Category: Uncategorized

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.

Work to build new homes on part of Kingsmead Field is due to start later this year.

The news comes after Canterbury City Council announced the appointment of Canterbury-based builders Coombs to carry out the project, which gained planning permission this time last year.

The scheme will see 16 homes built in a mix of sizes and types of accommodation with five of them being affordable and destined for families from the council’s housing waiting list. The remaining 11 will be sold on the open market.

Chairman of the council’s Regeneration and Property Committee, Cllr Rachel Carnac, said: “It will be fantastic to see workers on the ground ready to build homes that will make a real difference to families on our waiting list.

“This scheme heralds a new way of doing things for the council – building homes ourselves rather than handing the land over to a developer.

“We hope it will be a real success and one we can repeat elsewhere.”

The new homes will be built on a section of Kingsmead Field close to the existing Kingsbrook Park development. Originally, the council had plans to build on the whole field, which led to a campaign by residents to prevent any development at all.

But following discussions with the Friends of Kingsmead Field group, a compromise was reached that sees only 20 per cent built on, with the council seeking to have the remaining 80 per cent of the field classified a Village Green.

Village Green status protects the land from being developed and is one of the highest protections available in the country. An application has been made to Kent County Council.

Cllr Carnac said: “We really appreciate the support of the Friends of Kingsmead Field with this project and thank them for all the hard work they put in to make this corner of the city an oasis of natural beauty.”

Coombs has been operating in the southeast for more than 40 years and prides itself on the amount of repeat business it wins.

Managing Director, John Healey, said: “We are really looking forward to working with the council on such an exciting project, which will create a blueprint for the delivery of housing in the district going into the future.

“As a Canterbury-based company, our local staff are excited to build yet another high-quality project for their community.

“We look forward to continuing to work closely with the team at Canterbury City Council and our architect Clague, as we bring this high-quality development to life.”

The 2020 Regional Finalists have been revealed for the Civic Trust Awards, Pro-Tem Awards, AABC Conservation Awards and Selwyn Goldsmith Awards for Universal Design.

The Coombs constructed Daphne Oram Creative Arts Building for Canterbury Christ Church University is one of 19 finalists from the South East region. In total 115 projects have been selected from all national and international entries following the first stage assessment process.

The Regional Finalists will now be reviewed by the Civic Trust Awards and AABC National Panels who will consider them for a National / International Award or Commendation. The SGA Judging Panel will also meet to consider the quality of universal design standards by the assessor nominated regional projects in order to determine the SGA winners.

Winning schemes will be presented with their Civic Trust Award or Commendation at the 61st Annual Civic Trust Awards Ceremony. This will be held on Friday 6th March 2020, at the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester.

Award winning projects will also be considered for the Civic Trust’s Special Awards; given to schemes which demonstrate excellence in either sustainability, community impact & engagement and the National Panel Special Award, selected by National Panel Members as their favourite scheme.