Category: News

Now into its 67th year, the RoSPA Health and Safety Awards is the largest occupational health and safety awards programme in the UK. The programme recognizes an organisations’ commitment to continuous improvement in the prevention of accidents and ill health at work, looking at entrants’ overarching health and safety management systems, including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.

O’Brien Contractors are committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for all our staff. O’Brien  provides ongoing training, information, supervision and health advice so that all of our employees are competent to work safely and we are committed to providing the resources necessary to support this provision.

Managing Director, Peter O’Brien, said: “We are delighted to have been awarded our 10^th RoSPA Gold Award and to receive a President’s Award as recognition of this is outstanding. It’s a fantastic achievement and a positive reflection of all who work for us. We are dedicated to Health & Safety and making sure that every element of our works are delivered with the upmost safety in mind. This 10^th gold award is proof that it is always a priority.”

Our industry-leading standards have also been recognised with many other occupational health and safety accreditations ranging from CHAS Gold, Achilles Building Confidence and RISQS. With O’Brien Contractors successfully completing our recent audit for ISO9001, ISO14001 and IS045001 for 2023.

Our very own Masterchef  Anthony Watson has cooked up a treat for the office today, by cooking us all a beautiful homemade and extremely delicious Thai Yellow Curry with Jasmine Rice for his Thai Friday theme day. Anthony is a keen chef in his spare time, cooking up a variety of delicious curries!

Anthony has organised the day to raise money for our O’Brien Charitable Trust.  https://trust.obriencontractors.co.uk/

Thanks Anthony!

O’Brien are absolutely delighted to have won the award for Large Project of the Year from SAPCA for our Old Saltleians RFC project!

Using our in-house civil engineering & building construction expertise, along with our extensive sports development experience, we delivered a turnkey design & build solution for the client, to develop 17 acres of former farmland into a sports facility with 6 natural turf pitches, a clubhouse and associated infrastructure.

Beginning with a Breaking Ground Ceremony in November 2021 O’Brien commenced works to develop seventeen acres of fallow arable farmland into a state of the art facility. The new grounds would provide a clubhouse and 6 natural turf pitches, ecological area as well as ample parking for cars and coaches.

O’Brien worked extremely closely with the Old Saltleians Rugby Club along with their consultants and design team, Robinson Lowe Francis (RLF), AJA Architects, Nolan Associates and PSD to bring the project from a concept to a completed facility fit for the future. The project was completed on time and to budget.

Kevan Fell has been awarded our quarterly ‘Outstanding Employee Award’ for the last quarter of 2022, for his hard work on our Fairham Park and Ride Highways Works project.

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/fairham-project-starts-to-take-shape/

Site Manager Tim Murphy said “Kevan’s good all-round attitude at work and the pride taken shaping batters and ponds at our Nottingham site has been top notch, also taking charge of his own sections of work, showing his overall knowledge in earth moving and plant operation, as well as the understanding of work needed to achieve programme dates.

Well done to Kevan!

O’Brien values the skills, experience, and dedication of our site teams.

In recognition of this, we have for many years run the ‘Employee Outstanding Achievement Award.’ The award goes to a member of one of our site teams each quarter to coincide with our quarterly newsletter.

Project Managers nominate the operative that they think has gone above and beyond for the previous quarter and the candidate with the most recommendations win the award. In recognition of their outstanding contribution on site, the winner gets a £500 cheque and a certificate.

The contest is hotting up, with our Director Tony Mitchell going for a very distinguished Paul Hollywood look.  Click on the link to sponsor him, make sure you mention his name in your donation message. https://trust.obriencontractors.co.uk/

Our Movember contestants have taken up the fuzzy challenge for our 2022 challenge to raise money for the O’Brien Trust charity.

The boys in the office do us proud every year raising money for the Charitable Trust in the Movember Challenge, and they are very competitive!

• Dan Taylor – QS
• Tony Mitchell – Director
• Matthew Moore – Buyer
• James O’Brien – Workshop Manager

They will be growing those top lip warmers for the whole of November (possibly glad of the extra warmth during this time of year)!

