As building work continues on The Mix in Stowmarket, young people from the local YMCA have been taking part in a creative project on the site in Ipswich Road.

A specifically designed hoarding, featuring brightly dressed cartoon-style characters, has been created under the expert eye of local artist Joel Millichip.

Local county councillor, Anne Whybrow and Mark Bailey, divisional director of Barnes Construction unveiled the artwork on Monday 28th November 2011.

The project is being developed by Suffolk County Council with MyPlace funding from Government; built by local construction company, Barnes, and supported

Mark Bailey, construction director at Barnes said, “This is a real community project for the young people of Stowmarket so I was delighted to see so many of those who will use The Mix centre getting stuck in to paint the hoardings. Many of these young people were out on Saturday and Sunday to get the art-work ready for today and I think it looks great."

Construction remains on track for the £5m state of the art youth facility to be opened in late 2012.

A group of students from Stowmarket High School had their spades at the ready to help Nick Fayers, Managing Director of Barnes Construction and  Cllr Graham Newman, the county council’s portfolio holder for children, schools and young people’s services,  officially mark the start of works for the £5million state-of-the-art youth centre, The Mix in Stowmarket.

The event took place on Thursday 14th July at the construction site in Ipswich Road, Stowmarket.

From the outset, Barnes Construction and the project team have been keen to involve the youngsters of Stowmarket, giving them not only some active involvement in the project, but also a say in what the centre would eventually offer.

Nick Fayers of Barnes Construction said, “This has been a unique project from the out-set. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with the young people of Stowmarket to bring this project to life. The young people have been consulted at every stage and we hope they will continue to work with us through the construction process”.

Cllr Graham Newman said, “It was important to us that the young people who would be using the centre would be able to get involved in the project. It has been a real privilege to see their enthusiasm and drive and hear the valuable contribution that they have made. I am delighted to be here today to mark the official start of the works and I look forward to coming back to watch the progress as construction continues.

This innovative project, being built by Barnes Construction, will provide young people aged 11-19 with high quality recreational activities and services under one roof.  The centre will include a digital art studio, café, performance and sports hall and will give young people access to specialist support for education, careers, housing, money, social care and health services.

The centre is being funded by a grant from the MyPlace project, run by the Big Lottery Fund for the Department for Education with support from Suffolk County Council, Mid Suffolk District Council and Stowmarket Town Council.

Barnes Construction has handed over the brand new Clements Primary School in Haverhill to Suffolk County Council, on time and within budget.

Mark Bailey, Divisional Director for Barnes presented the keys to Lesley Farrow, Headteacher and Councillor Graham Newman, Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People at a ceremony to mark the event.

The new £5.1m state of the art building replaces the existing, cramped school accommodation built in the 1960’s. It is set over a single storey which provides additional space, both internally and externally to accommodate 240 pupils. Outside there are football pitches, a netball court and wildlife areas. The building features eight classrooms, a school hall and ‘shared spaces’ which members of the community can book and hire out, these include a large community room and outdoor pitches. The building, designed by Suffolk County Council’s in house design team, also includes renewable energy and sustainable features such as solar panels, passive ventilation, a bio-mass woodchip boiler and a sedum roof.

Barnes Construction has marked the end of the first phase of construction at the pioneering Long Meadow housing development in Diss, Norfolk with an official site visit and presentation.

Business professionals from local building firms, quantity surveying and architectural practices were invited to attend a guided tour of the completed site, followed by a presentation at the Park Hotel by Barnes’ Construction Director, Mark Hart.

Explaining why the visit was arranged, Mark said: “There is a lot of excitement locally about this development because it is the first commercial, sustainable housing project of its scale in the UK. There was a great deal of interest in our first site visit, which took place mid-construction, so we were keen to show our contemporaries the finished product.  

~ “The presentation following the tour gave me the opportunity to explain how the project came to be. It also enabled me to go into detail regarding the building processes and materials used. To ensure the development’s carbon footprint was kept to a minimum almost everything that went into building Long Meadow has been, or can be, recycled. Due to the materials used, occupants will benefit from substantially reduced energy costs; helping the environment as well as their wallets.”

The Long Meadow development comprises of 114 dwellings in total, with the completion of phase one marking the release of 29 affordable homes; 14 available to purchase by eligible, local people at substantially discounted prices and 15 procured by Flagship Housing Group for rent to members of the local community.

The ground-breaking scheme, which is led by pioneering sustainable housing developer C-Zero, is part funded by a £3m grant from the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Low Carbon Investment Fund – an initiative aimed at stimulating the building of low-carbon, affordable homes using innovative, highly insulating, renewable materials. The scheme was also awarded an affordable housing grant worth £780,000 from the East of England Homes and Communities Agency.

