Vice President for UK Commercial Scaffolding, Stuart Robinson, recently visited the Jessops Construction Lyndon SGB Velocity Village project site in Sheffield – where he met with one of two father and son scaffolding operative teams working on the £1M access project.
Lyndon SGB Contracts Manager, Lee Carrington and Birmingham Branch Manager, Ashley Rookes showed the Vice President around the mixed scaffold construction site. They also introduced him to father and son team, Ross and Kobie Hursthouse – an advanced site supervisor scaffolder and young apprentice scaffolding family, working side-by-side on the project.
Stuart Robinson said: “It was such a great site visit. Everyone, bar none, was happy and smiling… they’d obviously not been watching the BBC news lately! We met with the client, Jessops Construction, who were very complimentary about our team and our work on the project – both with this phase with our team out of Birmingham, and on a previous phase with our team out of Leeds. Really great teamwork on our part to manage the workload and deliver seamless cross branch quality to a valued customer.
“And it was superb to meet young apprentice Kobie who is doing really well with us and obviously enjoying learning the trade from his experienced dad Ross – a blueprint for apprenticeship success here at Lyndon SGB.”
The Lyndon SGB scaffolding temporary works are for Jessops Construction to carry out an EXI (External Wall Insulation) replacement, which started June 2022 and is set to continue until January 2024.
The project has a mixture of complex beam work, independent scaffolds, our new Rapid Edge protection system, complex gantry scaffolds, hoist gantries, protection fans, HAKI Scaffolding stair towers, protection gantries and pavement gantries – all designed in-house by Lyndon SGB engineering teams.
Contracts Manager, Lee Carrington, said: “This project has to be up there with one of my favourites. Jessops Construction are brilliant and are a pleasure to work for. The lads on site are doing a fantastic job on a very logistically challenging project. I couldn’t have asked for a better team. I am particularly proud of our young apprentice – Kobie Hurthouse – who is coming on great and thoroughly enjoying site life.
“The Lyndon SGB Leeds depot provided the scaffold package for Jessops Construction back in 2014 which was a success and the customer was really pleased with the service they received. This has been extremely useful – enabling us to look back on previous designs etc. Thanks to Jamie Fields in Leeds for his support.”
Lyndon SGB Site Supervisor, Ross Hursthouse added: “This is the second project I have run for Jessops Construction – they are really helpful and assist on a regular basis with the logistics of running the site. Jessops H&S on site is of the highest standard – which equals that of ours here at Lyndon SGB.”
Lyndon SGB apprentice scaffolder, Kobie Hursthouse, said: “I started my apprenticeship in September 2021 and since leaving school this has been the best experience – especially learning my scaffolder crafts from my dad, Ross.
“I have been on the Velocity Village project since June 2022 and I am really enjoying the variety of structures I am getting involved with. This has massively helped me gain a wider understanding of scaffolding and made life at college really enjoyable. It has also given me more confidence. I would highly recommend an apprenticeship with Lyndon SGB to anyone that wants to get into the industry.”
A few key project stats:
- The scaffold is 14 lifts high in places.
- It features 2,550mm lift heights.
- Adjustable transoms are being utilised to ensure efficient removal of the inside board when required.
- Weekly scaffold inspections are being carried out by Lyndon SGB using our bespoke Lyndon SGB Smart Scaffolder Inspector App.
- There’s been so much material there, we have had contracted crane lifts to get all materials into the courtyards – brilliantly arranged by Jessops Construction.
- Whilst the apartments are still occupied, the project is a live environment – so protection of the public has been paramount.
- We have eight operatives on site – with more than 100 years of scaffolding experience between them.
