Author: Matt Tobin

As a specialist and authority in our field, we will help owners of buildings and property to reduce their energy bills and CO2 emissions. We will do this by offering a multi-stage consultancy process as well as offering a full suite of services, from maintenance to design to building upgrade.

In partnership with Thanet District Council, we’re bringing history to life in celebration of the 2019 Turner Prize Award Ceremony, being held at Dreamland Margate.

On Tuesday 3 December, the winner of Turner Prize 2019 will be announced live on the BBC in a televised ceremony held in Hall-by-the-Sea. On the evening, the 1935 entrance halls of the famous seafront building will act as a walkway to Hall-by-the-Sea inside Dreamland Margate. This entrance route has not been used for 30 years.

We were responsible for major restoration and redevelopment works at Dreamland between 2009 and 2017 and were on site last month installing lighting, handrails and knocking a wall down between the back of the vacant Cinema building and the Hall-by-the Sea.

Nick Bushell, Contracts Manager at Coombs, who also lives in Margate, said:

“Dreamland has a unique position in history and in the memories of generations of local people. We’re pleased to be once again working with Thanet District Council and Dreamland and hope to give guests of the 2019 Turner Prize awards ceremony a taster of what the grand entrance route was like.

“As a local resident, like many of our team and members of our supply chain who worked on the previous phases, it’s been rewarding to be involved at Dreamland and directly contribute to such an important part of our local community.”

The Grade II* listed Dreamland Cinema opened in 1935 to wide acclaim. It is a unique combination of Northern-European Expressionist brickwork and American-style neon signage.

One of the purposes of the Cinema design was to provide a grand ceremonial entrance to the Dreamland Ballroom which opened in the 1880s and has seen many famous acts in its 135 year history. The entrance route took guests past the Dreamland Bars and the Sunshine Cafe, through a top-lit ticket hall, past the stalls of the Cinema and down a wide staircase with a view of the Ballroom stage. The whole sequence was designed to impress the visitor.

In 1977, the ballroom was converted into squash courts. The ceremonial route was blocked in 1990, and subsequently the stalls foyer was filled with partitions. The ballroom, now called the Hall-by-the-Sea, sits within the Dreamland amusement park and hosts music and leisure events for thousands of revellers throughout the year.

Tim Willis, Deputy Chief Executive at Thanet District Council said:

“We are incredibly proud of Dreamland’s rich history and grateful to Coombs for agreeing to do this work and give guests a trip down memory lane.

Described as the heartbeat of Margate, Dreamland is considered the oldest surviving amusement park in the UK dating back to the early 1860s. Hosting the Turner Prize Awards Ceremony is another great coup for the park and helps celebrate Thanet as a key cultural destination.”

The Turner Prize is one of the best known prizes for the visual arts in the world and the exhibition has attracted over 90,000 visitors since opening to the public on 28 September 2019. This year’s winner will be announced by Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue, Edward Enninful OBE.

A huge well done to everybody involved in the delivery of Ashford School’s Nursery & Sports Pavilion

A 93% customer satisfaction rating was achieved by our team during the construction of a new nursery and a new sports pavilion for Ashford School. Our works involved creating a vibrant new nursery for pupils at Ashford School’s Great Chart site. The CLArchitects designed building has created an environment reflecting the school ethos for adventurous learning. The new nursery retains a number of historic stone walls from a previous building on site, making them key features.

The new sports pavilion provides much-needed facilities to support Ashford School’s “competitive sport for all” ethos. The timber frame pavilion provides a mix of changing rooms and a club room offering views across the sports pitches. Some highlights of the feedback received include:

• 10/10 – for our sensitivity to those working in and around the building;
• 10/10 – for Collaborative Working;
• 10/10 – for Quality of Product;
• 10/10 – for Handover;
• 10/10 – for our Ability to Add value;

We were also rated as Better than contractors they had used in the past. Thank you to everybody involved including our local supply chain which consisted of 97% micro, small and medium sized companies.

The cream of the South East’s Construction industry celebrated at the first South East Construction Expo Awards, held on the evening of the South East Construction Expo 2019 at Ardingly, West Sussex.

Our very own Louis Clarke won Best Apprentice for 2019 and is the very first recipient of this award. He was nominated for his impressive approach to learning and his enthusiasm for the job.

