RJH also has a robust approach defending our position and achieving our objectives when dealing with all the contractors, quietly and effectively invoked. We also have comfort that there is experience in dispute resolution which should prevent out project requiring those services, and we have benefited from the consistency of working with one person throughout.” 

Having initially appointed a local Architect to produce an initial scheme design and obtain planning permission to demolish the existing church and build a completely new combined Church and community building in its place, the trustees needed to move on to turning their vision into reality, and the first step was to understand the costs, risks, and regulatory hurdles involved in realising that vision. 

They appointed RJH to initially prepare a construction cost plan from the planning drawings, before going away to embark upon a challenging process of raising the funding for their £1.5Million project.

As progress on the fund raising progressed, RJH helped the Trustees to assemble a complete project design team comprising a new architectural practice who also took on the role of Principal Designer, a structural engineer, and a mechanical and electrical engineer. As the Church’s appointed Project Manager and Quantity Surveyor, RJH led the design team through the development of the design to meet the Church’s by now further developed brief, at all times keeping an eye on costs, risks, and the need to involve other specialists such as Site Investigation companies, utilities companies, archaeologists, and a ground source heat pump specialist to drill test boreholes to establish the viability of such a sustainable heating solution for the new building.

A further planning submission and approval process was undertaken following the development of the design to a detailed stage, through a series of design team meetings and a detailed process of consultation with all stakeholders, authorities, and ongoing project cost management. Subsequently, a further detailed cost plan was prepared by RJH, involving a large degree of market testing to ensure that the cost plan was both robust and providing the best value for money for the Trustees.

Following the completion of the fund-raising required for the project, RJH prepared tender documents for the demolition phase, which was separated out in order to mitigate the risk of any delays and associated additional cost caused by unforeseen problems, or by any archaeological finds. Yorkshire Demolition and Reclamation Ltd were the successful tenderer, coming in on budget. RJH prepared a contract for the Demolition works, which were subsequently successfully carried out without any problems between September 2018 and February 2019, despite the difficult access into the site and the proximity of adjacent buildings and existing structures.

Contractor tenders were obtained in early 2019, which again came in on-budget against the latest RJH cost plan; and in March 2019 RJH drew up Contract documents for the Trustees, and a JCT Building Contract was placed with the Contractor, Hobson & Porter Ltd from Hull.

Construction of the new Church and community building commenced on site in April 2019, and works were completed on site in August 2020, having suffered some delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions encountered during 2020.

RJH acted as the Church’s Project Manager, Contract Administrator and Quantity Surveyor and has also appointed a Clerk of works to oversee the construction works from a quality perspective.

The project included a fully sustainable Ground Source Heat Pump heating system, which was a Contractor Design Package, along with design of the aluminium curtain walling, windows, and doors, roof trusses, and structural steelwork connections.

The new Church Hall community building was completed by the Contractor, Hobson & Porter, in August 2020 and handed over to a delighted Client. Photographs of the completed building below: