HM Government

High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd today revealed the designers and engineers in the running for the prestigious station design contracts for London and Birmingham as well as a partner to take forward long-term development around Euston station.

The winning designers will work with HS2 Ltd to develop and refine the detailed plans for three brand new stations, at Birmingham Curzon Street, Birmingham Interchange and London’s Old Oak Common, as well as a major expansion of London Euston.

The shortlists for the station design contracts include, Arup, Mott MacDonald, WSP, Arcadis and a Jacobs/BuroHappold/Idom joint venture. All the bidders have been invited to tender for at least two station packages.

The stations will welcome tens of thousands of passengers every day from all over the UK, providing easy and accessible onward connections to local transport, airports and connecting rail services as well as step-free access from street to seat. In total more than 170,000 new jobs are expected to be created in the wider development areas surrounding the four stations.

HS2 Ltd Chief Executive, Mark Thurston said:

Today’s announcements are a major milestone for the project, setting the scene for the next stage of the station design process. Together with the successful bidders, we will go on to deliver one of HS2’s most tangible legacies – three brand new stations and the long-term transformation of Euston.

All four projects represent exciting opportunities to showcase the very best in engineering and design while also delivering value for money.

We are looking for partners to help us deliver stations which not only provide unparalleled levels of accessibility, ease and convenience for our passengers, but who will work with local communities to ensure we also help unlock wider regeneration, new jobs, homes and opportunities.

HS2 Ltd today also published the names of the bidders in the running to win the Euston Master Development Partner contract. The winner will advise on, and later take forward, sustainable mixed-use development opportunities, including new homes, offices and retail space above and around the revamped London Euston. This includes working with HS2 Ltd, Network Rail, the station design contract winner and local authorities to deliver a unified masterplan to unlock the full potential of the area.

The following bidders have been shortlisted and invited to participate in dialogue:

• Westfield Europe Ltd
• Euston Regeneration Partnership (Led by Argent Related Services LLP)
• Canary Wharf Group
• Land Securities Property Holdings Limited
• Lendlease Europe Holdings Limited

This comprehensive approach has the potential to deliver up to 22 hectares of development space as well as improving accessibility and creating new public and green spaces across the wider Euston site.

Managing Director, Network Rail Property, David Biggs, said:

This brings us another step closer to realising an exciting and vibrant new district in the heart of London.

The opportunities are vast. A regenerated Euston Station not only affords us the ability to improve connectivity and exceed the expectations of those travelling by train. It also allows us the rare chance to create new space for homes and businesses, to craft a desirable destination for people to live, work and meet.

The new station can be a catalyst for local regeneration and increase connection across the local community, bringing huge benefits both to the area itself as well as the country as a whole.

Contracts for the station designs and the Euston Master Development Partner will be awarded early next year.

The river that gives Sleaford its name is being given a helping hand by the Environment Agency with the switch-on of a groundwater scheme.

Around 1.1million litres of water a day is being drawn up from an underground limestone aquifer, via a 44-metre deep borehole, and fed into the River Slea, keeping it from drying out.

The ‘augmentation scheme’ ensures the river continues to flow during its driest months, benefiting local habitat and preserving the look and feel of the town’s water environment.

Almost 150 years ago, the river was described as “a never failing source of pure water” but natural and man-made changes to the environment and water cycle saw it dry up for extended periods from the 1960s.

The augmentation scheme was established in 1995 in response to calls from the local community, which values the river as an attractive feature.

For most years since, it has been supplementing the flow during the river’s driest months, which tend to be between July and December. Without it, the river would typically run dry during this period.

Claire Anderson, environment planning specialist at the Environment Agency, said:

The Environment Agency exists to create better places for people to enjoy and wildlife to thrive. This scheme achieves both. By supplementing the flow of water, we contribute to the town’s cherished water environment and we minimise the environmental impact of dry weather, protecting the habitat in which dozens of species live.

After activating the scheme, Environment Agency officers monitor the Slea between the borehole and Cogglesford Mill, ensuring everything is working as it should.

The Slea augmentation scheme was activated on Saturday 15 July.

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) was recognised recently for its commitment to accident and ill health prevention with the highly prestigious Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Gold Achievement Award.

DIO’s Chief Operating Officer, Geoff Robson attended the awards ceremony held at the Birmingham Hilton Hotel on 12 July 2017, to accept the highly prestigious award on behalf of DIO.

