FWP wins top RICS gong for £40m service station

Gloucester Services

One of North West-based Frank Whittle Partnership’s flagship projects has won a top RICS award.

The architects’ and surveyors’ company was instrumental in delivering the hugely popular Gloucester Motorway Services for Cumbrian firm Westmorland, owners of Tebay Services on the M6.

The design and delivery of the Gloucester services on the M5 was overseen by FWP as project and cost managers, with both north and southbound services opening on time and to the £40m budget.

The RICS Project of the Year Award 2017 is in recognition of the fact that Westmorland runs the services, designed by Glenn Howells Architects, as a unique charity, the Gloucestershire Gateway Trust, which provides regular and reliable income to a host of good causes.

Through this partnership, the charity stands to gain around £10m over 20 years to spend on local community initiatives.

The RICS judges said: “More than 28 million vehicles and 40 million people per year passed through Gloucestershire on the M5 bringing pollution, congestion and noise with no economic benefit to some of the county’s most deprived areas.

“The Trust instigated a unique collaboration to produce a community asset. This is a quantum leap in the design and operation of motorway services areas.

“Employing more than 400 mainly local people, supporting more than 250 local and regional producers and sustaining six local charities, this must be the model for all future motorway service areas.”

Kate Shuttleworth, partner at architecture, design and project management practice FWP, which has offices in Preston and Manchester, explained the regional award means the Gloucester Services project is now set to battle it out for the national RICS title of Building of the Year in November.

She said: “Working on all Westmorland’s projects is an honour and a brilliant challenge because of the vision the company demands.

“Managing the Gloucester project and being able to play our part in its successful operation has been satisfying and is a tribute to the team at FWP who worked on it.

“We are proud of the success of Tebay on the M6, Gloucester on the M5 and Cairn Lodge on the M74 near Glasgow, which is the third motorway services owned by Westmorland, and look forward to helping maintain all three as the best MSAs in the UK.”

FWP has extensive experience in both project and cost management for a wide range of industrial and commercial ventures.

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