If you would like to sponsor any of our contestants, use our Paypal donation button (we get Gift Aid as well), leave a message and don’t forget to say who you are sponsoring with your donation! (message function comes up after payment, just be patient and wait for the screen to pop up).

We are working towards our £15,000 goal for 2022.

The Office Ladies Getting in on the Act in 2022!

The girls in the office will be joining in this year, with a competition for the most ridiculous fake face fuzz, wearing it for 3 hours on the 25 November!

Just in case you don’t know, if the staff raise £15,000 between January and the end of December, the O’Brien Directors match that amount, so we have £30,000 to distribute in January 2023 to our chosen small charities and community organisations.

We really appreciate all the support and sponsors, not just for this event, but all of our events and fundraising efforts throughout the year.

THANK YOU FROM THE O’BRIEN TEAM!

O’Brien have been members of SAPCA (Sports and Play Association) for a number of years for artificial turf pitches and MUGA’s, and decided it was time to request formal recognition and approval for natural turf pitches which we have been constructing for many years.  So earlier this year SAPCA did it’s first inspection on our natural turf projects, choosing our Western Park Project Phase 1 and Phase 2 where we constructed several natural turf pitches as part of the project and our current project at Old Saltleians RFC, which at the time was in its very early phases.

A few weeks ago, SAPCA once again visited our Old Saltleians RFC project which had developed quite significantly since SAPCA’s previous visit.  They also visited our Solihull School completed project where we have completed a significant natural turf and construction project, and our Bromsgrove School project where we had installed a hockey and tennis courts resurfacing project, along with car park extension works.

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/projects/solihull-school-st-martins-redevelopment-project/

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/projects/old-saltleians-rfc-new-rugby-grounds-and-clubhouse-development/

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/projects/bromsgrove-school-worcestershire/

O’Brien’s Sport Facilities Expertise and Experience

O’Brien offer turnkey solutions for multiple sports facilities, ranging from rugby, football, hockey pitches to stadiums and arenas.

We have a wealth of experience in sports pitch construction, and we are one of the first large contractors to be able to offer turnkey solutions for multiple sports facilities, ranging from rugby, football, hockey pitches to stadiums and arenas.

This capability is maintained in-house by our team of experts who have a proven track record of delivering a diverse range of design and build sports projects to exacting client specifications.

We offer a full range of sports pitch services, including:

• Full design and build construction projects
• Synthetic and multi-use games area (MUGA) pitches
• Pitch renovations
• Natural sports pitches
• Total solutions for sports pitches

The sports installations that we deliver include natural sports pitches, such as those used for rugby, football and cricket, and synthetic and Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) pitches with surfaces suitable for just about every sport and user, from professional sports teams to schools and communities.

We provide the total solution from concept to construction to design and build all Synthetic and Natural Sports Surfaces.

FIH (International Hockey Federation) Certified Field Builder for Hockey Pitches

FIH Certified Field Builders specialise in building hockey fields and have a proven ability to construct fields to the standards the game requires. They have appropriate in-house civil engineering expertise for the design and construction of 11-a-side and Hockey 5s fields, operate quality management systems to ensure consistency in their work and provide comprehensive maintenance advice to their customers.

http://www.fih.ch/inside-fih/fih-quality-programme-for-hockey-turf/find-out-who-has-fih-certification/fih-certified-field-builders/

SAPCA Quality System

SAPCA’s Quality System ensures that only specialist companies that can consistently deliver high standards of sports and play facilities can join SAPCA and then remain as members. Members must have a proven track record and trading history, with SAPCA checking that contractors are able to offer clients the necessary high standards of workmanship and must also meet financial stability criteria.

Standards of design and construction

SAPCA has a series of Codes of Practice that set out the industry’s standards of construction. SAPCA members must comply with the required construction specifications and quality of completed work.

Inspection of contractors’ projects

In order to ensure that SAPCA contractors continue to deliver high quality facilities, the Association has an inspection programme, through which checks are carried out on a selection of members’ projects, both during construction and on completion.

https://sapca.org.uk/

Our Fairham Project, Starts to Take Shape in Nottingham!

Works have been going at a pace following the commencement of the cut and fill earthworks on site. O’Brien are creating a new access road and controlled junction for the new Fairham neighbourhood, along with improved access to the existing Park & Ride site.

