Yorkshire Forward HQ contract win for landscaper

A WELL-known commercial property surveyor, who changed career to run his own landscaping company, has landed a contract at the former headquarters of Yorkshire Forward.

Andrew Crowther, a former development director of the Scarborough Property Group (latterly VALAD Group), has been appointed to landscape and maintain the Victoria Place office development in Holbeck near Leeds Station.

Crowther set up Ashfield Grounds Maintenance after leaving Scarborough Property Group in 2009 as the recession in the property market took hold.

Based in Horsforth, Ashfield already boasts a client list of property companies and agents, including Wilton Developments, BAM FM, Gent Visick, DTZ Facilities Management, Willowbrite, GVA On Site, Henry Boot and the Scotts Miracle Gro’ Company.

Crowther said: “We are absolutely delighted to have won the Victoria Place contract. The site used to house the headquarters of the now-defunct regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and is now being developed by MPS (Medical Protection Society) and the Cheshire-based Patrick Properties.

“We have been asked to restore Victoria Place’s grounds to their former glory and to ensure the site looks as good as it did in the heyday of Yorkshire Forward.”

Crowther says has no regrets about his radical change of career.

“Next year will be our fifth anniversary and the company has grown steadily since 2009, with increased turnover and profits every year. I thoroughly enjoy running my own company and the outdoor life is certainly healthier than the sometimes pressurized helter-skelter world of surveying that I was previously part of,” he said.