Friday Update

Friday seems to have come around very quickly once again mainly due to the four day working week, and I do hope you all enjoyed the Bank Holiday weekend.  Forecasts thankfully suggest that Summer might yet make a late return which will be most welcomed so that we can all enjoy some September sunshine, and which will also greatly assist us in maintaining good progress across our sites as we head into the latter part of what can only be described as an unusual and unorthodox year.

I do hope the return to school for those with children of that age has gone as smoothly as possible, and that they are already adapting to new ways of school life and settling back into some form of routine. Whilst COVID naturally continues to dominate the media and the varying approaches to travel restrictions across the UK continuing to cause some confusion and frustration, I hope you are managing to retain your optimism and continue to feel confident and safe whilst in the workplace. Social distancing and face coverings, whilst still somewhat unnatural, are becoming part of everyday life and are vital to keep us safe and reduce the ongoing threat of the virus, so please do continue to act responsibly for the greater good as we continue to make progress towards some form of normality.

With the recent U-turn in government thinking actively encouraging a return to office working in order to rejuvenate town centres with economic activity, I once again feel we are ahead of the curve and have established our own efficient ways of working with a well-balanced approach and optimal mix of office and remote working.  This seems to be working well for us so I would strongly encourage this to continue so that numbers in the office at any given time remain at a manageable level that ensures we can adhere to social distancing and keep everyone safe and well. 

More positive feedback has been received this week relating to our performance, this time focused on the delivery of ‘Rye on The Hill’ Day Care Centre.  In fact, the client has been so impressed with the quality of the Hub that they have expressed their desire to make a personal presentation to Michael Larnder, Rod Wooldridge and Dave Thomas to celebrate the value of their input into this project that will prove so pivotal to the local community. Well done to you all in delivering another Jenner project to our renowned and exceptionally high standards.

Praise must also be extended to the Kings Hill team who have worked tirelessly to deliver the marketing suite in Area 10, especially in light of the challenges faced in recent months in working on a former World War 2 Airbase. The show house (as pictured below), which opened to the public last weekend as programmed, and the first of the 166 units to complete, looks fabulous and is a credit to you all.  Quality is fundamental to assist our client in achieving the impressive sales values predicted for the apartments and town houses, which are anticipated to be in the region of £240,000 to £550,000 and will only cement (no pun intended) our relationships with Clarion Housing further and which will serve us well for future repeat business opportunity, so well done to all the team.

Progress at Folkestone Seafront continues at pace with the pouring of the first columns earlier this week following the first section of slab that was poured last Friday (and certainly not assisted by the inclement weather). As you can see below, this is really starting to take shape and resemble a building, after months of hard work and expense within the ground.

I do hope you will agree that the foregoing news, alongside all the positive updates issued over previous months is firm testament to our continued recovery and I do feel we are emerging stronger as a team and as a business, which is undoubtedly thanks to everyone’s concerted efforts to overcome adversity and push ahead for the future.   

Finishing on some staff news and this time involving two of our team, congratulations go to Vinnie Tingley and his wife Megan on the safe arrival of their son, baby Odie who was born yesterday and is the first grandchild of Dave Tingley.  Very best wishes are sent to you all.   

That’s all from me for another week, other than to wish you all an enjoyable weekend ahead.