Opinion – Page 554

  • Comment

    The price we pay

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Hammonds and Building have finished their research into adjudicators’ fee rates, and – surprise, surprise – they’re on their way north. But that’s not all …

  • Comment

    Lessons from abroad

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Building is to be congratulated for highlighting the French inroads made over recent years in the UK construction market (21 January, page 38).

  • Comment

    Private and proud

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    As you point out (14 January, page 32), Allyson Pollock has been an ideological opponent of the PFI for the past seven years.

  • Comment

    Bring out the big guns

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    How excited many of us were when the New Labour government answered our long-held wish and created the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, bringing transport and land-use planning together at last and giving the construction industry a single body to talk to. Alas, as Sir Michael Latham ...

  • Comment

    Smart money

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    I am delighted that the construction industry in the commercial sector is enjoying a five-year high (14 January, page 20). I am also particularly pleased builders are benefiting from restored confidence within manufacturing companies.

  • Comment

    That joke isn’t funny any more

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Your backward-looking “joke” (21 January, page 29) comparing the rivalry between developers Schroder and Arrowcroft to a drunken brawl and the London Blitz and the, no doubt made-up, comment by a “concerned observer” really is outdated and unsophisticated.

  • Comment

    Carry on screening

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    I’ve just completed my screen test – not for any starring role on the silver screen, but in many ways equally important. I am, of course, talking about the health and safety screen test that is required for the CSCS card registration scheme.

  • Phil Clark
    Comment

    Time for a service

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Adjudication has become such an established part of the construction scene over the past seven years that it is easy to forget what an extraordinary thing it is.

  • St Brigid’s Church in Belfast was designed by Kennedy Fitzgerald Associates. Completed in 1994, it replaced a church dating from 1893. The brick built church has a pitched slate roof and seats 800 people.
    Comment

    Wonders & blunders

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    David Armitage finds one capital city elevated by a small modern church, and another ruined by 1960s grey concrete

  • Ann Minogue
    Comment

    Closer

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Following on from Patrick Holmes’ disturbing article last week, Ann Minogue examines the damaging effects of intimacy, negligence and confusion in commercial relationships

  • Tony Bingham
    Comment

    Hired gun takes a bullet

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Here’s a story about an expert witness who, after giving evidence, is being pursued through the courts for £400,000 over an alleged breach of duty

  • Comment

    An expensive way to flip a coin

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    On why he is now advising some construction clients embroiled in complex cases to bypass the adjudication process and initiate court proceedings

  • Comment

    The price we pay

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Hammonds and Building have finished their research into adjudicators’ fee rates, and – surprise, surprise – they’re on their way north. But that’s not all …

  • Comment

    The way forward

    2005-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Not all companies will be establishing good reputations and winning repeat work. Will you be among them? We throw down the gauntlet

  • Comment

    High hopes

    2005-01-28T00:00:00Z

    The urban summit will be all about high policy and big money, but the battle will be won or lost at the level of the local, the mundane and the beautiful

  • Hansom
    Comment

    Hansom

    2005-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Our aged correspondent discovers politicians braving the rain and Scotland, prefab going all holier-than-thou and plans afoot for caning it in Cannes

  • Denise Chevin
    Comment

    Much done, more to do

    2005-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Credit where it’s due. When John Prescott and his colleagues gather in Manchester next week to take the pulse of the regeneration effort, they can feel a little pleased with themselves (see pages 40-52).

  • Rudi Klein
    Comment

    So this is freedom

    2005-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Lost a tender to a competitor for no apparent reason? Under the Freedom of Information Act you can find out what went on behind closed doors and maybe make a claim …

  • Tony Bingham
    Comment

    Chilling thoughts

    2005-01-28T00:00:00Z

    The M&E engineer on a north London shopping centre paid out £1.25m after tenants complained about the draught. Then it tried to sue the architect …

  • Comment

    What’s your poison?

    2005-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Asbestos turned into a disaster for construction partly because insurers failed to spot the danger quickly enough. Could they be doing the same now?