Sandwell council have become the fourth council to launch a legal challenge against the government’s decision to cancel the £55bn Building Schools for Future programme. They have followed the action that Nottingham, Luton and Waltham Forest who have already began legal proceedings.

All four councils are challenging the basis on which the government set the cut off point for schemes to receive funding, and are seeking a judicial review of the decision.

Sandwell originally believed its nine schools projects had been spared the axe, but were later told they would be stopped when a revised list was published by the Department for Education.

Council leader Darren Cooper said: “We are taking legal action because the government’s decision is irrational, unfair and short sighted. Why did they choose 1 January as the cut off date? Was it just plucked out of the air? If we had been told that was the deadline we would have met it.”

“Instead we did what we were told and spent money on preparatory work in good faith. Given the circumstances we believe we have no alternative but to mount a legal challenge.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “We understand people’s disappointment but the BSF programme was wasteful, needlessly bureaucratic and seriously behind schedule. It would have been inexcusable to have continued with the programme.”

“Ministers have been clear that the end of BSF is not the end of school rebuilding. That is why the government has launched a comprehensive review of all capital spending in schools so that money goes to those schools in most disrepair and to deal with the urgent demand for primary school places.”

Pretek Precision Homes have won an £8 million investment deal to manufacture zero carbon homes at a purpose-built factory in the north of England.

The company is aiming to create up to 400 new jobs at its new plant in Blackburn, Lancashire, which will have the capacity to produce 3,000-plus new timber frame homes a year. It has converted a 192,000 sq ft former steel storage building at Walker Park into its new facility.

The venture was established following research and planning into efficient and cost effective factory assembled homes in Scandinavia, Canada and Japan. Manufacturing is already under way and a full-size terrace of homes has been constructed at the factory site to showcase the product.

Peter Marshall, chief executive of Pretek, said: “The use of sustainable materials put together off-site is the way forward for energy efficient homes in the UK.”

The use of sustainable construction materials and properly managing building supply are both excellent ways not only to save money but also help the environment.

Offsite design and build can significantly reduce the amount of waste and surplus product which is accumulated in the build process, an approach which BuilderScrap supports.

David Cameron launched a challenge for Whitehall ministries: they are competing to slash the energy use in their departmental head quarters over the next month. Departmental progress will be revealed in an online league table that will be updated daily, at www.data.gov.uk

David Cameron said, “In May I called for real action to make us the greenest government ever. I made a commitment that over the next 12 months; central government departments would reduce their carbon emissions by 10 per cent. We have made a start but clearly we can all do much more to show leadership on this vital issue. So today is a clear challenge to cabinet ministers and an opportunity for the public to hold us to account.”

The departments are aiming to achieve a 10% saving over a longer timescale than a month. The Home Office has signed a ‘payment by results’ investment and performance contract with British Gas and facilities management specialist Amey to deliver energy saving solutions. There are a number of different ways in which they hope to save power and energy we will wait and find out how successful they will be.

Technology Strategy Board (TSB) will announce the results of the energy efficient Whitehall competition next month.

Balfour Beatty and Morgan Sindall have been given some hope regarding work they both hope to win under the Building Schools for the Future Initiative.

Liverpool Council has put together a task force to help find half the original £350m fund that the coalition government axed earlier this year.

A taskforce, lead by Max Steinberg, the chief executive of Liverpool Vision, hope the government will provide half of the original allocated money and may sell off land and assets to raise funds, they have also looked at vacant sites which would be suitable for schools.

We here at BuilderScrap applaud the efforts of the council to help improve the education of our children with the push. Liverpool and the Wirral have transformed over the past decade and we are pleased that they continue to strive for improvement.

On the 23 September the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm officially opened, which now has the capacity to power over 200,000 homes.

The site has 100 turbines, the owners Vattenfall say it is the largest offshore farm in the world was opened by Chris Huhne and began producing power the same day.

Mr Huhne was joined by Swedish firm Vattenfall’s Chief Executive Øystein Løseth for the ceremony.

Mr Løseth said: “This is a milestone in the development of renewable energy for a sustainable society.”

“For Vattenfall it is a springboard to the future, both to the British market and to large-scale offshore wind power.”

“This is an expression not only of the rapid technological development in offshore wind power, but also of Vattenfall’s development strategy, where the UK is seen as one of the main future markets for offshore wind power.”

Thanet lies in sight of Kentish flats, another offshore wind farm owned by Vattenfall and the two organisations have been merged into one.

Including Thanet Vattenfall is producing 25% of the world’s offshore wind power.

The development of the East Anglia Array, a gigantic offshore wind farm area in the North Sea off the east coast of England, granted jointly to Vattenfall and ScottishPower Renewables.

Birmingham City Council, which is the largest local authority in Europe, has had its motion passed to generate its own power.

On Tuesday 7 September the council passed a motion to develop a Green Energy Action Plan, which will look into government-backed plans for council to generate and sell their own power, through what is known as ‘feed in tariffs’.

This move will give authorities across England and Wales the ability to generate green electricity for their own use through solar panels and wind turbines, any surplus energy left can be sold directly to the national grid.

Birmingham’s deputy leader, Paul Tilsley presented the motion stating it would give the council the power to ‘take a leading role in tackling climate change’.

He added: “We currently spend in excess of £25million per annum on energy; the freedom to reduce this now exists and we should be maximising feed-in tariffs to their full potential.”

