top of page
OUR HISTORY
Norfolk Constructing Excellence Club was formed in 2002 as part of the Government’s Movement for Innovation “M4i” lead by John Prescott. Norfolk was one of the regional clubs affiliated to the national group with an aim to provide Norfolk’s construction industry and its clients with the skills and knowledge to implement change and raise awareness of best practice.
The Club was initially formed from a group of partners working for Norfolk County Council and Norwich City Council wanting to share ideas and promote partnerships working across the local industry and after a successful start, it was decided to invite other local construction industry companies and ask for commitment and financial support from the leading Norfolk companie.
A meeting was held with senior executives from all partners at the Forum, Norwich 2002. At the meeting, each partner agreed to contribute an annual fee for one year to get the club up and running. The original partners were:
Norfolk County Council
Norwich City Council
Mott MacDonald
R G Carter Ltd
May Gurney
John Martin
NPS
A committee was formed, and the original members were:
Gerry Kelly (Chair) – Mott MacDonald
Tony Palmer (Treasurer) – Norfolk County Council
David Smith (Secretary) – Norfolk County Council
Amjad Malhis - Norwich City Council
Chris Snowling – R G Carter
The Club thrived and was one of several successful clubs across the country. We contributed both regionally and nationally supporting other clubs and represented the East Region on the national CE club committee. Tony Palmer was the Norfolk representative from 2004 to 2013 and vice chair of Eastern Region from 2010 to 2012.
Due to the sad death of David Smith, secretary, the Club lost most of their records up to 2010 but thanks to the keen memory of Chris Haddon-Heath, we have been able to plug some of the gaps in our records.
One of the earlier successes of the Club was the formation of a Worst Practice Club which came about after Chris Haddon-Heath had attended an international construction conference in the early nineties. After lunch on the second day, it was getting a bit tiresome hearing about examples of best practice and quite a few were nodding off until a French man got up and described how a building he had designed fell down! This woke everyone up and were interested to hear, not only how the matter was remedied, but how he didn’t blame others and admitted his errors. This prompted the setting up of the worst practice club and for several years, an invited group met quarterly to discuss disasters and remedial action. No records were taken of these meetings but a great deal was learnt from them. It had to be stopped due to “anti corruption” issues. This was a shame as the secrecy was to encourage openness as lessons were learned from each other.
2004-2005
During this year, the Club changed its name from Best Practice Club to Norfolk Constructing Excellence Club.
Committee members:
Gerry Kelly – Mott MacDonald
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Amjad Malhis – Norwich City Council
David Smith – Norfolk County Council – Secretary
Chris Haddon-Heath – May Gurney – took over as Secretary after the death of David Smith
Dave Craft – John Martin
Trevor Reeve – May Gurney
Roger Bond – UEA
Andrew Coburn – ex City Engineer
Bob Durant (Diving)
Gary Thompson – Norwich City Council
Notable events:
Developer in the Dock – held in the old court room in the Guildhall, a mock trial with real legal eagles.
Innovative Procurement – client v consultant v contractor workshop.
2005-2006
Committee members:
Roger Bond – UEA - Chair
Gerry Kelly – Mott MacDonald
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Chris Haddon-Heath – May Gurney
Andrew Coburn – ex City Engineer
Chris Snowling – R G Carter
Emma Barratt – Admin Support
Notable events:
Partnering – a we were all basically not listening to each other at best and cheating on each other at worst, RELATE came into help.
Whole Life Costing – National CE representative explained how skimping on design and construction costs was a huge waste of money over the life of a building.
Inspirational Leadership – contrasting styles of a military man and a man of the cloth. The former explained that formal command structures go out of the window once someone fires bullets at you and the latter explained that in a flat organisation you are only a few steps from the top but you have to believe without necessarily meeting the chief exec (this side of the gate anyway!)
Breakfast event with Canute.
2006-2007
Events moved to UEA Sportspark
Committee members:
Roger Bond – UEA - Chair
Gerry Kelly – Mott MacDonald
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Chris Haddon-Heath – May Gurney
Andrew Coburn – ex City Engineer
Chris Snowling – R G Carter
Mike Britch – NPS
John Chick – JP Chick and Partners
Andi Gibb – Art and Architecture
Louise Petty – Admin Support
Notable events:
Cutting the Crap – getting rid of bureaucracy
Innovate or Die
Is your Business up to date with Current Legislation?
Speakers included Kate Haigh of Envirowise, Mark Sexton of Norfolk County Council, representative from East of England Materials Exchange, Alan Osbourne of CNC Building Control and a workshop was facilitated by May Gurney.
