Esh Group companies have been busy making a difference – reflecting the fact that the company puts the community at the heart of all its activity – and achievements in the county certainly show that.
Esh Build has been responsible for schoolchildren at Ashington High and Ellington Primaries feeling the benefit of design and build extensions to both schools as part of the Ashington Learning Partnership’s plans to create a two-tier system of education in the area. In Ashington, the two-storey extension houses specialised STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) amenities, a drama suite, classrooms and meeting and catering facilities. Ellington pupils now have extra space to mix socially and learn, thanks to a single-storey extension.
Older students in the county now have access to better STEM facilities in a state-of the-art architect-designed building for Northumberland College. Esh Build overcame potential safety issues as work was delivered in a live environment right in heart of the busy campus.
Public safety of a different kind was top of the agenda when the company was asked by Northumberland County Council to construct two new fire stations. Alnwick now has a modern fire station and expanded council depot, replacing an outdated old building which did not give firefighters sufficient training facilities. The shared site has enabled the council to rationalise its depot facilities in the area, and allowed closer working for essential public services. Esh Build’s second blue light project extended buildings in the grounds of Hexham General Hospital to replace the Tyne Mills Industrial Estate station. It now houses two fire engines and a swift water rescue unit.
Water was also the focus of a very different kind of project, when Lumsden & Carroll constructed a 15m long fish pass made of two-tonne rocks to allow fish to climb the River Derwent to their breeding grounds. The civil engineering company was also at work in Kielder, where it installed the foundations for 17 holiday lodges and carried out all the associated enabling works.
Elsewhere in Northumberland, Esh has sympathetically landscaped sites areas such as the stylish 16-house Homes by Esh development at Hexham Gate, which combines a country setting with Scandinavian-inspired design to stunning effect.
At the same time, Esh Property Services (EPS) has been delivering new homes for rent, for housing associations, including 28 properties for Arch Developments at Nelson Village in Cramlington. EPS also completed a 26-home development in Blyth for Northumberland County Council last year.
Looking ahead the company will continue to demonstrate its commitment to Northumberland.
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Northumberland is a key area for us, and a some of our companies have been heavily involved in a number of projects that are making a significant difference to local people. We've had a busy 18 months working in the county, seeing a broad range of projects through to completion, and we'll continue to build our relationship with the Northumberland community.