Birmingham has already proved it takes initiative when it comes to reducing carbon emissions, as it has three CHP schemes in the city which in total saves around 12,800 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

With the added financial incentive feed-in-tariffs provide for councils, there will be approximately £100 million per year across England and Wales.

Mr Tilsley added: “The development of micro generation facilities that can take advantage of feed-in tariffs is a further step on the road to reducing C02 emissions, cutting our energy bills and via the income generated, allowing us to invest the money in council services.”

The oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico has finally stopped, though the cost of the damage still remains unknown. At present the oil company BP has paid out a staggering $9.5bn (£6.4bn).  They have set up a compensation fund of $20bn which gives the impression the cost is far from complete.

The compensation fund is now run by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, as President Obama decided the fund would not be put under the control of BP or the US government, but an impartial third party. Since this move the compensation paid out has almost trebled from $3.5m a day to $12.5m a day.

They have paid out 19,000 claims which total $240m; they have had to pay fisherman, hoteliers, retailers and other parties affected by the disaster. It took a shocking 5 months to plug the hole. Thad Allen, a former Coast Guard Admiral who is heading the US Government to the spill declared the well ‘effectively dead’ after a pressure test by BP.

The new incoming Chief Executive, Bob Dudley who officially takes charge at BP from 1 October, said the company expects to pay out less than the committed $20bn and has set up a facility for whatever remains of the fund to be paid back to BP.

I personally feel that the full $20bn should be paid in some form. There has been a lot of bad press since the accident, 11 workers sadly lost their lives and the wildlife and environment has taken a real hit, so perhaps they should concentrate on making amends for this disaster rather than seeing how they can scrape back a couple of quid.

We have all stayed at rubbish hotels but this one is a little different, it’s a hotel made entirely out of rubbish.

The hotel is made up of approximately twelve tonnes of rubbish collected from Europe’s beaches. It has been built as an artistic method of raising awareness about the throwaway culture that we live in and to highlight the coastline’s worrying levels of pollution.

The hotel is located in the world famous tourist city of Rome and has been created by German artist HA Schult. The distinguished guest list of the hotel includes eco-warrior and Danish fashion model Helena Christensen.

Whilst this may be seen as a bit of fun by some, there is a very serious underlying message that we are ignorant about rubbish and resources. We currently consume far beyond the earths capacity of resources and at some point something must give.

To some extent the increased awareness of recycling has largely determined that our throw away lifestyles can be maintained safe in the knowledge that rubbish will be recycled. This fails to address the true underlying problems and the need to reduce our rubbish, where this is not possible then reuse should be preferential to recycling.

This is a value that BuilderScrap can assist with in relation to construction materials, we are always seeking to maximise the life cycle of products and resources by providing a platform to do so.

It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that we do everything we can to reduce the amount of consumption that we are currently inflicting on our planet, after all the earths resources are finite.

The docklands of the Wirral Peninsula faces a massive regeneration scheme over the next three decades after the £4.5 billion planning application was given the green light.

The Wirral Waters scheme will transform more than 500 acres of disused brownfield sites over the next 30 years in the Birkenhead region. The project aims to breathe fresh life into the area, creating environmental as well as economic benefits to Birkenhead, Wallasey as well as the Merseyside region as a whole.

The development is expected to create tens of thousands of jobs during the construction phase and has been hailed a massive boost to the economy of the area as well as the residents that the project will impact directly upon.

The cabinet member for regeneration and planning strategy, Andrew Hodson commented: “This is a great day for Wirral. We have been working closely with Peel for almost four years to bring jobs and regeneration to the borough”.

“The approval of this planning application will lead to the total transformation of what is currently derelict brownfield land within East Float at Birkenhead Docks and when finished will create over 27,000 jobs.

“This has taken place against a backdrop of the worst recession in living memory and it is a credit to both Peel and Wirral Council that we have kept the plans moving.”

He added: “Subject to getting the okay from the government, we hope work will start on site within the next two years and officers of the council will continue to work with Peel as we move into the development phase.”

At BuilderScrap we are delighted to hear the news of this local development, as a Wirral based company this announcement marks exciting times for the area and we look forward to seeing the project progress.

Source: EDIE (net) 23 August 2010

Laing O’ Rourke became the first winner of the North West Construction Hub (NWCH) framework tendering process securing the £90m Manchester Central Library and Town Hall redevelopment.

The project which has been designed by architect Vincent Harris includes the restoration of Manchester’s Grade II- listed Central Library and Town Hall as well as redevelopment of St Peters Square. The project is due to be delivered by 2013.

Andrew Jackson, leader of Laing O’Rourke’s Construction North division, said: “Securing this exciting and unique project will enable Laing O’Rourke to build on our solid reputation for delivering landmark projects. It is a complex and challenging project, and one of huge value architecturally, culturally and civically. We look forward to partnering once again with Manchester council.”

This is the first of a number of tenders which will be done through the North West Construction Hub which divides work into three separate frameworks dependent upon project value. The High Value Framework tenders for jobs over £10m and is competed between a total of five organisations, the others being Bovis Lend Lease, Kier, Morgan Sindall and Wates.

The Framework has been developed as a method to ensure that local council can work in partnership with public sector construction in order to ensure that the delivery is efficient and on time. It also shares knowledge and experience as well as creating an emphasis on improved quality and sustainability.

(Source: Building.co.uk)