of early goals.

In this physical encounter frustrations started to show as the home side took an imposing 6-1 lead. It looked like a whitewash was in the offing as, with ten minutes to go, Leeds peppered the Stokesley goal looking for double figures. But as they pushed forward huge gaps opened in defense allowing Stokesley to take advantage and with ruthless efficiency they closed the deficit to two goals setting up an exciting final few minutes.

Although disappointed with the result the self-proclaimed ‘Farmer Boys’ have vowed to redress the balance and regain the title in the eagerly awaited rematch to be played early next year.

The Good Employer Guide 2009 is out and P+HS is the only company to be in the top five for all categories – Social Responsibility, Working Smarter, Feel Good Factor, Inspiration, Leadership, Ability to Contribute, and Current Market Conditions.

Editor David Rogers commented: ’Congratulations are owed to architect P+HS…this company made it into every top five for which it was eligible, the first firm to do so..the (architect) profession comes top of the feel good factor and also the smarter working index.   This may be explained in part by the fact that they have also come top of the new market condition index (a new rating, which measures how well employees believe their company is dealing with the recession).

Geraldine Pinder and Diana Cole were in London yesterday for this year’s Good Employer Guide announcements:  Geraldine commented:  ‘we are immensely proud of our staff and achieving this accolade from the industry is a mark of what can be achieved, despite difficult times within the construction sector, by sticking with an open, inclusive and team approach.’

Thanks to all staff who took time to complete the survey: the survey company tell us that they had a superb response from you and we are very grateful that you took part: results like this send out a clear, positive message to the industry about the strength of P+HS.

The guide is published with this month’s copy of Building and extra copies of the supplement are on order for both Leeds and Stokesley offices. A digital copy can be viewed here.

Submit-a-Plan is the LABC (Local Authority Building Control)  National Portal for making electronic and offline Building Control applications to ANY Local Authority in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as reporting dangerous structures.

The site has been designed as a single location for both the general public and professional users to submit Building Control applications directly to their intended Local Authority.  Users can also track the progress of their application online via dedicated portal DataSpace On-line.

The key features of Submit-a-Plan at a glance:

Free of charge to use

Works with all CAD applications and paper scans

Eliminates sending multiple paper plans (when submitted electronically)

Saves time and money

Send applications at any time

Environmentally friendly

Track the progress of your application online 

Free of charge application assistance

P+HS Architects are now registered to use this service, effective from today.  This will ensure that like Planning Applications submitted via the Planning Portal all Building Regulations submitted via Submit-a-Plan can be safely stored in one place.     

Turley Associates, with whom we work on planning matters, attended a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference this week, hosted by Lexington Communications. The guest speaker was Bob Neill MP, the Shadow Minister for Local Government and Planning. Following various announcements and comments in the press by Party members, he provided an update on how the Conservative Party intends to approach the planning system, should it gain power at the next election. This approach has potentially wide-ranging implications for the development industry.

• Neill confirmed that the planning system is likely to see further change, to refocus its operation to accord with the Conservative “localism” agenda
• As previously announced by the party, Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) would be abolished, removing strategic development and land requirements with the intention that these be determined locally
• The requirement for a 5 year supply of housing land would be retained, although the Party will offer clarification on how this calculation should be undertaken to ensure consistency. How the local requirement would be decided, in the absence of Regional guidance, was not addressed
• Local development would be incentivised through a commitment to Local Authorities that any development in their area would produce direct funding through the retention of Council Tax (at 100% for open market housing and 125% for affordable housing) and business rates (at 100%) at a local level, for a period of 6 years. This would replace central funding as a direct incentive for allowing and encouraging development in the area. The funds would not be ring-fenced
• There was no mention of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)
• The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) would also abolished, to be replaced with a system based around the existing Planning Inspectorate and Ministerial control
• National Planning Statements (NPS’s) would be retained as a clear statement to help guide nationally significant projects, and to provide political accountability for major decisions. The agenda of reducing delays in the provision of major infrastructure would be retained
• Reducing delays would also be a wider theme in the new system, with the suggestion being made that sanctions may be introduced for key Statutory Consultees (Highways Agency, Environment Agency, etc) who unnecessarily or unduly delay planning applications
• A commitment was made to retain the elements of the system that work and to further examine how smaller-scale applications can be removed from Planning Officer’s schedules, to allow them to focus on important schemes where their skills are needed
• Finally, the assurance was given that transitional arrangements would be put in place to make sure that further delays would not result from the changes being set out
  

Barnsley LIFT has received Planning Approval! P+HS are currently working towards financial close on two LIFT projects in Barnsley - Hoyland and Athersley, New Lodge. Hoyland will provide excellent Healthcare and Council facilities including space for GP, PCT, library and Social services. Athersley, New Lodge will provide GP and PCT services. Both schemes will achieve a BREEAM excellent rating and form part of a wider regeneration for each locality.

P+HS were well represented at a recent conference from the Health Service Journal entitled:
‘Developing Primary & Community Healthcare Estates’. Chris Potter addressed the high profile audience on the subject of increasing the lifespan of buildings through flexible and responsive design. You can download all of the speakers’ presentations by clicking HERE