Lawley, West Midlands

Persimmon Homes, West Midlands division, instructed the multidisciplinary team RPS Group some time ago for their large housing development in Lawley West Midlands. GeoRisk, the specialist environmental consultant based in West Bromwich began an extended ground investigation because of the presence of made ground an opencast mining area in 2021.

Tobermore sales team began liaising with Persimmons in late 2023. Retain Solutions was approached by the groundworkers on site, MV Kelly in late April 2024 with initial drawings.

Following this approach, Retain carried out a preliminary assessment and provided budget costing. When this was approved Retain, moved onto a detailed design, involving our design risk matrix. In late May revised layout drawings were obtained. The tight timescale became even tighter as MV Kelly was under pressure to hand over a portion of the site.

Finalised design and construction drawings were produced from the amended layout drawings. These were then approved on June 10th along with the specification for ongoing testing to BS1377.

We had worked before at Burleyfields with the very efficient MV Kelly division based in Solihull; led by the Construction Director, Conar Dillon and the senior quantity surveyor, Matt Lomas. With the colour picked, blocks were manufactured and delivered to the site. We started construction on 24th June and finished on site on 9th July 2024.

The process from the start of detailed design incorporating the layout changes, the specification and monitoring of independent onsite testing to the finished job took about 5 weeks.

Persimmons and MV Kelly felt confident to award the next phase which we are starting in early September 2024.