2007-2008
Committee members:
Roger Bond – UEA - Chair
Gerry Kelly – Mott MacDonald
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Chris Haddon-Heath – May Gurney
Andrew Coburn – ex City Engineer
Chris Snowling – R G Carter
Mike Britch – NPS
John Chick – JP Chick and Partners
Andi Gibb – Art and Architecture
Louise Petty – Admin Support
Notable events:
June 2008
H&S requirements for SME’s – speaker from HSE
Make Money Through Waste – Steven Duke – Directors of R G Carter
How to win Work – joint presentation from Morgan Ashurst May Gurney and R G Carter
Workshop – What problems do you have and is there anyone in the room with the answer?
Training for the Future – speaker from NFB
First East – Ambitions and Development Plans for Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft – Philip Watkins, CE of First East
Tour of Norwich City Football Club.
2008-2009
Committee members:
Roger Bond (UEA) – Chair
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Jo Hopkins
Rachel Johns (Morgan Ashurst)
Mike Britch (NPS)
John Chick (John Chick & Partners)
Andi Gibbs (Art Architecture)
Saul Humphrey (R G Carter)
Andrew Rush (Birketts)
Number of Corporate Members – 22
Fees ranged from £35 to £600
October
AGM with take and walk by County Archaeologist, Andy Hutcheson.
November
Inspirational Leadership
December
Different types of Construction Contract – talk and workshop.
January
Innovative Design and Construciton
February
Sustainability Guide from CE National with speaker giving local context.
March
BREEAM – Achieving Excellence with case studies (new builds in Exeter and DEFRA Office Norwich).
April
Digging up your Waste plus site visit to Costessey Recycling Plant.
May
Be Valuable – presentation from author Richard Saxon plus Urban Space Design.
June
Half day seminar – Riding the Downturn – Getting Ready for Growth. Speakers, Daniel Cox, Leader of Norfolk County Council, representatives from National Federation of Builders, May Gurney, NPS, Birketts and Tery Burgess from Business Link.
2009-2010
Committee members:
Roger Bond (UEA) – Chair
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Jo Hopkins
Rachel Johns (Morgan Ashurst)
Mike Britch (NPS)
John Chick (John Chick & Partners)
Andi Gibbs (Art Architecture)
Saul Humphrey (R G Carter)
Andrew Rush (Birketts)
Number of Corporate Members – 25
Fees ranged from
October AGM followed by case study of Halley V1 Research Station, British Antarctic Survey, and tour of Dragon Hall
November
What Kind of Leader are you?
December
Working Together
January
Getting the Balance Right
February
Bridge Building with the Royal Engineers
March
The Carbon Economy – Sustainable Buildings
April
Professional presentation skills
May
A creative event
June
Managing Risk in Building Contracts – breakfast event
2010-2011
Committee members:
Roger Bond (UEA) – Chair
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Rachel Johns (Morgan Ashurst)
Mike Britch (NPS)
John Chick (John Chick & Partners)
Andi Gibbs (Art Architecture)
Saul Humphrey (R G Carter)
Andrew Rush (Birketts)
Chris Heath (Haddon Heath)
Number of Corporate Members – 24
Fees ranged from £35 to £600
October
AGM with talk and site visit at Open Youth Centre
November
Leadership and Well Being – getting it and keeping it
December
Sustainability – offsite renewables in Norfolk
January
Avoiding contractual disasters – what went wrong and why
February
How to manage change
March
Green Bling
April
Awards Evening
May
Olympics – ready yet?
June
Summer site visit
After consultation with the membership at the AGM, a sub-group was formed to discuss how the club might effect the delivery of actual excellence in the local built environment. In the belief that excellence is delivered through people taking action in the real world, the group designed a Learning and Development programme linked to the Club’s events programme. It was the equivalent of a Masters – six months of focused learning followed by six months of project work within the candidates’ own organisations. Unfortunately, due to the financial implications, the course did not materialise.
However, it did set the criteria going forward for events to be based on Leadership, Integration, Value, Innovation, Sustainability and Risk.
