CCURV

The Croydon Council Urban Regeneration Vehicle (CCURV) has published its Annual Report for the last financial year.

Despite a particularly challenging and difficult environment, the report shows that the joint venture between John Laing and Croydon Council has proved to be successful both through physical delivery of assets and through the socio-economic benefits being delivered.

Work on the Public Service Delivery Hub (PSDH), which is now called Bernard Weatherill House, commenced in March 2010, with demolition and excavation now complete; the development is achieving an impressive 99.98% of waste recycling and continues to be operated in adherence to strict health and safety procedures with no reportable site based incidents. Work also commenced on the Waddon leisure and housing project in December 2010 and is progressing on schedule.

Significant progress has been made on the Taberner House development with an outline scheme being worked up by renowned architects, Make. CCURV is looking to consult the public on the development plans in the Autumn of 2011. Furthermore, Make and Gehl Architects have been outlining future plans for the College Green Masterplan, which are expected to be completed by the end of this year.

CCURV is looking at numerous other council owned sites across the borough in order to establish what values and regeneration benefits can be achieved through their delivery.

CCURV is also delivering many other socio-economic benefits to the borough, and surpassing targets set. Through work with its construction partners, Sir Robert McAlpine (SRM) and Wates Construction, CCURV has created local jobs, re-enforced the use of the local supply chain, thus fuelling the local economy and has also taken an active role in involvement with local schools and Croydon College. In July 2011, the average percentage of locally employed people on the Bernard Weatherill House site was 18%, a figure far exceeding the set target of 10%. Additionally, for the Waddon housing and leisure scheme, 21% of the workforce is locally employed, exceeding the project’s set target of 20%.

Furthermore, 7% of staff employed to work as part of the Waddon project delivery team are on Wates Construction professional training schemes. On the Bernard Weatherill House site, SRM continues to work with Croydon College by providing training sessions to construction students on a weekly basis.

Jamie Kerr, Director of Strategic Partnerships at John Laing said: “The proven success of CCURV is testimony to all the hard work carried out by the staff from Croydon Council and John Laing as well as our partners Sir Robert McAlpine and Wates Construction along with their sub-contractors. We look forward to continuing this collaborative approach on other projects across the Borough.”

Councillor Tim Pollard, Deputy Leader for Croydon Council, said: “The latest annual report highlights the benefits the CCURV partnership is already bringing to Croydon, including providing jobs and training for local young people and the transformation of sites in Waddon and the town centre.”

A copy of the Annual Report can be downloaded from http://www.ccurv.com/ccurv/ccurv-annual-reports.html