Feature

Solutions October 2011

© Assent Building Control Assent Building Control Ltd, Assent House, 4 Navigation Court, Calder Park, Wakefield. WF2 7BJ t: 01924 229180 • f: 01924 250387 • Registered in England: No. 5311596

News

Inside this issue

Welcome

This is our latest newsletter and reflects just how busy we have been over the last few months. Work has been increasing so we have been looking for new staff. And we are pleased to announce the arri-val of three new members on page 4. Assent Expansion We are continuing to expand and we are delighted to announce have opened a new office in Manches-ter; more about that on page 2 Sporting Triumphs This edition has a strong sporting feel about it as you will see with the Wakefield annual golf day, the suc-cess of James from our Sheffield office and the cup winning exploits of a team that Assent sponsor. It just shows what a fit bunch of people we are! New Projects We continue to receive new and interesting [demanding ] projects. A selection is shown on page 3. We like jobs that make us think and stop us get-ting bored. Why not try out our challenge and see if you can get a job that will confuse us?

Assent Surveyor wins National Golf Prize

James Macfarlane, Senior Project Manager at our Shef-field office picked up the coveted Porsche GB National Golf Trophy at St. Andrews in Scotland last weekend. James won the regional competition, organised by York-shire based Porsche dealerships. Porsche gave James the use of a new Cayenne Hybrid for a week, and to get him to the 4 day all expenses trip to the Fairmont St. Andrews in Scotland. After playing rounds at Carnoustie and Kings Barns, only 32 of the 180 players were left to play the final at Royal St. Andrews. James managed a magnificent 4 over par in tough conditions to win by 3 shots. A new Porsche 911 Turbo for a week and Porsche Design watch were the highlights of the prizes. James’ suggestion that the Cayenne hybrid would be an ideal company car was quickly quashed by Mark Fletcher at the Sheffield office.

News 1

Golf Story 1

New Office Feature Golf Day

2 2

New Projects Midnight Walk

3 3

New Starters and Recruitment 4

Social Scene 4

And Finally 4

© Assent Building Control Assent Building Control Ltd, Assent House, 4 Navigation Court, Calder Park, Wakefield. WF2 7BJ t: 01924 229180 • f: 01924 250387 • Registered in England: No. 5311596

Assent Building Control Ltd one of the UK’s leading approved inspectors, today announces the next stage of its UK expansion plan with the opening of a new office in Manchester, increasing Assent’s accessibility to architects and surveyors within Greater Manchester area. The office opened for business on 5 September 2011 and becomes the fourth office along the M62 corridor; with the others being in Liverpool, Wakefield and Hull. It also adds to Assent’s network of over 25 offices up and down the country providing approved inspector services. Since forming in 2005, Assent Building Control has grown from a single office in Wakefield to a network of 26 offices and associates across the country providing a complete Building Control service including commercial and domestic plan approvals, site inspections, EPC/SAP and SBEM Energy Assessments, Code for Sustainable Homes and Fire Safety Audits. The new office represents the next step in the firm's evolution following the increased work load within the Greater Manchester area since the arrival of John Miles as Area Manager in 2009. Assent Building Control has already provided building control on a number of high profile projects in Manchester including the University of Manchester Learning Commons and Stockport Aquinas College. Richard Batte, Director of Assent, says: "This is excellent news for Assent and the opening of the office in Manchester represents the next stage of our UK expansion. John Miles, who heads up our Manchester office, has done an exceptional job in establishing a strong client base which has allowed us to open an office which provides clients in Greater Manchester access to a local office with the support of a national network of offices across England. We look forward to welcoming existing and new clients into our new offices in the coming months." John Miles, Area Manager - Manchester, says: "Following the work done over the past 24 months, it became clear that we needed to provide our clients with a local base where we can provide support and services in order to establish ourselves as the market leading Approved Inspector in the region. This investment justifies that view. It also demonstrates beyond any doubt the commitment of Assent Building Control to Greater Manchester.” Assent Manchester Contact Details: Assent Building Control, Suite 4, Management Suite, North City Shopping Centre, Harpurhey, Manchester, M9 4DH

Tel. 0161 2051859. Email. johnmiles@assentbc.co.uk

New Offices

Assent Building Control has recently opened permanent offices to strengthen our

presence in Manchester.

Wakefield Office Golf day The annual golf day for the Wake-field Office was held at Waterton park Golf Club Walton on the 28th July. With 36 people taking part the weather was glorious and liquid refreshments were the order of the day. The event was won by a team from Peter Wade structural engineers who exacted revenge after defeat last year. The day finished with a meal in the clubhouse and prizes were awarded for the longest drive, the near-est the pin and the joker of the day which was won by Martin Walsh. The whole event was a fantastic success and left those attending looking forward to next year.