Barnes Construction has been awarded contracts to build six new public houses across East Anglia and the North East.  The schemes, valued at a total of £12.5 million, mark the latest milestone for Barnes in their ongoing relationship with Marston’s Inns and Taverns. 

Barnes was appointed as a construction partner of Marston’s in 2009 and has spent the last year developing the designs for the six projects that are now under construction.  Work includes a seven month design and construct project at Fakenham in Norfolk, which will complete in June.
Also just started and all due for completion in the autumn are new premises in Peterborough, Norwich, St Ives in Cambridgeshire, and West Auckland and Spennymore in County Durham.

Chris Bruce, pre contracts director for Barnes said: “We are really pleased that our working relationship with Marston’s has developed to such an extent. Our contract with Marston’s is a tremendous boost to our business and once completed, these facilities will provide an equally tremendous boost to employment and the economy in the communities they serve.”

Barnes latest project is nearing completion in Haverhill, as a new school is topped out. The 1,600sq metre, single story, building will provide additional space both internally and externally to accommodate 240 pupils - replacing the existing, cramped, 1960s school.

The building features 8/9 classrooms, a school hall and 'shared utility space' so local people can book and hire out meeting rooms and pitches for community use. The building itself will feature solar panels, passive ventilation, a biomass woodchip boiler and a part sedum roof. Outside there will be football and netball pitches and wildlife areas.

Mark Bailey, divisional director of Barnes Construction said, "Barnes is a local company so we are particularly pleased to be involved in this project which is right in the heart of the Haverhill community. The new school building will be fantastic, and the fact that teachers, governors and pupils have all been involved in the design makes it extra special."

Mark is pictured, centre, with Headteacher Lesley Farrow (left) and Cllr Tim Marks (right).

Barnes Construction has lent a hand to the local firefighters in Newmarket, by allowing its crane on the new Premier Inn site to be used for training. 23 of the 25 full-time and on-call firefighters took part in the exercise which involved them practicing climbing, using ropes and other equipment. The session also enabled the team to try out the new all-in-one overall introduced to replace the traditional fire retardant gear. Ken Ashby, crew manager at Newmarket said: “We’re grateful to Barnes Construction for allowing us to hold the exercise on their site”.

Terry Hunt, EADT editor lent a hand to put the finishing touches to the green roof at EACH’s new Ipswich hospice. The roof, supplied by Ipswich based Bauder, has been individually planted using ‘plugs’ that when fully matured will provide an eco-system that blends in with the four-acre sites woodland surroundings.

Barnes Construction has handed Bury St Edmunds Library back to Suffolk County Council after the completion of its £2.5 million refurbishment.

After eight months of work undertaken by Barnes, the refurbishment has made extra library space and accommodates for a range of new community services. The new building contains a children’s centre, children’s library, Learning Enterprise Access Point (LEAP centre) and a coffee shop downstairs, with an adults’ library, computer suite, meeting facilities and audio-visual resources upstairs.

“It has been a delight to work on this contract which has resulted in this excellent facility for the community of Bury St Edmunds” commented Mark Bailey Director at Barnes Construction. “The original library was built in 1984 and over the last quarter of a century it has served the local community well. However, its refresh has modernised the building and the services it offers.”

Mark Bailey is pictured handing over the keys to Rosie Clarke, Portfolio Holder for Suffolk County Council.

The East of England Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) Area Manager for Norfolk, Mike Goulding, has visited the ground-breaking, low carbon Long Meadow housing development in Diss.

The development, which is being built by Barnes Construction for developer Crossover C-Zero, will provide affordable, sustainable housing for over 100 local families when completed early next year.

Nick Fayers, Managing Director at Barnes Construction, said: “This is our first project for Crossover C-Zero, which has built a strong reputation as a pioneering developer of sustainable housing. Long Meadow underpins our increasing portfolio of work within the sustainable and social housing sectors.”

The scheme has received £3m in funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Low Carbon Investment Fund and an affordable housing grant worth £780,000 from the HCA.

Cross-over C-Zero, a pioneering developer of sustainable housing, has contracted Barnes Construction to undertake the build of its flagship development - Long Meadow on Denmark Lane, Diss.

The ground-breaking development of114 units has received a grant of £3m from the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s Low Carbon Investment Fund and will provide affordable housing for over 100 families
.
C-Zero selected Barnes Construction to ensure the development’s carbon footprint would be kept to a minimum. Due to the materials used, occupants will benefit from substantially reduced energy costs; helping the environment as well as their wallets.

When completed, 87 units will be available to purchase at substantially discounted prices and 12 will be available to purchase on the open market. The remaining 15 have been procured by Flagship Housing Group to let to local tenants.

Pupils from King Edwards VI School in Bury St Edmunds have added a contemporary touch to the town’s library by painting an interior wall, as part of an artistic contribution to its £2.4 million facelift.