RoSPA achievement awards are a highly regarded and sought after business accolade. The scheme is open to businesses and organisations of all types and sizes from across the UK and overseas. Judges consider entrants’ occupational health and safety management systems, including practices such as leadership, active performance monitoring and workforce involvement.

To satisfy the strict criteria for the RoSPA Gold Award, DIO was required to provide evidence of a very high level of safety performance, demonstrating well developed occupational health and safety management systems and culture, outstanding control of risk and very low levels of error, harm and loss. In addition, we were required to demonstrate continued and improving performance over the past 5 years.

In accepting the award Geoff Robson said:

It is a great honour to accept this award on behalf of DIO based on evidence of working practices across our whole organisation. Putting safety first is our primary value, and what better evidence of our organisation honouring that commitment than receiving such a prestigious award. Moreover, it demonstrates to those visiting, working or living on the defence estate our commitment to their safety.

The entry was coordinated by Clare Read, Head of Regional Health and Safety Support Team who said:

We are extremely proud of our health and safety achievements and the very real improvements in safety performance across the organisation as evidenced in our award submission. To attain our target of a Gold Award is a fantastic achievement, which places DIO in the health and safety “premier league” and reflects the hard work put into developing and improving our Safety Management System. We look forward to reviewing the RoSPA award panel feedback and will be seeking ways to further develop and improve our process and procedures.

Guests were invited to a special event on Friday 30 June to mark the completion of the final phase of construction for the £7 million defences.

The market town of Northwich suffered serious flooding in 1946 and more recently in 2000 and 2012. This has caused distress and financial impact for residents as well as costing millions of pounds worth of damage to homes and businesses.

The new scheme reduces flood risk to almost 400 homes and businesses as well as 3 development sites in Northwich, Cheshire. It is the result of close effective partnership working between the Environment Agency, Northwich Town Council, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Northwich BID and the Canal and Rivers Trust, as well as local businesses and the wider community.

The scheme itself is made up of 1.7km of flood defences using a combination of flood walls and embankments, along the banks of the River Dane and River Weaver. To ensure that Northwich’s historic facade is kept intact, the project has used high quality finishes on the walls and state-of-the-art solutions including glass panels and floating ecosystems in order to reduce the visual impact of the defences. In addition to fixed flood defences, the scheme will also use demountable defences and flood gates across key footpaths and highways.

Lee Rawlinson, Environment Agency Area Manager, said:

This scheme will help to keep the local community protected while at the same time helping to safeguard the economic investment in the town, and the permanent jobs created as a result. Northwich is at risk of flooding from the Rivers Dane and Weaver and the construction of this flood scheme will reduce the risk to nearly 400 local homes which equates to protecting more than 1,000 residents and further businesses. Cheshire West and Chester Council has been working tirelessly to encourage development in the town and by reducing the risk of flooding, we can further boost the confidence of potential investors and ensure Northwich continues to prosper during, what are, challenging times.

Councillor Samantha Dixon, Leader of Chester West and Cheshire Council, who officially opened the scheme, said the flood defence project would play a key role in the town’s continued economic growth. She explained:

Recent public investment in Northwich includes £35 million for the capital works to stabilise the town from subsidence, and future growth plans include £100 million of private investment and £15 million of public investment. The partnership work undertaken during the last few years will help to put Northwich in a much better economic position for the future and will help to support inward investment.

Even with new flood defences in place, the risk of flooding can never entirely be removed. It is important that residents prepare in advance. They can start by telephoning the Environment Agency Floodline on 0345 988 1188 to find out if they can sign up for free flood warnings.

Information about preparing for flooding, including how to check your flood risk, develop a flood plan and putting together a flood kit is also available online.

We are going to be talking about sanctions against those who have been involved in a series of chemical weapons attacks in Syria and I’m very pleased to say that this is one of the things that the UK government has been talking about for many months. There’s been a series of chemical weapon attacks, the latest of which was the barbaric attack in Khan Shaykhun on April 4. What the Foreign Affairs Council will be agreeing today is that 16 named individuals will be sanctioned, their movements will be restricted, their assets will be frozen. They are military technical personnel, which shows the resolve of the UK and the rest of our friends in Europe in dealing with those who are responsible for chemical weapons attacks.

We will be also discussing the continuing crisis in North Korea. On the Testing of the ICBM that we saw recently, we remain absolutely determined to try to get the North Koreans to see sense and to continue to put pressure on the regime in Pyongyang. We think the best way to do that is to put pressure on the Chinese. We are seeing some progress there but a lot more to be done.