Bellway wins prestigious accolade at Homebuilder Safety Awards for new homes development in Desborough

Judges chose The Wickets at Desborough, which is being built under Bellway’s Ashberry Homes brand, for the prestigious accolade at the national awards ceremony held at the Grand Hotel in Birmingham.

Two of Bellway East Midlands’ other sites – Holbrook Park in Chellaston, Derbyshire, and Ashlands in Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire – were also highly commended in the same category.

Held for the first time this year, the awards recognise the hard work and dedication of site teams to drive up health and safety standards across the industry.

Keith Grayson, who is senior site manager at The Wickets, was on hand to collect the award on the night.

The 39-year-old, from Newark-on-Trent, said: “I was ecstatic to be given this award and to be able to walk onto the stage to represent my fantastic team at The Wickets. This is recognition for all the effort that we have put in at the site – and continue to put in on a daily basis as we strive for excellence.

“This accolade comes on the back of earlier this year winning my first Pride in the Job Quality Award from the National House Building Council. It has been quite a year, but this success has only come about due to a lot of very hard work and our drive to be the best we can in all we do.”

Lee Wilkinson, Construction Director at Bellway East Midlands, said: “After being recognised for his outstanding work at The Wickets in the NHBC awards, it was no real surprise to see Keith pick up another accolade. It is a richly deserved award.

“Build quality and safety are identified as a key focus of our companywide sustainability strategy, prioritising the health, safety, and wellbeing of our colleagues and subcontractors. Sites that enter the Homebuilder Safety Awards are assessed with exacting standards on a range of criteria including occupational health, manual handling, fire safety, working at height and safety signs.

“The Wickets is an outstanding development being delivered by an outstanding team, led expertly by Keith. I would like to congratulate Keith and his team and the site teams at Holbrook Park and Ashlands whose sterling efforts saw them highly commended in the same category.”

The Homebuilder Safety Awards feature categories for best small, medium, large and multi-storey builder. The sites taking part receive at least two unannounced assessment visits and a third visit if they are shortlisted for their region.

Bellway developments also won the first prize for the North and South West regions – making it the developer with the most regional wins in the Best Large Builder category. In addition to the two East Midlands commendations, Bellway was also highly commended for a further 11 sites – more than any other housebuilder across all categories.