2011-12
Committee members:
Roger Bond (UEA) – Chair
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Mike Britch (NPS)
John Chick (John Chick & Partners)
Andi Gibbs (Art Architecture)
Saul Humphrey (R G Carter)
Andrew Rush (Birketts)
Chris Heath (Haddon Heath)
Andrew Warham (Ingleton Wood)
Alison Wring (Faithful + Gould)
Catherine Guelbert (Aqcuity)
Number of Corporate Members – 29
Fees ranged from £35 to £600
October
AGM at the Curve with Dan Ward – The Way Forward
November
Leadership – Catherine Guelbert
December
Integration – Simon Delf – Leading to Change
January
Value – Amanda Black of May Gurney – Redefining Values
February
Innovation – Mark Aspinall
March
Sustainability – Christopher Gaze – Can we afford to be Green?
April
Awards Event
May
Risk Management – Risky Business
June
Site Visit – Architecture – The Beauty and the Beast. Photo competition at the UEA
2012-13
Committee members:
Roger Bond (UEA) – Chair
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Saul Humphrey (R G Carter)
Chris Heath (Haddon Heath)
Alison Wring (Faithful + Gould)
Catherine Guelbert (Aqcuity)
Teresa Rand (Admin Support)
Chris Williams (Mott MacDonald)
Tom Lefever (Mott MacDonald)
Rose Jenkins (NPS Group)
Liz Harris (NPS Group)
Number of Corporate Members – 33
Fees ranged from £35 to £600
October
AGM and presentation of Civil Works by Dan Dubowitz
November
Leadership – Tracey Lucas and Steve Pearce from May Gurney
December
Integration – How efficient are we with Darren Cox and Alison Wring of Faithful + Gould
January
Challenges for Leaders with Dr Andy Wood, CEO of Adnams
February
Building through Low Carbon Innovation with Simon Coward
March
Designing out Terrorism with Peter Hawkins of Norfolk Constabulary
April
Awards
May
What next for Sustainability? Jonathan Smales of Beyond Green and Matthew Hunt of Royal Haskoning DHV
June
Site visit at City Academy Norwich with tour by Kier
2013-14
Committee members:
Roger Bond (UEA) – Chair
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Saul Humphrey (R G Carter)
Chris Heath (Haddon Heath)
Alison Wring (Faithful + Gould)
Catherine Guelbert (Aqcuity)
Teresa Rand (Admin Support)
Tom Lefever (Mott MacDonald)
Rose Jenkins (NPS Group)
Liz Harris (NPS Group)
Catherine Read (Read Spicer Architects)
Number of Corporate Members – 43
Fees ranged from £50 to £650
All events featured an update on The Enterprise Centre
This was the year we started inviting members to sponsor events and we are grateful to the following for their generous sponsorship:
Hays Recruitment, LSI Architects, Kier, Mott MacDonald, Faithful + Gould, Aecom, Read Spicer Architects and Barron + Smith Architects.
October
AGM at The Forum with Ben Humphries of Archetype giving presentation on The Enterprise Centre
November
Leadership – Do they Mean Us? Vaughan Burnund, past Chair of Constructing Excellence UK.
December
Nigel Williams, Chief Fire Officer for Norfolk talked Diversity.
January
Whole Life Value – More Bang for your Buck with Andy Green of Faithful + Gould
February
Innovation – Mike Rhodes of Co-action Consultancy explained What it is and Where does it come from, Andi Gibbs of Art Architecture talked about how innovation comes through actual work and Simon Smith of Smith & Wallwork Engineers looked at Innovation past and present.
March
The Urgent and Remarkable Future – How Shall We Live? With Jonathan Smales of Beyond Green
April
Awards
May
Love taking Risk? – Construction Needs You! Nick Catchpole, golf professional who has 30 years’ experience in encouraging teams and individuals to take risks.
June
Site visit to Pentney Abbey
2014-15
Committee members:
Roger Bond (UEA) – Chair
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Saul Humphrey (R G Carter)
Chris Heath (Haddon Heath)
Alison Wring (Faithful + Gould)
Catherine Guelbert (Aqcuity)
Teresa Rand (Admin Support)
Rose Jenkins (NPS Group)
Liz Harris (NPS Group)
Catherine Read (Read Spicer Architects)
Gavin Jones (Aecom)
Bryn Mainwaring (NPS)
Number of Corporate Members – 57
Fees ranged from £50 to £650
Thanks to the following members for their generous sponsorship:
Hays Recruitment, Clancy Consultants, Pentaco, Aecom, Studio Urban Blu, Whole House Energy, R G Carter, Morgan Sindall and Faithful + Gould.
October
AGM and tour of Hethal Engineering Centre
November
Insights on High Performance Leadership – John Bull of Tall Tree Performance Leadership.
December
Question Time – Interrogate the Great and the Good
January
Ever consider what it would be like to fly to the Moon? Professor Julian Malins considers the use of service design thinking as a way of re-framing questions that can seriously affect the outcomes of a design project.