Pupils responded to a request from the main contractor, Barnes Construction, who had set aside a designated safe zone when construction was finished, for the pupils to paint.

The interior wall, which can be seen in the teen area of the adult library, reflects the desire of Barnes Construction’s client - Suffolk County Council - to involve the local community in the refurbishment.

The project, which took six months to complete, included the removal of walls, the refurbishment of the lift, relocation of the coffee shop to the ground floor and the creation of a new glazed frontage.

The construction of a new salt barn at Goddard Road, Ipswich is well underway with the timber and glue frame being craned into place in 3½ tonne sections. Barnes Construction is the main contractor on the project which, when completed in September, will have a capacity to hold 6,000 tonnes of salt - 2,000 tonnes more than the previous depot at Great Blakenham.

Suffolk County Council has made a £400,000 saving through the use of local contractors and suppliers that, as well as Barnes include: Breheny, Bower Fuller and carpentry and superstructure contractors M&S Contractors.

To mark the start of construction work at the new East Anglia Children’s Hospices (EACH) facility in Ipswich, Graham Butland, Chief Executive for EACH, has assisted in the installation of one of the 149 piles that will support the new building.

East Anglia's Children's Hospices' Treehouse Appeal was launched in March to raise £3 million towards the total cost of £3.7 million required to build the new purpose-built hospice. The building will be situated in four acres of woodland, close to St Augustine’s Church at Bixley in Ipswich. 

“To get this much needed project underway, we have already raised £700,000 of the total project cost in a private phase of fundraising prior to our public launch. We have also been lucky enough to have the land donated to us by a local charitable trust.  With the strong backing of our partners and our considerable public support, the decision by EACH Trustees to begin construction was considered very carefully before deciding to proceed.” Graham commented.

The single-storey hospice which has been designed by Ipswich architect Barefoot & Gilles, will thread between mature trees and have a sedum roof to blend in sympathetically with its natural and peaceful surroundings.

Barnes Construction is carrying out the building work for the hospice which will take around 15 months to complete. After clearing some of the site and carrying out some environmental works, the installation of the augured piles is now underway.

There are lots of exciting ways to get involved with the appeal throughout 2010 as an individual, company, school or community group. Fundraising packs can be obtained by calling the Treehouse Appeal fundraising office on 01473 276115 or details can be found at www.each.org.uk/treehouse.

The Haverhill Community Football Project on the town’s Chalkstone Playing Fields, has taken another step forward with the installation of the spectator stand and floodlighting.

“Six floodlights, each just over 15 metres in height, have been erected,” commented Colin Lockwood, Site Manager for Barnes Construction, the main contractor for the £1.9 million new community football ground: “The stand is 25 metres long and has been installed in sections. Once the bolt plates and uprights were in place, the stand roof was put on and then the seats were fixed in place. The final stage was the installation of the cladding.”

 The construction team comprising Barnes, MLT Architects and Structural Engineers’, Morrish, (who are both based in Bury St Edmunds), have been hard at work on-site since September.

The state-of-the-art facilities will be run by the Haverhill Community Football Association once completed at the end of April. The project will incorporate a number of football pitches and areas for training and coaching with a total of 20 teams set to benefit – including Haverhill Rovers.

Library Manager Neil Holmes has helped to demolish the old façade wall, as part of a £2.4 million facelift for the library in Bury St Edmunds.

Barnes Construction is carrying out the building refurbishment work over the next eight months. Once work is completed in the summer, the new building will not only have extra library space, but will also accommodate a range of new community services including a Learning Enterprise Access Point (LEAP centre) and a children’s centre situated next to the children’s library.  

“It’s really exciting to be able to play a part in this project.” Neil commented. “The wall I have just helped to demolish will make way for the new entrance and glazed exterior on the ground floor. This will also make room for the coffee shop which will be relocated from the first floor, making it much more accessible to the public.”

The original library was built in 1984 and over the last quarter of a century it has served the local Bury St Edmund’s community well. However, there is a need to refresh the building so that it is modern and up to-date in the services it offers.

Councillor Rosemary Clarke, Suffolk County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Sport, Culture, Diversity, Health and Wellbeing said, “Its great news that the work on refurbishing the library is gathering pace.  The new facilities being created, will not only be of enormous benefit to current local library users, but should also attract other people to try out the improved range of services on offer. The LEAP centre will provide adults and businesses in Suffolk with information and guidance on local learning and training opportunities, while the Children’s Centre will carry out activities as well as offer parents of the under 5's information and advice on a range of subjects.”

Whilst Barnes Construction carry out the refurbishment work, the library facilities have been relocated to temporary accommodation at Shire Hall in Bury St Edmunds.