Publication Date: 23-08-2024 09:00
Prestigious industry award won by three Bellway East Midlands site managers in Derbyshire
The high quality of work delivered by Bellway East Midlands site managers across Derbyshire has been recognised with a trio of prestigious national awards.
Three of the division’s site managers in the county have secured Quality Awards in the National House Building Council’s (NHBC) annual Pride in the Job competition.
This places them among the industry’s elite as only 449 winners were chosen from a pool of 8,000 – and 10 per cent of the winners work for Bellway.
The successful trio are Cory Upton at Coppice Heights in Ripley, James Kilby at Holbrook Park in Chellaston and Andrew Hayward at Cherry Meadow in Hatton, which is being built under Bellway’s Ashberry Homes brand.
Cory, who lives in Sheffield, has risen up the ranks after joining Bellway as a site labourer in 2015.
The 30-year-old said: “It was brilliant to hear that I had won the Quality Award. It’s a real team effort here at Coppice Heights and the first thing I did after receiving the good news was to walk round the site telling the rest of the team, who were all thrilled.
“I have only been a site manager for four years and to win this coveted award is confirmation to me that I am on the right track. Starting with Bellway as a labourer has given me the chance to see the business from a different perspective which helps when I am talking to the trades people on site.”
James, 39, from Rolleston on Dove, spent five years with Bellway earlier on in his career and rejoined the company in 2022 as a Project Manager. He has worked on multiple sites across the Midlands.
He said: “It is a great achievement to win my fifth Pride in the Job Quality Award. I am proud to be consistently recognised for delivering quality homes. Having also won three Seal of Excellence awards in the past, I hope to earn another and progress further in the competition.”
Andrew, 52, from Derbyshire, began working at Bellway in 2014, initially as a site manager and later advancing to senior site manager.
He said: “This is my seventh Pride in the Job Award; I have won five since being with Bellway. It is great to achieve this award and to have been recognised again. This award is down to not only me but the teamwork of everyone on site.
“We put in a lot of effort and so it is nice to be recognised for our hard work. This was the only Ashberry site to win a PITJ award this year. The site has been popular with customers because it is a nice location, with great open spaces, wildlife, a brook, and paths for walking dogs and Bellway has a reputation for creating high-quality products. I would like to go on and win a Seal of Excellence and achieve more awards in the future.”
The winning site managers are now automatically entered into the next stage of the competition – the NHBC’s Seal of Excellence and Regional Awards, which will be awarded later in the year.
Every site registered with the NHBC is judged against exacting criteria each year. Site managers are judged on a wide range of aspects of their work including attention to detail, leadership, technical expertise and health and safety.
Lee Wilkinson, Construction Director for Bellway East Midlands, said: “The Pride in the Job Quality Awards are rightly held in high regard nationally as everyone in the industry knows just how hard it is to win this accolade.
“The judging is incredibly rigorous, which means that winning the award is testament to the quality of the homes being built at Coppice Heights, Holbrook Park and Cherry Meadow.
“I would like to congratulate Cory, James and Andrew and every member of their fabulous site teams for their achievement and wish them all the best for the next stage of the competition in the autumn.”
To find out more about Bellway’s homes in the East Midlands, visit https://www.bellway.co.uk/new-homes/east-midlands.
