Educational Establishments
“
The council couldn’t have been more helpful and, very generously, let us have use of it for the next twenty-five years at a nominal £50 a year
Earthworks well under way
We had to give so many assurances. We needed advice on all manner of issues.” Planning conditions for the change to the
site actually meant proper documented safeguards and even improvements to the surrounding environment and ecology were essential. The school, therefore, funded the research and production of a ‘Biodiversity Enhancement Plan’. A firm of ecological specialists was appointed to carry this out, and the plan that followed included measures to protect trees and root systems during construction and additional planting, biodiversity measures to enhance the site’s value and even protecting the slow worms that were there. The subsequent addition of bat boxes, a pond and a nature reserve show how seriously the school took its responsibilities. It was after this, in summer 2012, when
redevelopment action really began. “Everything we did had to go through the
overwhelmed by giant hogweed during the initial topographic survey
I’d never seen anything quite like it before. It was obviously going to be a real challenge, being so overgrown
” Drainage installation 94 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2015 Turfdry’s Steve Bayliss almost
Borough Council, but we got everything we needed,” said Charlie. “They couldn’t have been more helpful and, very generously, let us have use of it for the next twenty-five
years at a nominal £50 a year.” The first step was to get help on what kind of sports field was possible and how it might be achieved. MD of specialist contractors Turfdry, Melvyn Taylor, recalls his reaction on first seeing the site, having been called in, on spec, to ‘get the lie of the land’. “We came to see Charlie and, looking at the land in question as it was, it was impossible to envisage any kind of plan at all,” he told me over the phone. “I’d never seen anything quite like it before. It was obviously going to be a real challenge, being so overgrown. We carried out an initial topographic survey and our recommendation was to get a detailed design fully specified before approaching contractors. Without a very specific brief, it would be like comparing apples with pears.” The school contacted other schools across the south-east that had had sports field construction for recommendations for a landscape architect. Essex-based Wynn Williams was a name that kept reoccurring, and Melvyn Taylor said his firm had also worked with them successfully, so contact
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