Aspinall Close in Bekesbourne was a design and build project for Monson Homes, the development arm of the Town & Country Housing Group. The fifteen houses were a combination of twelve mixed tenure houses for shared ownership and three for affordable rent.

With the Considerate Constructors Scheme in place, the site commenced with notification to the neighbours of our intention to start the works with letter drops and communication continued through newsletters. A site notice board highlighted the contact details of the site manager for any issues. Daily informal meetings were held with the subcontractors and operatives to ensure that the project continued without any delays and that any issues raised were promptly dealt with.

The properties are timber framed with external brickwork walls and cedar weatherboarding under a tiled roof with GRP porch canopies. With uPVC windows and doors, standard kitchen, and bathroom fittings these houses are typical of the properties built for housing associations and local authorities. Gas combi boilers and a wet radiator heating system were installed. The external works included footpaths, paving, car parking and landscaping to the approval of the ecologists.

At the outset of the pandemic Abbott closed sites to take on board all the relevant new safety measures and in line with the government site operating procedures reopened all sites. Additional measures were put into place to space out the workforce, trades were in each house alone to prevent any contamination. Toolbox talks were undertaken to update and advise the operatives on the best practises.

Additional cleaning resources were deployed to the welfare facilities and a daily temperature check for each employee was taken before work started on site. All the supply chain complied with these sensitive new measures which helped to reduce delays.

Despite the project encountering the Covid-19 pandemic delays and enhanced site operating procedures, all the houses were completed on time and within budget and handed over to the client without defects.