Hobson & Porter supports Cookie Elves 2017

Posted on December 13, 2017 by rbd

More than 20 local children have taken part in Cookie Elves 2017, a unique Christmas project in which youngsters bake homemade cookies and swap them for wrapped toys and gifts to pass onto local charities. In its second year, ‘Cookie Elves’ 2017 saw 23 elves aged between one and fifteen collect a whopping 395 presents, with some still being donated, far surpassing the original target of one hundred and fifty.

Over recent weeks, the elves each baked their own cookie batch before visiting family and friends dressed as Christmas elves to exchange them for gift donations, which were this year used to support four charitable causes across the Humberside region, including Winner (Preston Road Women’s Centre), KIDS Hull and East Yorkshire, Viking FM Mission Christmas and The Health Tree Foundation; the official charity for Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Goole hospitals.

The cookie elves attended a special Christmas party held at Cottingham Sports Centre on Sunday 10^th December, where they could each bring their present donations and enjoy some festive fun after all their hard work. This included a surprise visit from Scrubs the Bear, the charity mascot of the Health Tree Foundation, who popped in to say thank you to the Cookie Elves for their efforts.

This year’s event was sponsored by Hull-based construction business Hobson & Porter, who funded the elves’ Christmas party, provided all the elves with a framed certificate of participation and provided a van to ensure all the gifts could be delivered to the charities. Support also came from other local businesses including Genesis Engines and Mattix Design of Hull and Imagen Photography of Beverley, who each provided free services to the charity project.

‘Cookie Elves’ is a fun and exciting project for the children who take part, aimed at inspiring the true spirit of Christmas among children and young people, an acknowledgment that not all youngsters may be as fortunate as themselves.

The project originated in 2016 when Joe and Laura Booth decided to turn their annual cookie delivery to family into something charitable with their sons Edward (age 3) and Henry (age 1). Based on the feedback and generosity of friends and family in 2016, the couple decided to open the event up to other local youngsters from across Humberside this year.

Laura said: ‘We are absolutely overwhelmed with the hard work that each ‘Cookie Elf’ has put into the event this year. We never expected a result like this, so much so we couldn’t physically fit all the presents in the van! We literally can’t thank people enough, none of this would be possible without the elves, their adult helpers, the people donating presents and our valuable sponsors and supporters.

‘We’ve had amazing feedback from the children and their adult helpers, everyone has had so much fun along the way and the charities have been so thankful for the donations passed to them. We are already thinking about how we can take this project to the next level in 2018 and we will be looking for corporate partners to help to help us grow the project with a view to hosting multiple parties throughout the region in 2018.’

Anyone interested in the project is urged to contact Joe & Laura via ‘Cookie Elves 2017’ on Facebook. It is hoped a new website for the project will live by Summer 2018.

The Big Purple Build begins on Preston Road

Posted on December 4, 2017 by rbd

A ground breaking ceremony took place on 28^th November 2017 to mark the beginning of the ‘Big Purple Build’ – a project to create a new Preston Road Women’s Centre in Hull. Hobson & Porter is the main contractor for, what is believed to be, the first purpose-built women’s centre in the UK for 20 years. The team will be on site for the next nine months working on the building, which will have a low environmental impact to minimise ongoing running costs.

Preston Road Women’s Centre received a Reaching Communities grant of £996,910 from the Big Lottery Fund, and the charity has been running a fundraising campaign to raise the rest of the money towards the cost of their new, purpose-built centre. So far £151,000 has been raised during the campaign, which will continue during building work to raise the additional amount needed to furnish the centre.

“As our services have grown, we’ve outgrown our current space’” explains Ann Clarkson, Centre Coordinator. “We’re based in two pre-fab semis that have been knocked together, and although it’s served us well over the last 17 years, it’s no longer fit for purpose. The new building will increase the nursery space and double the learning space, as well as housing our legal service, Affordable Justice, and all our other services.”

Hobson & Porter Opens Door to Assisted Living Show Home

Posted on November 9, 2017 by rbd

Hobson & Porter unveiled its new Assisted Living show home to Hull City councillors, mental health groups, potential customers and local media in a series of open days in November.

The team from Hobson & Porter’s Minor Works division was contracted for the fit out of the two-up, two-down home on Bexhill Avenue in East Hull, which is designed to show off a range of technology created to enable people with learning disabilities to live more independently.

The innovative features include everything from a voice activation television set to a set of self-stopping taps that stop a bath overflowing using magnetic fields. It’s the result of £1.4m of Government funding granted to Hull City Council from a £25m pot shared across the country to help improve the lives of people with learning disabilities. Hull received the biggest allocation of any local authority.

Jon Craven, Director of Minor Works at Hobson and Porter, showed visitors how the exciting new technologies work. He said: “We’ve got so many amazing technologies, we even have a bogus call button, so when someone knocks on the door, a screen comes on and shows who is at the door.

“They have a ‘lifeline’ centre which calls their family or carers who can find out what the issue is. It even keeps a video for up to three days, so if the person who lives there is away, they can see who visited them during that time.”

Norton Community Primary School

Posted on October 18, 2017 by rbd

This is a new build project to enlarge Norton Community Primary School to accommodate the increasing number of pupils. The new satellite building on Langton Road is for year 5 and 6 pupils and staff, and is located a quarter of a mile away from the main school site on Wood Street.