Access to and from the Clifton South Park & Ride has been maintained to keep traffic flowing while works are ongoing.

We are conducting the work on behalf of Clowes Developments, the company behind the Fairham masterplan. Fairham is being brought forward in partnership with Homes England, the government’s housing accelerator.

The works will create a new route into the £800 million Fairham neighbourhood in Nottinghamshire.

The 606-acre site is in the process of becoming a whole new neighbourhood for Nottingham with 3,000 new homes, one million sq. ft of employment space and 200 acres of open green space. The works are all part of £100 million of infrastructure improvements scheduled for Fairham.

https://fairhamlife.co.uk/access-works-for-800

https://obriencontractors.co.uk/contract-win-at-fairham-nottingham-for-obrien-contractors/

For tickets to attend click the link:   https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/soabe-meet-the-employer-tickets-412730717687

Our Commitment to Protect and Enhance Biodiversity of the Site

We were committed to ensuring that the original biodiversity of this important site would be protected during our works and enhanced on completion. Additional landscaping, ponds, and other necessary works ensured that lost biodiversity units from the works were replaced during the extension of the cemetery.

As part of our commitment to the environment and our commitment to social value in the areas that we work, we gifted bird boxes, bat boxes and insect houses to our client for use in the new cemetery grounds.  The items were purchased from the National Trust, where timber products are made from FSC certified materials, and where money from every purchase goes back into looking after other important sites.

The new cemetery is located in an area that forms part of a ‘Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation (SLINC)’.  A site which was part of an important and well used and popular public open space, much loved and important to the local community.  Prior to and during our works we completely understood the importance of this stunning area for habitats in the form of plants, trees and wildlife and our part in the protection of it.

O’Brien have carried out numerous projects where the importance of protecting and improving the biodiversity of the project site has been a critical element of the works.  This gave our client Sandwell Council the confidence to award the contract for this very important and sensitive site in Rowley Regis, for the ‘New Canalside Cemetery’.

During the works O’Brien complied with all relevant legislation including:

• Wildlife and Countryside Act 1991
• Protection of Badgers Act 1992
• Conservation (Natural Habitats etc.) Regulations 1994
• Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996

To see details of our project at Rowley Regis, click this link! https://obriencontractors.co.uk/projects/rowley-regis-new-canalside-cemetery/

O’Brien are Sponsoring a Rugby Team at the Vets Fest Rugby Event for Wooden Spoon, the children’s charity of rugby, which is a grant-making charity, funding life changing projects across the UK & Ireland.

On Saturday the 08 October, over 700 players from across the UK will get together at Birmingham Moseley Rugby Club for the annual rugby Vet Fest.  This massive rugby event will help the charity raise much needed money, to continue their great work to raise funds to support disabled, disadvantaged and vulnerable children & young people.

To support this great charity and event, O’Brien Contractors have chosen to sponsor the Leicester and Staffordshire rugby team, just one of 35 teams of Vets Rugby men and women representing Wooden Spoon’s regions across the UK.

In 2021, 450 players from 15 teams, across 13 regions played in 37 matches at an event organised in memory of 13-year-old rugby fan Olly Stephens, who was tragically killed near his home in Reading in January 2021, with over £64,000 raised for vulnerable children and young people across the UK.

The largest part of the charity’s income is raised by local volunteers, with the aim that every penny volunteers raise is spent in their local communities.  In the last year, despite the difficult conditions, they supported 43 charitable projects helping over 100,000 vulnerable children and young people.

They need additional funds more than ever as there are more children that need their help.  In the last year Wooden Spoon was only able to fund one in four of the grant applications received due to the increased demand for support.

This year the focus is on supporting mental health projects. Here’s why:

• It is estimated that 1.5 million children and young people will need mental health support as a result of the pandemic (Centre of Mental Health, 2020).
• 374,000 children under 18 are currently on a waiting list for NHS mental health services.

For more information on the Wooden Spoon Charity, click on the link: About Us: Wooden Spoon, the children’s charity of rugby | Wooden Spoon.

Date: Saturday 8th October 2022
Time: 10am till late
Venue: Birmingham Moseley Rugby Club