February
Innovation – Dragons Den event with real money! Four members pitch their ideas and are grilled by the Dragons.
March
Have I Got Sustainable News for You?
April
Awards
May
Risk Management in the Construction Industry. A Balloon debate on who are we safest with – Clients, Consultants or Contractors?
June
Site Visit – What’s been happening at County Hall
2015-16
Committee members:
Roger Bond (UEA) – Chair
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Saul Humphrey (R G Carter)
Alison Wring (Faithful + Gould)
Catherine Guelbert (Aqcuity)
Teresa Rand (Admin Support)
Rose Jenkins (UEA)
Gavin Jones (Aecom)
Bryn Mainwaring (NPS)
Jackie Richards (Whole House Energy)
Arron Easter (Morgan Sindall)
Mike Marsh (MLM)
Number of Corporate Members – 66
Fees ranged from £50 to £650
Thanks to the following members for their generous sponsorship:
NPS Group, Clancy Consultants, Kier, Pinnacle, Studio Urban Blu, Whole House Energy and Aecom
October
AGM followed by presentation and tour of the Enterprise Centre
November
Challenging and Changing the Way You Think – an MBA approach. Julian Campbell and Kevan Williams of the Norwich Business School.
December
Is BIM the Answer? With Terry Stocks of Faithful + Gould
January
How to Capture and Promote Value in Buildings. Don Ward of CE was joined by Tony Poole of Sheppard Robson.
February
An Innovative Response to the Skills Crisis – Andrew Carpenter of CE South West on inspiring a new generation.
March
The Devil is in the Detail when it comes to Sustainability. Norwich City Council, Barron + Smith Architects and R G Carter talk aboutplanned large scale passivhaus in the City.
April
Annual Awards – a more prestigious event held at OPEN
May
Risk and Reward with Elmar Kutsch of Cranfield School of Management
June
A site visit to Bowthorpe Care Village with Saffron Housing, R G Carter and Norse.
2016-17
Committee members:
Catherine Guelbert (Aqcuity) - Chair
Roger Bond (UEA)
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Saul Humphrey (R G Carter / Morgan Sindall)
Teresa Rand (Admin Support)
Gavin Jones (Richard Utting Associates)
Danny Branson (Morgan Sindall)
Jack Caswell-Dodds (R G Carter)
Warren Salmons (MLM)
Paul Kelly (Canham Consulting)
Richard Postance (Real Consulting)
John Nortcliffe (Hudson Architects)
Chris MacDonald (Morgan Sindall)
Chris O’Connell (Norfolk County Council)
Sophie Taylor (Build-Insight)
Number of Corporate Members – 68
Fees ranged from £50 to £650
Thanks to the following members for their generous sponsorship:
NPS Group, Clancy Consulting, Harrison Group, Richard Utting Associates, Studio Urban Blu, Mott MacDonald, Aecom and MLM
October
AGM and How Should Norfolk Grow with Mike Rigby at Norwich Castle.
November
Building Futures / Career Pathway with educational experts.
December
Innovative Companies with EHabitation, Lanpro and Extremis.
January
Modernise or Die – traditional v modular. Bryn Maidman of Taylor Wimpy and Andrew Savage of Broadland Housing debate the pros and cons.
February
Delivering Infrastructure in Norwich with David Allfrey of Norfolk County Council and Giles Perkins of Mouchel.
March
Building Growth – What is it and What is it Doing with Mark Pendlington, Chair of New Anglia LEP plus presentations from Building Growth sub-groups.
April
Awards Night – building on the success of the previous year.
May
Shaping the Future of Norfolk – A Political, Economic and Project Perspective with Alan Waters, Leader of Norwich City Council, Jonathan Cage, Chair of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce and David Hebborn, Programme Manager at RAF Marham for Aecom.
June
Site Visit to Earlham Hall and the Quadram Institute.
2017-18
Committee members:
Catherine Guelbert-Thick (Aqcuity) - Chair
Roger Bond (UEA)
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Saul Humphrey (Morgan Sindall)
Teresa Rand (Admin Support)
Gavin Jones (Richard Utting Associates)
Danny Branson (Morgan Sindall)
Jack Caswell-Dodds (R G Carter)
Warren Salmons (MLM)
Richard Postance (Real Consulting)
John Nortcliffe (Hudson Architects)
Chris MacDonald (Morgan Sindall)
Chris O’Connell (Norfolk County Council)
Sophie Taylor (Build-Insight)
Number of Corporate Members – 70
Fees ranged from £50 to £695
Thanks to the following members for their generous sponsorship:
Harrison Group, Smith of Honingham, Aecom, Morgan Sindall, Clancy Consulting, MLM and Bidwells.