The new structure was built onto an existing building, formerly Brooklyn House, owned by North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) and previously used as a venue for the delivery of youth and community services; this is being refurbished inside and out to be part of Norton Community Primary School. Overall, the new school building contains six classrooms for pupils in years 5 and 6, along with all the other facilities required for a successful modern school including reception, library, staff room and administration area, IT suite, kitchen and dining area and teaching kitchen, and toilet block. To the outside there is a playground and a large sports field.

On 5th August 2017, Site Manager Dave McCorrie was presented with an award for the achievement of 10 tonnes of recycled wood waste on the Norton project.

Bransholme Fire Station

Posted on October 18, 2017 by rbd

This is the third project Hobson & Porter has undertaken for Humberside Fire and Rescue Service in the last two years, having previously transformed Immingham West Fire Station in North Lincolnshire into a purpose-built training facility, and delivered a £2 million state-of-the-art station at Clough Road in North Hull.

Hobson & Porter began the process of upgrading Bransholme Fire Station’s internal facilities late in 2016, with a refurbishment contract with its minor works unit worth around £500,000. The station, which is occupied by 24 full-time personnel, was built in 1976 and was in need of updating and improving.

The upgrade includes fitting a new boiler room, gymnasium, welfare pods, appliance bay, dormitories and shower facilities. One part of the upgrade that was enthusiastically welcomed by station staff is the upstairs area, which has a brand-new kitchen, meeting room, TV area and IT area.

We recommended that air conditioning be installed in the gymnasium, and the ceiling be lowered to make the maintenance and upgrading of mechanical and electrical assets easier. This was readily agreed by East Riding Council, who increased the remit of the contract accordingly.

Priory Primary School and Children’s Centre

Posted on October 18, 2017 by rbd

The project at Priory Primary School, commissioned by Hull City Council, involved a wide range of works to enlarge the school to facilitate a greater intake of pupils, with a refurbished building for juniors, and infants occupying the existing school building (which previously accommodated both juniors and infants). Works were also done to improve and modernise part of the adjoining children’s centre.

Improvements were made to the interior and exterior of the buildings, a play area and car park were created to the front of the school, as well as landscaping to the rear of the Children’s Centre; the service road (leading from the main road) was also widened and improved.

From the outset this project was characterised by strict time pressures. As a result, the team at Hobson & Porter (and all sub-contractors) worked flat out, including extra weekends and evenings, to ensure the successful handover of all work by 14th July 2017 – within a year of the commencement of early works. At the peak of the project – just before Christmas 2016 – between 60 and 80 people were working on site.

DPD Distribution – Ozone Business Park

Posted on October 18, 2017 by rbd

Hobson & Porter delivered this scheme involving the construction of a new depot for DPD Distribution, on behalf of the Horncastle Group.

Situated on a five-acre plot, the site has parking spaces for 59 vans, five HGV trailers and 60 car parking spaces. The project encountered some unforeseen issues with ground conditions, a challenge met and overcome by Hobson & Porter with no impact upon the programme.

Excess sand had to be removed from site to allow adequate construction of the sub-base and concrete slab. Additional aggregates were brought to site and excess sand utilized for hard standing areas. Despite this early complication, the works were absorbed into the programme and the delivery team managed to grant access to the client’s internal fit-out team two weeks ahead of schedule.

Now fully operational, the facility processes up to 20,000 packages a day for delivery to residential and business addresses within a 50-mile radius. The project received a glowing client feedback report in early 2017 and Hobson & Porter is currently commencing a further project of a similar kind at Ozone Park.

Riseholme Showground Campus – Phase II

Posted on October 18, 2017 by rbd

Completed in September 2016, this project involved the construction of two brand new, state-of-the-art educational buildings. The first consists of a new sports facility complete with a Sports England Certified Sports Hall designed for a wide range of activities including; football, basketball, volleyball and gym. The second building is a three-storey food and nutrition facility with microbiology labs, commercial kitchen and open teaching space. Externally, we erected a large, floodlit 3G sports pitch for football and rugby.

The project was shortlisted in two categories of the Lincolnshire Construction and Property Awards 2017: Development Project of the Year (over £5m) and Sustainable Project of Year.

The resounding success of this project was a result of our fantastic working relationship with the college and architects CAD Associates, whom we also worked with on a collaborative basis to deliver the award-winning first phase of the scheme in 2015.

Bridlington Nostell Way

Posted on October 18, 2017 by rbd

Hobson & Porter’s Nostell Way housing project in Bridlington came about as part of a £5.5m project to build new affordable homes for council tenants, creating 48 brand new houses at the top of Pinfold Lane, consisting of 28 three-bedroom homes and 20 two-bedroom homes, to be accessed via Nostell Way.

The building materials, including triple glazing and extensive insulation, were chosen to make sure the houses are all energy efficient, and compost bins and water butts have been installed in order to encourage residents to live environmentally friendly lifestyles.

Our team worked tirelessly over two years to deliver the work to our usual high standard, and we’re delighted the project was highly commended in the category for Best Social or Affordable Housing at the LABC Building Excellence Awards.