Mark Lawford from Coombs, who nominated Louis said, “He has stood out to us from day one. As a company we pride ourselves on bringing through apprentices and nurturing them into a qualified tradesman. Louis has ticked all the boxes for what we look for – enthusiasm, punctuality but also a great natural skill for his craft at a very young age.”

Gill Monk from All Health Matters, who sponsored the awards with support from the Institute of Directors (IOD) said, “We had an impressive first year of entries and it was a great pleasure to find so many excellent candidates who are worthy winners. We would like to congratulate them all on their success.”

We were also a runner up in the “Best Construction Contractor” category which celebrates the region’s most outstanding main contractors, who have demonstrated the highest levels of innovation, quality of work, sustainability, health and safety and well-being, training and development of people.

Whereas our  Sunshine Café, Dreamland project was a runner up in the “Best Construction Project” category ,celebrating the region’s most outstanding construction projects and recognising the teams involved for their high standard of work, client satisfaction and budget control in a safe and healthy working environment.

The awards followed a hugely successful second year of the South East Construction Expo, attended by over 2,500 delegates from the industry, with 120 companies exhibiting the latest construction technology, ideas and expertise, alongside dozens of workshops, presentations and meet the buyer opportunities.

Continuing our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility, we’re proud to help many local young people take part in sport.

Taking part in sport can improve social inclusion, mental and physical health as well as being fun. As part of our corporate social responsibility strategy we’re proud to support local teams that make a positive difference to people’s lives. Some of the local teams we’ve supported include:

Rising Stars Youth FC

Rising Stars Youth FC was founded in 2014 and is based in Whitstable, Kent. They have teams ranging from U7s to U13s, boys’ teams and girls’ teams. They are committed to putting children at the centre of everything they do, and ensuring that they can develop football as well as life skills in a safe and fun environment.

They are very proud to have been awarded FA Charter Standard status, winning Kent FA Charter Standard Club of the Year Award in May 2016. We’re sponsoring their U10s in the East Kent Youth League for this season and next. Good luck to Roman, Ethan, Lucas, Joseph, George, Liam, Ceiran, Albie, Sullivan, Freddie & Jake. More information about Rising Stars Youth FC can be found at: https://risingstarsyouthfc.co.uk/

 CCCU Women’s Football

In the last couple of years, the women’s football team at CCCU has been strong. This year they made it to the semi-final of the South East Conference Cup. In February they won their 8th consecutive varsity match against the University of Kent. The only team in Canterbury Christ Church University to have a winning streak this long.

“Sponsorship from local companies helps us massively and we are very grateful to have Coombs sponsor us. As students we have to pay out a lot when it comes to football (Membership, Kit, Tracksuits etc) having sponsorship subsidies the cost a lot for our team and enables them to feel part of the team.” CCCU’s Women’s Football Team Treasurer.

 CCCU Women’s Cricket

This season Canterbury Christ Church University’s Women’s Cricket team gained top spot in the BUCS league, beating both Kent and Essex university. Some top all round performance helped them to a win against Kent university again making us outdoor varsity winners for 2019.

We will once again be supporting CCCU Women’s Cricket Team for the forthcoming season. Fixtures start in November for their indoor season, whilst their outdoor season will be from April.

Canterbury Rugby Club

We’ve been proud sponsors of Canterbury Rugby Football Club for over 30 years. Canterbury RFCR offers many things. A thriving social life, the chance to make new and long-lasting friendships and feeling part of a real community are just some of them. As East Kent’s leading community club they pride themselves on providing sport and fun for a wide range of people. As well as Junior teams from U7s, Ladies sides and the National League men’s team the club run a successful Wheelchair Rugby section.

Offering a mixed team sport for disabled athletes, open to anyone from the age of 12 interested in learning more about the game. Able bodied volunteers can join the team as athlete assistants, chair mechanics, coaches and referees. More information about Canterbury RFC can be found here: https://cantrugby.co.uk/

The Canterbury Minilympics

For the second year in a row we’ll be supporting the Canterbury Minilympics. Over 140 school children from nine local schools took part in the 2018 Canterbury Minilympics sports day, to encourage active and healthy lifestyles. Pupils, aged eight and nine, and their teachers got involved in a day of team athletics and sports science tests, which was organised by Canterbury Christ Church University in partnership with The King’s School. More information about the Canterbury Minilympics can be found here.