October
AGM at The Assembly House and Doug Field, Chair of New Anglia LEP talking about his new role.
November
Who are the Agents of Change? Dan Riley of Spearhead Interactive demonstrated how Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality can provide innovative and disruptive solutions to business challenges.
December
How does Norfolk Connect and What are the Blocks? Chris Sargisson, CEO of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce and Julian Munson, Head of Enterprise Zones and Innovation at New Anglia LEP shared their insights.
January
Flexible Working and the Gig Economy. Ali Clabburn, CEO of Liftshare showcased a great local example of it in practise.
February
Politics, Philosophy and Economics with Tim Pike, Deputy Agent for the Bank of England, Chloe Smith MP and Catherine Guelbert-Thick who facilitated a discussion on trust in society.
March
PPE – Barry Dell of BRE discussing Yellow Jacket and SMARTWaste technologies.
April
Awards Night at OPEN Norwich
May
High Buildings – What have we Learned? James Bessey, partner at Blake Morgan, shared the lessons they have learned as a result of the tragedy at Grenfell Tower.
June
Summer event at The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. We held a member consultation and had a presentation from Iain Hill of Bidwells on the Oxford – Cambridge Corridor and its implications for Norfolk.
2018-19
Committee members:
Catherine Guelbert-Thick (Aqcuity) - Chair
Roger Bond (UEA)
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Saul Humphrey (Morgan Sindall / Saul D Humphrey LLP)
Teresa Rand (Admin Support)
Gavin Jones (Richard Utting Associates)
Danny Branson (Morgan Sindall)
Warren Salmons (MLM)
John Nortcliffe (Hudson Architects)
Chris MacDonald (Morgan Sindall)
Sophie Taylor (Build-Insight)
Number of Corporate Members – 75
Fees ranged from £52 to £710
Thanks to the following members for their generous sponsorship:
Harrison Group, Senior Architectural Systems, MLM, Clancy Consulting and Smith of Honingham.
October
AGM and presentation from Jan Davis on his work with Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief at The Assembly House
November
Return of Tim Pike – deputy agent for the Bank of England.
December
Ed Gillespie, writer, futurist, campaigner and entrepreneur – It’s the Climate Stupid – The Extinction Rebellion has begun.
January
What effect will the changing retail environment have on property in Norwich? with Stefan Gurney from Norwich BID and Minnie Moll of Jarrold Retail.
February
Garden Communities with David Ames of Letchworth Garden City and Chris Leeming of Lanpro.
March
Building the Next Generation with presentations from Helen Clements from Morgan Sindall, Corrienne Peasgood from City College Norwich with updates from Natasha Waller and Glen Todd from New Anglia LEP and Rachel Kirk from West Suffolk College on the Institute of Technology.
May
Awards Night at OPEN
June
Site Visit to Award Winning Water, Mills and Marshes site at Strumpshaw Fen where we enjoyed a tour of the Pump House and a delicious hog roast courtesy of The Broads Authority.
2019-20
Committee members:
Catherine Guelbert-Thick (Aqcuity) - Chair
Roger Bond (UEA)
Tony Palmer (Norfolk County Council) – Treasurer
Saul Humphrey (Saul D Humphrey LLP)
Teresa Rand (Admin Support)
Danny Branson (Morgan Sindall)
Warren Salmons (MLM)
John Nortcliffe (Hudson Architects)
Chris MacDonald (Morgan Sindall)
Sophie Taylor (Build-Insight)
Number of Corporate Members – 75
Fees ranged from £53 to £725
Thanks to the following members for their generous sponsorship:
Plandescil, Harrison Group, Clancy Consulting, LSI Architects and Lanpro.
October
AGM and update from Alison Nicholl of CE National at Blackfriars Hall
November
Addressing the Housing Crisis with David McQuade of Flagship Group
December
A return visit from Ed Gillespie – carrying on where he left off last year with his vision to rebuild Britain.
January
Mental Health – it may not be your fault but it is your problem. Tom Oxley of Bamboo Mental Health showing us how to support employees and colleagues with real stories and practical ideas.
February
Tim Pike, retired deputy agent at the Bank of England returned with his views on the macro economy and the global impact of a pandemic. He was joined by Tim Boucher of Oxbury with his research on the micro economy within construction.
bottom of page