Engineering

Woods Hardwick have appointed 10 new staff members over an eight week period this summer as part of its expansion plans across their Bedford, Birmingham and London offices.

The additional new staff now takes Woods Hardwick to an 82-strong workforce – a 14% growth in the team for the multidiscipline practice that specialises in architecture, engineering, planning and surveying.

Great news for long-standing Bedford employer, Richardson Milling UK (formerly Jordans Cereals) having secured planning consent to transform their site on Mile Road.

Woods Hardwick’s planners, architects and engineers have worked together to deliver a masterplan that will allow Richardson Milling UK to expand their existing milling and production facility.

Elena is a Graduate Civil Engineer in our Birmingham office. She joined Woods Hardwick in September 2021, and is already supporting many clients.
She shares her thoughts on how we can encourage more women into the sector as well as her career journey to date  -jumping (or flying!) from aerospace manufacturing to civil engineering. And we also find out how she has encouraged a love of all things aquatic in the Birmingham office!

Planning Director Russell Gray attended Day One of the Built Environment Networking’s Oxford-Cambridge Arc Conference. 
The feeling in the room was clear from the start - a real concern of political inertia at the national level; that the Government is no longer as committed to the Arc, with the lack of any mention in the recent Comprehensive Spending Review evidence of this.

Over the past decade, Birmingham has seen a surge in development and investment, with focus on the regeneration of key city centre sites. 
This has seen new residential communities formed in the central area alongside retail, business and cultural destinations. 

On Tuesday 14 September, our Planning Director Paul Woods, chaired a session at the Built Environment Networking’s Midlands Development conference, hosted at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
This was one of the BEN’s first hybrid events, with around 150 people in attendance in person, with another 80 viewing online. 

This week the Centre for the New Midlands announced the first appointments to their Housing and Communities Leadership Board. Woods Hardwick’s Birmingham Planning Director, Paul Woods, is delighted to be one of the inaugural Board members. 
The Board, to be chaired by Dr Halima Sacranie (Research Lead, Housing and Communities Research Group at the University of Birmingham), will be responsible for shaping the Centre for the New Midlands’ work across this hugely important area of public policy.

In a Government consultation running until 12 October, people across Oxford and Cambridge Arc have the opportunity to contribute to the long-term development of our area.
The outcomes of the consultation will help to shape and enhance the infrastructure, environment and new developments in the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. The plan will be developed by Government, informed by engagement with local communities and stakeholders, and will have sustainability at its core.

We are celebrating the news that an Inspector has granted planning permission for our planning team’s appeals for a cross-boundary scheme of up to 100 new homes on an unallocated greenfield site in the Green Belt in St Albans District and Welwyn Hatfield Borough, for client, Canton Ltd.