© Assent Building Control Assent Building Control Ltd, Assent House, 4 Navigation Court, Calder Park, Wakefield. WF2 7BJ t: 01924 229180 • f: 01924 250387 • Registered in England: No. 5311596

New Projects

Nottingham Trent University together with University Partnerships Programme (UPP), are developing an existing city centre site to provide new student facilities, a student union, entertainment venue, and retail unit over 3 floors, together with student accommodation up to 9 storey's over it. Assent Building Control are proud to be part of the design and construction team, having early meetings with the architects, Church Lukas and the local Fire Service, has assisted in the design and fire strategy being approved. Bill Hollomon from Assent says “ This is the type of scheme that we are geared up for and provide our clients with the very best support that they can get”. This project follows the successful completion of student accommodation at University of Kent for UPP, and a further project at University of Reading is at an early design stage.

MIDNIGHT WALK

On Saturday 16th July 2011 at Midnight the Wakefield Administration Team (Kay, Carol, Sarah, Janet, Della) and a couple of friends from Wakefield took part in a 6 mile walk to raise money for Wakefield Hospice. Approximately 300 people took part, several children and a couple of dogs. We all met up at Wakefield Audi and donned our yellow tee-shirts, sashes and flashing bunny ears. To get warmed up we all did the Conga around the car park led by a shocked Sarah who we pushed to the front (Sarah was the only one who had sensibly been for a beer beforehand so was less tired and merrier than the rest of us). The walk went without a hitch we even came in 1st with Della and her friend beating everyone back (it must have been the bacon and egg butties awaiting us at the finish line). The rest of us came in a very respectable 5th onwards which was excel-lent as Kay’s daughter and friend (Jessica and Nicole Age 12) were dressed in pyjamas and dressing gowns not the easiest to walk in. Jessica and Nicole were due to be at a sleep over party that night but they gave this up in order to attend the event which made us all very proud of them putting others before themselves. I am pleased to announce that after bathing our blisters and achy legs we raised a total of £917.00. Finally we would like to say a big thank you to all who sponsored us we couldn’t have raised this substantial amount of money without all of the generous support we got from our colleagues, family and friends around the country.

© Assent Building Control Assent Building Control Ltd, Assent House, 4 Navigation Court, Calder Park, Wakefield. WF2 7BJ t: 01924 229180 • f: 01924 250387 • Registered in England: No. 5311596

Assent Support

New Starters

Assent is continuing to grow!!

We have a number of new people joining our organisation which makes us one of the strongest Approved Inspectors in the country.

Name Location

Craig Jarvis SAP Assessor Wakefield

Saira Is-Haq Building Control Project Manager Wakefield

Angela Davey Associate Winchester

And Finally

Assent backed team pick up first trophy of the season! The Assent sponsored Bulls Head FC (BHFC) picked up their first trophy of the season last Thursday night (22nd), under the spotlights at the Look Local Stadium, at Bracken Moor, Stocksbridge. BHFC, playing in the Blades Super draw Sunday league, had earned their place in the Steve Gee Merit Cup Final by winning last season’s second division title and Fair Play Award, after picking up only 2 bookings all season. Their opponents Niagara FC, had been runners up in the League Cup, and finished second in the Fair Play table, with only 5 bookings. The Bull’s centre forward, Nick Ash seemed to be a bit off form in the first half, putting an early effort over the bar from close range, and then squandering a one-to-one with Niagara’s keeper to keep the score at 0-0. Shortly before the break, and against the run of play, Niagara capitalised on a poorly defended corner to put them 1-0 ahead. The score remained the same, despite some maintained BHFC pressure until 10 minutes before the end, when Kerry Dixon drilled a shot into the far corner of the Niag-ara net to draw level. Extra time was looking inevitable until, in the final few minutes of the 90, a fine piece of individual skill by Alan Mowforth beat two Niagara defenders on the edge of the box and fire a shot across goal. A valiant effort by the Ni-agara keeper saw him get his fingertips to the ball, but it wasn’t enough to keep the ball out of the net, 2-1. A flurry of Niagara corners deep into stoppage time cre-ated a tense finale, but were well defended by the Bulls Head, and it was enough to hang on for the win. Manager, Paul Baxter- Gibson said, ’It would have been a different game if we’d put away those early chances, but Niagara made us pay for not being clinical enough. We’ve got a great set of lads with great team spirit. Heads never went down’. Former BHFC player, Mark Fletcher, from the Assent Shef-field office commented, ’It’s really nice to put a little bit back into grass roots football, and support a successful local team’. BHFC are currently top of Division 1, and remain un-beaten this season.

Caption Competition

Send us your caption for the above photograph and the best one will win a bottle of Champagne. E-mail your entry to martin@assentbc.co.uk before 1st October in order to enter.

The winner of our last competition was Charles Stones of CS Design with the line “There was a fold in the drawings!”