Spring 2015 Estates Staff Newsletter Contents Cover Story 1-2 Richard III Reburied – A View from the Side An Update on Estates Major 2 Projects Centre for Medicine Attenborough Arts Go Green Week February 2015 2 Fund Raising Events for Charity 3 Brookfield Estates Team Work with HR to Raise £438.58 for Comic Relief Jones 666 Challenge Raises £215 for Comic Relief Andy Smith Mace Bearer Fast Climb up Snowdon for MacMillan Richard III Reburied – A View from Features 4 the Side What’s It like Working in Estates? – A view from the Outside When the University holds an event maintained in the events that involved the the event organiser usually calls upon mortal remains of King Richard III. Administration Apprentice – An Estates staff to help. This spring the Interview with Lorraine Saddington The first major event was the private University held a number of events to coffining ceremony which needed an Are You Able to Offer Someone mark the re-interment of King Richard an Apprenticeship? appropriately dignified location. Tim III, culminating in the highly successfully consulted with the Estates Interiors Team Brookfield Photo Gallery 5 internationally televised ceremony on who found some original drawings for the Sunday 22 March 2015. Wildlife at Brookfield Fielding Johnson Building; these showed Estates staff from across the Division played that the current Council Chamber had once Estates Staff News 6 an essential part in ensuring that all these been a Chapel and would be a suitable New Members of Staff events ran smoothly and that the campus place to conduct the coffining ceremony. looked lovely at a time when the University Andrew Smith from the Interiors Team Fond Farewells was on show to the World. also provided several versions of the CAD Baby News scale drawings so the Planning Team could Deputy Director Tim Yates started working develop the layout for the main ceremony Fun Pages 7-8 with Jon Shears (Head of Creative Services), on Sunday 22 March. Gail Ruddle arranged Gardening Tips – Spring 7 Jim Butler (Events Manager, College of for the manufacture of special cloths and the Gardening Tasks Arts, Humanities and Law) and Jo Wood velvet cushions which would be covered in (University Special Events Manager) in A Neighbours Competition 8 white roses and lie on the coffin. Members January 2015 to plan the events. He also of our Reactive Maintenance Team, Sonny Caption Competition 8 worked with the Chaplain, the Reverend Gonsalves and Matt Boylan were involved Canon Dr Stephen Foster, to ensure that the in the set-up of the electrical equipment required level of dignity and respect was for the Ceremony, working closely with the Continued overleaf Continued from overleaf An Update on Estates Major Projects Centre for Medicine The flagship £42million project to construct a new Centre for Research and Teaching in Medicine is well underway. Although a little behind media teams attending. Sonny also had schedule the outside is nearly complete. The picture taken earlier this month shows the the idea (and privilege) of lowering the windows in place and the external red brick cladding. Once complete the Centre for King’s Standard flying from the roof of the Medicine will be the largest Passivhaus building in the UK. To find out more about the Fielding Johnson Building during the week, building, including the latest news on the project please visit the Centre for Medicine at the exact time that his coffin was laid website www2.le.ac.uk/offices/estates/news/current-projects/ctrmed to rest in the Cathedral on Thursday 26 Expect disruption from 27th April when, to improve road safety for users of the March. area, we start works to the junction of Lancaster Road and University Road. The King Richard III Family Open Day on Saturday 21 March highlighted the Attenborough Arts academic expertise across the University On Friday 6 February there was a Special Ground Breaking Event organised by the with talks given by staff from Archaeology, Development and Alumni Relations Office to mark the work on the project to create a new Engineering, English, History, Geology and Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden as an extension to the existing Richard Attenborough Genetics. It was a tremendous success Building. The event was attended by several important persons including the President and and attended by over 1,000 people. The Vice-Chancellor and the Director of Estates. The highlight of the event was an inspiring quality of the experience would not have speech on arts and inclusiveness from Michael Attenborough, grandson of the late Lord been the same had extra Estates staff not Richard Attenborough who devoted so much time and enthusiasm to the original project. been on hand to check that the areas were clean, safe, accessible and parking