Russell Armer task force transforms town’s leisure facility into NHS recovery centre

Posted on April 30, 2020 | News

We’re delighted to share exciting news of our recent involvement in a project to help the NHS tackle the Covid-19 pandemic here in Cumbria.

In response to an urgent request from the NHS and SLDC, we agreed to manage the transformation of Kendal Leisure Centre into a fully functioning regional NHS recovery centre. Russell Armer’s Construction Director Andrew Taylor and Senior Construction Manager Ian Hunt assessed the site before assembling a team of skilled professionals to start work on the rapid construction of a 62-bay hospital-style recovery ward.

Work began at 9am on Wednesday 8 April and was fully completed by Saturday – just three-and-a-half days later – a remarkable achievement in these challenging times. Our thanks to BAe Systems in Barrow and Leck Construction, who supplied the timber and prefabricated panels, and to the dedicated professionals from our own pool and from specialist contractor Timber Frame North West Ltd, Hodgson’s Decorators in Kendal and D G Bushell Ltd in Grange-Over-Sands, who fixed, fitted, finished and wired the bays ready for use.

Martyn Nicholson, Managing Director at Russell Armer Homes says: ‘This was a great opportunity for us to contribute in a meaningful way to the community – and to honour the NHS, whose workers are making us all so proud during the current crisis. We’d like to thank everyone who rose to the challenge with us and helped achieve an amazing result in the narrowest of timeframes. It feels odd saying this when we’ve invested so much energy into it – but, proud as we are of the new recovery centre, we sincerely hope it won’t need to be deployed!’