Many happy returns !!!

My diary tells me that its 10 years to the day since Springfield decided to take the construction of our homes in house.

A lot of things have changed in the construction industry during that time. Health and safety, planning legislation, building regulations, studies for this, consultants for that. I sometimes wonder if we’ll soon need consultants to consult with more consultants before we open the office on a Monday morning.

Despite all the red tape and “cant’t do” attitude that seems to prevail nowadays I simply cannot believe that 10 years have passed, how time flies when you’re having fun !!!

We started on site at Varis Green in Forres with a workforce of 14 tradesmen. I’m proud of the fact that 10 out of that original 14 men still work with us. These guys were the original foundation of the construction company we have today and its great to see the vast majority of them in management roles within the company.

Today we employ a skilled workforce of 216 personnel throughout all construction trades and disciplines. We also have a strong commitment to apprenticeships with a minimum of 10% of our workforce being employed through CITB training schemes.

Our office continues to grow as well. From our modest beginnings with 2 employees at 115 South Street we have grown to a point that there are now 37 employees based at our head office in Grampian Road. Life’s never dull in here, there are a lot of “interesting” characters that combine to make the office atmosphere what it is.

To each and every one of you, can I just say a big thank you for all you effort and support during the last decade. Long may it continue and I look forward to working with you all for the next 10 years. Who knows what the future may bring, I certainly never imagined we’d be where we are today.


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We’re finally underway with our Riverside development in Inverness. More than 2 years has lapsed since our initial purchase of the site and in that time our team has worked hard to try and unlock the planning consent.

Sadly as is becoming the norm nowadays the purification of the contaminated land condition for the site deteriorated in to what could be best described as a pantomime orchestrated by the Highland Council contaminated land team. By the way Springfield and our consultants were treated during this process you would have thought that we were trying to build housing at Douneray instead of a site adjacent to other residential properties.

Ultimately all they have succeeded in achieving was delaying the delivery of much needed private and shared ownership housing stock for the area.

Anyway were now on site and running at full steam with site manager Mark “Parkus” Parkington at the helm. Parkus is doing a great job on site and is relishing the challenge that working on a site like Riverside presents. Yet again it’s new geographic territory for us but its great to see the team spirit of Springfield and its subbies pulling together to make the project a success.

The site is located on Anderson Street in the South Kessock area of Inverness and 14 of the 24 apartments have stunning riverfront views across to the Kessock Bridge and over Inverness itself.

We’ll begin marketing this site very shortly and I know from checking our sales teams enquiry list that the has already been a strong level of interest in the site. This coupled with the fact that we have contracted with Albyn HA to deliver 6 homestake properties on the development should see the project completed by Spring next year and Parkus looking for another site to get his teeth into.


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Our flagship Highland development is now well underway so I thought it appropriate to take a few hours out of the office to check on its progress. The Highland housing market has experienced huge growth over the last 5 years in and around Inverness with demand outstripping supply in many locations. 2008 has seen the housing market return to a more sensible, sustainable level both in terms of new build homes and also in the property market in general.

As ever, good quality properties at the right price in the right location continue to sell well. The arrival of Springfield in Alness has been well received with sales being extremely brisk since we started marketing last November. To date we have 19 homes on order for private customers with only a further 4 remaining in the current phase to fill our order book for 2008.

Our youngest site manager (and the best looking according to some of the girls in the office!!!) Ryan Mackenzie has been given the task of managing this project and it’s great to see him enjoying the move into the Highlands and running such a well managed site. This is his first project flying solo and he really is rising to the challenge of working on our most northerly site to date.

The delivery of affordable housing is also high on the agenda for Springfield in Alness, and I’m pleased to say that we have secured a contract to build the affordable element of the site in partnership with Albyn HA. This will see a further 8 homes delivered for shared equity ownership on the development over the next 12 months and create some much needed affordable housing stock for the town. Albyn HA have really impressed me with their progressive approach to affordable housing delivery and it’s been a pleasure to work with them on this project.


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Wednesday evening saw myself, Joe Geoghegan our planner and Chris Bremner one of our senior designers, make a trip down to Portsoy to make a presentation to the community council about our proposals for the old mill site on Burnside Street.

The mill site at Portsoy will be one of our first projects in Aberdeenshire and I felt it was really important to get off on the right foot with the local community. In addition to the community council a few of the local councillors and Roger Goodyear who is Chairman of the Boat Festival in Portsoy were also present at the meeting.

We explained how Springfield approach working within a community and also went through our proposals for the site which has lain in a dilapidated state many years. It was a great opportunity to listen to peoples comments about our scheme and also reassure them of any concerns they had about our proposals. A number of important points were raised regarding the surrounding area, parking and security, all of which we have taken on board and incorporated into our plans.

It was refreshing to engage with a community council who are pro-development and are genuinely excited to see someone finally take forward proposals to remove the biggest eyesore in the village.

We are proposing a sensitively designed development of only 12 units for the site with a mix of 2 and 3 home styles and with the mill site itself being situated in an outstanding conservation area Chris has taken the time to produce a unique, contemporary interpretation of traditional built forms within Portsoy. A big thanks must also go out to Neil Grant in our design team whos 3D images of our proposals really managed to bring the scheme to life for the presentation. Well done Neil & Chris !!

Since the meeting on Wednesday Chris and Joe have made good progress making final amendments to the plan and engaging with our consultants to prepare the studies that make up a planning application these days. Hopefully these will be with us very shortly which will enable us to submit a detailed planning application to Aberdeenshire Council by the end of February.