was properly controlled. As well as the large Go Green Week February 2015 numbers of people attending the special day, there was ‘business as usual’ with Main campus was an even bigger hub of Sports Centre members needing to park, buzzing activity then normal from 9th - the Library open and coaches for Easter 13th February as students studying the field trips needing to be accommodated Leicester Award pulled off a fantastic safely. array of engaging environmental activities for Go Green Week 2015. Facilitated by King Richard III events finished on Sunday the Environment Team, this annual event 22 March with the coffin leaving the involves months of planning with the aim University. Three of our Porters Nathan of shedding light on our sustainability Gent, Tony Price and Andy Smith (who goals as a university and also as individuals. carried the University Mace) played key roles in the Ceremony which was watched This was a brilliant opportunity for students to learn valuable transferable skills and by millions on television. The event was take charge of a project, but as the Go Green Week schedule shows, it wasn’t just for covered live by Sky News and BBC News students. and by Channel 4 who had exclusive Meat-Free Monday was about encouraging everyone to buy more local produce and filming rights following on from their buy meat less to reduce your carbon footprint. Free fruit and veg were handed out original coverage of the Car Park Dig. and it was a great example of eating cheaply, healthily and in a more environmentally More than 1,500 people attended on the friendly manner. Travel Tuesday hosted Dr Bike on campus for anyone to give their 22 and our Security Team were on hand bike a free pick-me-up and the Security Team did a wonderful job selling D-Locks. to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience On Waste-Not Wednesday the University was visited by BBC Radio Leicester to play for all. Despite the numbers of people the giant upcycled games set out in the ARC. At the same time the university’s waste on campus on Saturday and Sunday the contractors, Wastecycle, were downstairs on their stall with lots of information and outside areas looked splendid thanks to prizes to be won. Switch-Off Thursday had students demonstrating how much energy it the efforts of our Litter Picker, Stuart Abel. takes to power simple appliances through a kindly borrowed spin bike from the Sports The Richard III events showed an estates Centre. It was also a great opportunity to shout about the new Centre for Medicine team effort at its best with everyone project as a prime example of the University’s commitment to sustainable development involved going the extra mile to keep it and the largest Passivhaus building in the UK. Finally, Impact Friday rounded off the special for all. It was a prime example week by having the Environmental Action Society and Hungry For Change food of how we fulfil our motto “enabling growing project advertise their activities in the Student’s Union. With both groups more success”. than happy to have staff involved, there’s never been a better time to do so! Contributed by Sarah Roberts Contributed by Tim Yates 2 UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER Fund Raising Events for Charity Many estates staff are ‘game-for-a-laugh’ and happy to contribute to Charity fundraising events. We have had some great examples from across the Division – where teams have got together to collaborate and make loads of dough – sometimes literally. Brookfield Estates Team work with HR to raise £438.58 for Comic Relief On Friday 13 March 2015 staff from Human Resources and Estates combined in a number of fun and team building events to raise money for Comic Relief. These included: Dress Down Friday, Pick- a-Nose, Comic Relief Raffle and the The Great Brookfield Bake Off. The picture shows the winner with his cake and coveted prize and the two judges Paul ‘scouser’ Hollywood and Mary ‘anonymous superstar’ Berry. The day was enjoyed by all who took part and so far has raised the princely sum of £438.58; special thanks are due to all who baked, bought and dressed funny for money. An extra special thanks to Lisa Booker (Estates) and Clare Haynes (Human Resources) for all their efforts in organising the events and to the Directors of Estates and Human Resources for risking their trim figures see photo by agreeing to judge the bake off competition. Jones 666 Challenge raises £215 for Comic Relief Four members of our professional team agreed to eat themselves silly; facing a challenge of 6 sausages, 6 pieces of bacon, 6 eggs, 6 hash brownies, 6 pieces of fried bread and 6 American style pancakes they managed to eat the whole fry up inside 30 minutes. Although I understand that the pancakes were a disappointment and not completed.