Christmas (Friday) Update

Good evening to you all on the last Friday of our working year.

As we find ourselves securing and locking up sites and closing the main office for the Christmas period I am sure you are, like me, more than ready for our much-needed extended Christmas break. I do sincerely hope that you have all been able to properly embrace the joy of Christmas this year regardless of the current restrictive and unsettling circumstances, and I hope you are all feeling festive as you have arrived home to begin the holidays.

It is pleasing to see that the government has allowed some breathing space this Christmas to enable us to spend time with those closest to us which I do feel is essential for all our wellbeing. Naturally however this comes with some degree of trepidation and the potential aftermath in terms of infection rates this will cause so I’m sure you will approach our temporary freedom responsibly and exercise a degree of caution to ensure your actions minimise risks to those most vulnerable. I do hope you will take time to relax and take a moment to reflect upon the resilience and determination shown by you all to overcome the huge challenges we have faced and begin to look forward to the New Year ahead.

Christmas wishes have been sent out to the local communities surrounding our construction sites in the form of banners that resemble our latest email footers, placed on many of our sites which were deemed most prominently visible to the public, and as pictured below at Urban Sports Park, Canterbury Medical Centre and Charing, and it is great to see so many of our sites looking Christmassy.

All 100 of the ‘Operation Christmas Child’ shoeboxes carefully and thoughtfully filled with toys and gifts by Katie (as pictured below) and of course thanks to your generous donations, have been delivered this week for onward distribution to the children. I’m delighted that remaining funds allowed us to make a donation of £325 to deserving local charity ‘Donations with a Difference’ (www.dwad.org) who are a wholly voluntary charity and do great work locally to help provide specialist medical equipment that the NHS is unable to provide. A huge thank you to all those who donated, it really does make a difference.

As we close the year we have had a number of projects that have handed-over to our delighted clients and which cannot go without recognition. In recent weeks we have featured the completion of Wateringbury which delivered 51 extra care apartments and in order to really appreciate the magnitude of this development I wanted to share the drone footage viewable by clicking the link below, capturing the whole scheme from above, which was shared with us by our client and is most impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KNnVrmBGfc

This week our client Assura took possession of the new Tonbridge Medical Centre which replaces the tired former premises from which the local GP’s operated and will dramatically improve primary care provision in the town with modern, fit-for-purpose facilities. I’m sure you’ll agree from the images below that the building looks spectacular; well done to Dave and all the team in getting this project over the line to serve its community with essential primary care services. Canterbury Medical Centre is hot on its heels for handover next February.

Also completing this month is the complex refurbishment and new entrance link to the Jennison building at the University of Kent in Canterbury. A few images are shown below of the completed works which has been a highly challenging project, as refurbishments usually are, but the end result is fantastic and a real credit to Kirk Longman and the team.

Additional congratulations must go to the General Works team responsible for delivering essential adaptations and improvements to the entrance and treatment rooms at Charing surgery and with works expediated at incredibly short notice in time to ensure the surgery was ready for the first intake of patients to receive the Coronavirus vaccination, from this morning. Tony Collins leading the project has specifically asked me to extend praise to the team responsible for delivering these works amidst challenging conditions and to such a tight timeframe, so well done to Sam Curtis, Martin Appleby, Matt Higgins, Dave Stear, Pete Golding, Tony Lee, Mick Gatehouse and Darren Goff and it just goes to show the importance of team work and what we can achieve with our team of directly employed highly-skilled tradespeople.

Today we bid very fond farewells to two highly-valued and longstanding members of the team and reiterate our very best wishes to them both and their families as they enter the next phase of their lives. Thank you most sincerely to both Paul Phillips from Park Farm Joinery and Andy Golding (pictured below receiving his gift on site at USP this morning) for your many years of service from us all here at Jenner and we hope you both enjoy your retirements.

I think it is time for me to sign-off now and let you all begin to relax and unwind and get your festivities underway, hopefully enjoying (what’s left of) your hampers. Thank you once again, most sincerely, on behalf of myself and my Co-Directors for your unrelenting enthusiasm and continued dedication to overcome the barriers imposed upon us, and the essence of true team spirit that has been so evident throughout the business this year. As I have said throughout our many months of ‘Friday Updates’, I am incredibly proud of you all and remain highly confident that we will emerge in a position of strength in 2021, and I look forward to our onward journey together.

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.