More Comment – Page 648

  • Andrew Hemsley
    Comment

    Easy money

    2005-12-09T00:00:00Z

    Loopholes in the NEC’s target contract mean contractors can use their old tricks to make a profit rather than taking a share of any project savings …

  • Comment

    A painful case

    2005-12-09T00:00:00Z

    Sometimes contractors just get fed up with a job, and it grinds to a halt. When something like that happened to Birse, it got sacked. Then it got the bill …

  • Simon Massey
    Comment

    Don’t be evasive

    2005-12-09T00:00:00Z

    Take advantage of the fact that the Construction Industry Scheme has been postponed 12 months because, make no mistake, HM Revenue means business

  • Comment

    Corporate killing north of the border

    2005-12-09T00:00:00Z

    The expert group set up by the Scottish executive to look at how to solve the conundrum of the ‘controlling mind’ has come up with a distinctive approach

  • Bob Stagg
    Comment

    Brain donors wanted

    2005-12-09T00:00:00Z

    At what point does a speculative joint venture become the exploitation of the naive or the desperate? Here’s an engineer’s take on this increasingly pressing question

  • Matt Bell
    Comment

    Biteback

    2005-12-09T00:00:00Z

    Last week, Colin Harding launched an outspoken attack on the pernicious effect of architectural elitism on the industry. Here’s the response from the ‘design snobs’ at CABE

  • Hansom
    Comment

    Hansom

    2005-12-09T00:00:00Z

    Bah humbug: raining on David Cameron’s parade, bloodthirsty board games on the Christmas do circuit, plus Cyril Sweett and the Ebenezers

  • John Smith
    Comment

    The shadow of death

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    This is the story of how a case of ordinary back pain turned into a long, slow wait to learn the awful truth about a chest X-ray …

  • Comment

    Listen, this is important

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Delay analysis is too pivotal to disputes to remain shrouded in mystery or to be left to the experts. Here’s what you must understand about the four main techniques …

  • Comment

    Dodgy DIY

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    The respondent had agreed to erect a conservatory for the appellant. During the works the respondent had climbed a stepladder and had rested the inner end of a rafter on a lip or flange, which ran round the spider. The respondent inserted a fixing screw, which was supposed to secure ...

  • Colin Harding
    Comment

    Architects of our downfall

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Colin Harding CABE acts for an architectural elite and against the interests of the construction industry in general. The result is an approach to building that you might call Blairist …

  • Rudi Klein
    Comment

    A fat lot of good

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Adjudication is failing the very people it was designed to help – the small contractor with a low-value claim that needs a quick and cheap decision. So what’s to be done?

  • Comment

    Sort out your papers

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    The laws on illegal workers are set to get tougher, so make sure your procedures are watertight now

  • Tony Bingham
    Comment

    You’re mistaken, m’lud

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    In Carillion vs Devonport, the Court of Appeal was right to back an adjudicator’s decision to award interest, but in doing so it made some unhelpful comments …

  • Hansom
    Comment

    Hansom

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    While Cher enlivens a civil engineering show and jungle beasts cause alarm at a hacks’ awards party, a spot of pier pressure is applied in Brighton

  • Comment

    The appliance of science

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Attending the Sustainability Awards organised by Building last month brought home to me that the age of sustainable buildings has finally arrived.

  • Comment

    Tall tale?

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    I was prompted to write concerning the article in on the design of high-rise building following the events of 9/11 (4 November).

  • Comment

    Less elegant than flatulent

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    I couldn’t agree more with Mark Cowell’s and James Nisbet’s comments (28 October) concerning the award of the Stirling Prize to the Scottish parliament building.

  • Comment

    Dot joining

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Energy saving, reduction in greenhouse gases, sustainability, green building, save those trees … all very laudable but it needs joining up.

  • Comment

    Send the academics on site

    2005-12-02T00:00:00Z

    Despite 30 years’ experience in building control, I no longer feel confident on site that what I am looking at achieves the requirements of the regulations; also, when asked for advice I don’t always have the answer straight away because the regulations have become too complicated.