Sustainable credentials clinch award for prestigious Anglesey development18th Mar 2008

A £19m development on Anglesey has received a prestigious industry award for its sustainable credentials. Jones Bros, Ruthin, and Atkins Consultants have received awards for their work at Parc Cybi, a 120-acre mixed housing and leisure business development, on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government, between Holyhead and Trearddur Bay.

They received the Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award scheme (CEEQUAL) award from the Institute of Civil Engineers for their approaches to sustainability.
Project designer, Atkins Consultants, achieved an ‘excellent’ rating for the project while Jones Bros, which is building the infrastructure, received an interim award.

CEEQUAL assesses the environmental quality of civil engineering projects by assessing aspects such as the use of water, energy and land as well as ecology, landscape, nuisance to neighbours, archaeology, waste minimisation and management, and community amenity.
The Welsh Assembly Government’s concept for Parc Cybi is of sustainability and for it to become carbon-neutral.

Factors being addressed to help achieve this status include using locally-produced materials for kerbing, producing plans to preserve and retain colonies of water voles, red squirrels and badger sets, and retention instead of removal of hedges of hawthorn and elder.

Another element is the inclusion by the Welsh Assembly Government of a social responsibility clause that requires contractors to recruit local people from the unemployment register where possible.

Jones Bros project manager, Hefin Lloyd-Davies, said: “One example from our activities is that instead of transporting rock onto the site, we recycled 20,000 tonnes of what was excavated, and Jones Bros’ own crushing and screening division produced all the material we needed to the right specification.

“It meant we saved 1,000 vehicle movements to and from the site and that’s of great benefit to the environment.”

Jones Bros has also signed up to the Considerate Constructor scheme for its work at Parc
Cybi, under which it has organised visits by school children to site, and taking the site’s
ecology and archaeology to the classrooms, with respective experts providing information about the site.

The Welsh Assembly Government is developing Parc Cybi, formally known as Ty Mawr, as a major strategic mixed use site for North West Wales, creating up to 1,300 jobs. It is supported by Objective 1 funding from the European Union.

Jones Bros is building a new link road to join with Junction 2 of the A55, as well as a road through the middle of the development.

Hefin added: “At the moment the project has been awarded an ‘excellent’ interim client and outline design award. Once the project is complete next summer, the full award should be granted to us. It’s certainly an incentive to maintain our high standards.

“This is an exciting project to work on. The Welsh Assembly Government is an innovative and forward-thinking client and we are pleased to be playing our part, alongside Atkins Consultants, in fulfilling its vision for Parc Cybi.”

Currently, Jones Bros shares the site with up to 45 archaeologists. They are carefully recording and removing artefacts dating back centuries, including a Neolithic longhouse, the remains of a Bronze Age timber roundhouse, and at least five stone-built Iron Age roundhouses.

Hefin said: “Protecting the heritage under this site has been an important part of the development process. It’s been one of the largest archaeological digs ever conducted prior to a development. The land has revealed much more than was expected.”

Up to 50 employees of Jones Bros have been working on the site since December 2006. These include designers, civil engineers, plant operators and mechanics.

It is one of a number of projects carried out by the company around the UK. These include highways, wind farms and sea defences, quarrying and marine developments.

Jones Bros Contracts Director, John Dielhof said: “I congratulate Hefin and his team for their achievements at Parc Cybi.

“Along with the Welsh Assembly Government and Atkins Consultants they were awarded an excellent rating by the assessors, only missing the highest score in Wales to date by 0.1 percentage point.”

Plans for Parc Cybi include a hotel, leisure complex, offices and factories as well as 150 homes.