Beacon Barracks, Stafford Ministry of Defence

Lovell was chosen to deliver 346 family service homes for the MOD. These homes had to be built in an extremely tight timetable in an unprecedented and demanding programme.

“Lovell has brought experience and expertise to the delivery team, provided effective Community Liaison for the returning families and surrounding area, whilst working cooperatively at all time with DIO, forging an open and mutually supportive relationship”

Stuart Gallacher, Principal Project Manager

Project

Building 347 homes for returning army families

Location

Stafford, Staffordshire

Dates

January 2014 - November 2015

Partners 

Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO)

Value

£52.7 million

The development of the MOD Stafford SFA was a huge logistical task that was made even more challenging by the fact that the project was time critical. The homes were built to accommodate troops from 16 Signal Regiment and 1 Armoured Division Signal Regiment, who were relocating from Germany.

There was no margin for error. The team had to ensure that Beacon Barracks was ready to become the new home of the two Signal regiments. The troops were due to return in phases and there were fixed dates for Sectional handover.

Equally importantly, the houses had to be finished to the right quality. The houses were built to be ‘Lifetime Homes’ and ‘JSP scale’ compliant, achieve ‘Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 (cfsh)’ as well as ‘Secured by Design’.

The scheme was comprised of the design, build and delivery of 346 Service Family Homes to an unprecedented and demanding programme, with an average of 15 handovers per week. This involved working collaboratively with the DIO and a team of specially selected sub-contractors and suppliers, adopting a flexible and proactive approach to understanding and meeting the DIO’s key objectives.

As part of this dedicated approach to health and safety the Lovell PAVES system was developed, building on and refining existing policy. The system was crucial to the safe and effective delivery of the project due to it’s demanding scale and intensity. PAVES stands for ‘pedestrians and vehicles effectively segregated’. It is a traffic management system that helps mitigate the risk of moving vehicles and plant on our sites. The system helps ensure effective segregation of pedestrians and vehicles by providing clearly defined entrances and exits, walkways and crossing points.

“It is brilliant to move in to a brand new build. Everything is so clean and well designed. The layout of our home is great and although there are very few people to have moved in yet, when the estate fills up I’m sure there will be a tremendous feeling of community here. It is a lovely environment in which to bring up our new daughter Primrose, so we are really happy with it.”

Lance Corporal Richard Neely, 16 Signal Regiment