Drive Thru Bank

Goddards have recently finished landscaping works for Harrison Jorge at the UKs first drive thru bank.

Metro Bank, an American banking company continues its fast paced expansion with the grand opening of its 18th store in Slough, its first with a drive-thru facility. The branch also boast being dog friendly.

BALI Principle Award Winner

Goddards were delighted to receive the Principle Award for Soft Landscape Construction up to £300k at this years BALI Awards. The soft landscaping project for the new build of a company's product and research development head office was described by judges as: Good strong plant material, well executed & maintained. A credit to the Contractor."
Roger Goddard, Andrew Butcher and Chris Chambers (of RPS, the Landscape Architects on the project) were at the event in London to receive the award.

http://www.bali.org.uk/awards/winners_2012

Other guests joining us at the BALI awards were Robin Firth of Robin Firth Landscape Consultants, Nicholas Pascoe from Hallmark Property Management and Mike Young of Waterscapes

http://www.goddards-landscape.co.uk/services/soft-landscaping/bq-sso-eastleigh/

Team Anniversaries

At Goddards we take great pride in our team and the years of experience we have to offer. This year we have celebrated the anniversary of some of our longest serving members of staff.
Peter Bassett has been with Goddards for 25 years, starting as a keen young guy on the shovel and has grown with the company. He brings his years of onsite experience to his role as Contracts Director.
Sue in payroll, and once accounts manager, has also celebrated 25 years with Goddards, now working part time she is still a font of Goddards knowledge.
Andrew Butcher our Landscape Director joined the management team 10 years ago and has been instrumental in initiating our series of BALI Awards, of which we are proud to have won another Priciple Award this year.
Ale our head of accounts has also been at the company for 10 years and is a much valued member of the team.

We have also celebrated the birthday of our oldest member of staff, Ray aged 75, who runs the workshop part time. Ray has worked with us for 20 years and is still able to bend the ear of the youngest when they return broken machines.

Nightingale Care Home, Wandsworth

Congratulations to Tim Lynch of Tim Lynch Associates who has recently won Landscape Architect of the year at the New Homes Garden Awards.
Tim also collected two further awards for Best Memory Garden and Landscape of the Year for Nightingale House, which Goddards are proud to have done the landscape contracting for.
Well done George and Mike for your, and your teams good work throughout all stages of the build and maintenance period.

 For further Information and images please see our Projects page

www.goddards-landscape.co.uk/services/hard-landscaping/nightingale-care-home/

Westgate Centre, Aldershot

Goddards start the landscaping works at the new Westgate entertainment and retail complex in Aldershot.
Built around an open piazza, residents will be able to shop, relax, eat and take in the latest blockbuster movies!
 

Two new schools

Cornelius Vermuyden School was an existing school site with the new build occurring adjacent to the existing operational school.
Extensive semi-mature tree planting along with ornamental shrub areas were installed in the central courtyard areas, large areas of shelter belt native mix were installed too along with around
2 hectares of seeding works. Given the low lying nature of the ‘island’ and the risk of flooding ever present flood attenuation ponds had to be installed and landscaped with the planting of Phragmites
within and along drainage swales being the final task.

Castle View School was a standalone new build site that required Phase 1 works completing prior to pupil occupation and Phase 2 following demolition of some older existing buildings.
The landscape here had to accommodate the possibility of flooding so a swale ran throughout the site and this was planted with suitable tree and shrub species. Some 140 sem-mature trees and 10,000 shrubs were planted throughout the scheme along with 4,000m2 of fine lawn areas.
 

Private Residence at St George’s Hill

-We have successfully completed our 2nd project on the prestigious St George’s Hill Estate, Weybridge.
Incorporating 4,000m2 of fine lawns, 2,500m2 of high quality mature shrub, tree and screen planting along with a fully automated irrigation system.
The scheme boasts a number of 6m+ Tsuga and 5m+ Pine trees, clipped Quercus ilex cylinder, bamboos ranging from 4 – 10m tall, 200 lin.m of 1.8m tall laurel boundary hedging, mature clipped Purple Beech hadges @ 1.8m tall, clipped yew columns at 2m tall and a metre square, clipped Buxus @ 1.4m tall, a large amount on Buxus forming  ‘knot’ features at 0.3m tall to both front and rear beds, over 400 mature Specimen shrubs at 1.2m + high, 4 rose gardens – all underplanted with the Client’s favourite herbaceous stock. The Client also required a secret Japanese Garden to be built and this links the main lawn to a lower ‘play’ lawn to complete the scheme.
Our on-going maintenance contract at the site not only services the existing scheme but also allows for seasonal colour enhancement and garden development.

Top Safety Accreditation for Goddards

We have recently renewed our accreditation from SAFEcontractor, a programme which recognises very high standards of health and safety practise amongst UK contractors.

SAFEcontractor is applicable to most sectors although it is particularly relevant to food manufacture, property, facilities management, retail and leisure sectors, all of which are big users of contract services.

John Kinge, Head of Risk at SAFEcontractor said, "Major organisations can no longer run the risk of employing contractors who are not able to prove that they have sound health and safety policies".

"More companies need to understand the importance of adopting good risk management in the way that Goddards has done. The firm’s high standard has set an example, which hopefully will be followed by other companies within the sector".

Under the SAFEcontractor system, businesses undergo a vetting process, which examines health and safety procedures and their track record for safe practice. Those companies meeting the high standard are included on a database, which is accessible to registered users only via a website, www.safecontractor.com

12 Metre Thuya Lift

Two [very] large Thuya plicata were today delivered to one of our sites on St George’s Estate, Weybridge, and offloaded by an 80 tonne counterbalanced mobile crane. Each was 12m tall and weighed 8 tonnes!

Well done to Adam Stokes, Waine Dyer, Dan Gagen, Contracts Manager George Hunt [who is probably a little bit greyer!] and thanks to all the Site Team too!

Clik on the link to see the offloading of the final tree:

 http://youtu.be/RiHkSQpKoXQ

New Tree for Dorking Seating Area

As part of Mole Valley District Council's (MVDC) makeover of South Street Gardens, Goddards have planted a beautiful new plane tree, following months of careful planning.

The tree is the central focus of the new seating area, which sits in between Butter Hill and South Street. Up lighting will highlight its shape and height. Seating designed by talented artist blacksmith Robert Kranenborg will be installed around the tree. This will sit on freshly laid high-quality York stone paving. 

A plane tree was selected for the site because of its beautiful foliage, autumn colour and mottled bark. As it grows it will be attractive both close up and from a distance. Famously hardy, the tree will flourish in its new position in the centre of town.

The semi-mature plane tree was handpicked by members of MVDC's Parks team, who wanted it to have an instant impact. Time was spent preparing the ground to ensure that it will thrive. It has its own irrigation system and anchoring system hidden below ground. 

Councillor Chris Reynolds, Portfolio Holder for Environment, said: "Careful planning went into the selection and planting of what we hope will become a landmark in Dorking. We are constantly working to improve the quality of our built environment for the long term. The area will be a pleasant place for residents to sit and relax while waiting for a bus, taking a break from shopping or just watching the world go by."

New Contract - Aldershot

Goddards have been successful in securing the landscape works at the new West Gate Shopping Centre in Aldershot. Building works are well underway and we expect to install the scheme during Summer 2012
 

Award Winning Maintenance Team

Well done to our Maintenance team, headed up by Martyn Fowler for their part in the Sunrise Senior Living Community at Fleet winning a Fleet in Bloom Award.

Sunrise are to be awarded the Hart DC Rosebowl after winning the Community Gardens Class for its well maintained colourful gardens, where residents and families can enjoy time their together.