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Our affordable housing team (L to R) Davy Sutherland, Tom Leggeat and Eck patterson

Last week saw the completion of our major MVPI 2 affordable housing project at Waulkmill in Elgin. I was on site during the morning of handover and it was great to hear the new tenants express their delight with their new homes.

The project has delivered a total of 101 affordable homes for Moray worth a total of £9 million and has been a great example of the public and private sectors working together to deliver much needed affordable housing in Moray.

The final phase of 30 homes for rent were handed over to Moray Housing Partership last week and it was great to witness MHPs’ housing team swing into action. Springfield handed the keys over to MHP at 8am on Monday and by 9.30am MHP staff had let the first house and handed the keys to their first tenant, all remaining properties were let by 5.30pm that day. Well done MHP !

I feel it only appropriate that a special mention goes out to our affordable housing management team. Headed up by project surveyor Tom Leggeat in conjunction with the site management team of Davy Sutherland and Eck Patterson these guys have yet again delivered an outstanding project ahead of schedule. Keep up the good work guys !

Fortunately they haven’t had far to travel for their next project as they are already on site quite literally across the road where another 21 affordable homes for MHP are under construction. Its been a pleasure working with Clare Bradley and her team delivering projects like these. The long term delivery of affordable housing is a key issue for Springfield and its great to see successful projects like these happening in Moray.


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1. Message from Angie:

I agree that the managemnent team are outstanding to produce such a high standard of houses!
Thursday 7th February 2008 @ 19:32:46
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2. Message from Clare Bradley

Thanks for the kind words about MHP, we enjoy working with Springfield and hope to continue for a long time yet. Tom Leggeat deserves a special mention here for his cooperation and professionalism
Friday 11th April 2008 @ 10:20:14
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After the usual Monday morning flurry of activity in the office I popped through to Forres this afternoon to check out progress on our IV36 apartment block.

Alan McWilliam our site manager for the project and his team have delivered a fantastic looking building which is really starting to take shape, and with the first batch of clients taking occupation on this development over the next few weeks we are on target to have the development complete by the end of February. Well done Alan, keep up the good work !

A special mention must also go out to Sharon Simpson, our project surveyor for IV36 who as usual has went that extra mile on this project. Its great to see a female succeeding in the construction industry, and it certainly keeps our subbies on their toes having to negotiate with Sharon !

We were unsure how the Moray property market would view a more contemporary approach to the external appearance and I think that our in-house design team has done a fantastic job on the building.

Encouragingly the design has been well received locally which ultimately translated into the development being a great sales success, with it selling out completely on the day of release

I have also heard that a few of the apartments have subsequently been re-sold and have made higher prices, which is also good to hear as it reinforces the fact that the first time buyer and investor sector of the market remains extremely buoyant in Moray.


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1. Message from Jim

This is a cool blog, keep up the good work. Loving the new site.
Wednesday 30th January 2008 @ 15:31:56
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Welcome to my first blog post.

We’ve set this part of the site up to enable the public to have a closer insight into the day to day goings on within the Springfield group and the general ramblings in my head !!!!

As part of my day to day routine I regularly travel throughout Scotland looking at the progress on our existing sites and for other opportunities that may be of interest to Springfield. I regularly engage with planners, surveyors, land agents, lawyers, bankers, suppliers, subcontractors and tradesmen all of whom play a vital role in the delivery of our projects throughout the north east. It’s also interesting to gain their perspective on various current issues and the property market in general.

Its my intention to use this blog to give people an insight into the processes involved in delivering quality projects, the bodies and authorities that we deal with and perhaps most importantly our hardworking employees on all our sites and back in the head office.

I’ll also be using the blog to give my perspective on the property market in north east Scotland and Highlands as we monitor market conditions extremely closely to enable us to identify market trends within the areas that we have a market presence.

2008 has got off to a positive start for Springfield. In terms of sales activity for both in Moray and in Highland with all our developments reporting above average sales activity for this time of year.

Its encouraging to see the people of Moray and Highland have continued faith in the housing market in the north of Scotland, with strong demand being experienced across all sectors of the market especially in the £200,000 to £250,000 and the £250,000 to £300,000 new-build sector in Elgin which has seen a huge flurry of activity over the last three months. We are also experiencing a strong level of sales and enquiries from the first time buyer market, with more and more young people expressing confidence in making their first step onto the property ladder.

2008 will also see Springfield release a number of exciting new developments that we will be taking to market over the next few months. Our sales team report that enquiries for these sites are very strong even although they have not yet been released which further reinforces my belief that the property market is very much alive and kicking in this area.

Affordable housing is also high on the agenda within Springfield and we are actively working with a number of housing associations within Moray and Highland to deliver a mix of housing tenures outwith the private sector. Springfield has always embraced the concept of affordable housing and will continue to do so in the future as and when individual and partnership opportunities arise. Again the outlook for 2008 remains positive in this sector with a number of projects being discussed with various RSLs throughout the area.

All in all things are shaping up well for a positive year for Springfield, and the wider property sector as a whole. In the NE, architects are reporting a lot of exciting project activity both in public and private sector projects, also land and property agents are reporting that demand is still extremely strong despite any media hype which I tend to think is always over-egged in a bid to grab readers / viewers attention. The general consensus is that its very much business as usual on the property front for NE Scotland and the Highlands. Long may it continue.


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Comments on "Welcome to my blog"

1. Message from Scott Milne

How refreshing!! Great to hear a current review of the property market in Moray straight from the horses mouth and excellent that an MD takes the time to make his views public. Look forward to reading your future posts. Thanks.
Saturday 26th January 2008 @ 22:08:53
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