Campaigners’ anger at ‘Considerate Constructors’ tag for ‘inconsiderate’ builder

Martin Shipton

Campaigners have expressed outrage that a controversial building firm has posted a notice announcing its registration with the Considerate Constructors Scheme.

The Spanish company Sacyr is part of a consortium contracted to build a new £1bn Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff.

The planned centre itself has been strongly criticised by clinicians who believe it should have been co-located with a general hospital, while Sacyr has faced particular disapproval because of its criminal convictions for bid-rigging.

Inappropriate

Now, residents who live close to the new Velindre site have said the firm’s registration with the Considerate Constructors Scheme is entirely inappropriate.

Members of the Save the Northern Meadows (STNM) group, who objected to the decision to build the centre on a much-loved green space, have released email correspondence between themselves and the company which they say show it to be anything but considerate.

A spokesperson for STNM told Nation.Cymru: “The most upsetting objections to this registration come from those living close to the building site. They report not Sacyr UK’s considerateness, but instead having to raise safety concerns for many months, failures to follow planning conditions and extended working hours.

“The Considerate Constructors Scheme makes clear that its members must provide ‘a safer environment, preventing unnecessary disturbance, and reducing nuisance for the community from their activities.’ Yet local residents report that Sacyr UK has not replied to complaint letters around a range of safety concerns, including ones that endanger passing pedestrians, young or old, local or not.

“Residents’ main worries centre on two ‘walk to school’ routes which hundreds of large HGVs can cross every day at the entrances to the building site.

“Cardiff council’s planning committee passed a number of planning conditions to keep pedestrians safe. These included an embargo on construction HGV lorries crossing the ‘walk to school’ route at Whitchurch Hospital entrance for half an hour, morning and afternoon, when many children walk to and from school.

“Planning conditions also require a gateman and banksman at the controlled site entrance where it crosses a public footpath, two pedestrian safety gates, and ensuring 2.4m x 25m visibility at the crossing so lorry drivers can see pedestrians on the public footpath.”

The spokesperson said that when Sacyr UK began work in April 2024, local people quickly realised it was not following some of the safety planning conditions. In April and May 2024 they emailed the company with concerns about the absence of the pedestrian safety gates, no gateman at the site entrance, and mud on the road and public footpath as no wheel wash was being used. Sacyr has never replied to these initial letters.

Safety gates

The community persisted with further letters and eventually three months after work started Sacyr installed the two pedestrian safety gates, thereby admitting it should have done so before.

The spokesperson said: “The Chair of the Whitchurch and Tongwynlais Partnership and Communities Together group met Sacyr in October 2024, again raising safety concerns, and reporting construction HGVs’ breaches of embargo times. Local people sent in date and time-stamped photos as evidence for repeated violations of the embargo times.

“With residents still raising safety concerns, STNM wrote to Sacyr and Velindre University NHS Trust in November and December 2024. The safety concerns raised included that Sacyr had installed hoardings which prevented the 2.4m x 25m visibility for lorry drivers of children on the public footpath necessary as part of the safety planning conditions.

“In addition, Sacyr had initially installed temporary pedestrian gates which sometimes were not in place. The next pedestrian gates Sacyr installed often did not close properly and had flimsy latches which easily broke.

“The public footpath was not looked after properly and could be covered in mud. The gateman and banksman were not always at the site entrance, and if the gateman was in the cabin the hoardings prevented him from being able to see school children approaching on the Public Footpath.

“STNM requested an apology from Sacyr and Velindre Trust to the local community, and that all construction vehicles should now use the alternative building site entrance on the new road and bridge by the Asda Coryton store. This second entrance does not cross any public footpaths or walk to school routes, and does not take any traffic through a built-up area.

“Following the letters from STNM, both Sacyr and Velindre Trust agreed to put in measures to address these safety concerns. These measures included a Variable Message Sign at Coryton roundabout, a Delivery Management System, hiring of workers to patrol Whitchurch Hospital during embargo times, and repairs to the pedestrian safety gates. That Sacyr and Velindre Trust agreed to put in these additional measures is confirmation that residents’ safety concerns were fully justified and that Sacyr was not yet a Considerate Constructor.

“Even very recently, in January and February 2025, local people continued to report embargo breaches and safety concerns at the construction site entrances. In a photograph of the Whitchurch Hospital entrance taken on February 5, a cement mixer is breaking the 15.15 – 15.45 embargo. A photograph of the construction site entrance taken on February 12th February showed there was no gateman or banksman at the entrance. A gateman was in the cabin but the hoardings still obscured a clear view of pedestrians and schoolchildren on the public footpath.

“The pedestrian safety gates were still not working properly, and the hoardings were damaged and remained in place despite local people’s understanding that Sacyr UK had agreed to move the hoardings away from the public footpath.

“Cardiff council’s enforcement department has had conversations with Sacyr UK to try and persuade the constructor to follow these planning conditions, but at some stage Cardiff council may have to issue an enforcement notice to ensure they are followed.

“Planning permission has been applied for to extend the use of the construction road that leads to this main site entrance by another year. Surely a considerate constructor would address safety concerns and abide by planning conditions first, before extending the use of the site entrance by another year?

“In addition to these safety concerns local residents have been appalled at Sacyr’s late working hours, with construction noise and lights from the building site late into the evening. On February 14 2025 Sacyr announced its extended working hours from 7am to 10pm on weekdays, up to 6pm on Saturdays and overnight working on certain days. It made this announcement without consultation with any of the nearby residents who will be directly affected by the out-of-hours working.

“Surely a considerate constructor would have consulted with residents before causing such disruption to people’s lives? Especially in the first year of construction, when there are at least another two years of building work planned.”

‘Constant worry’

A local resident who did not want to be named said: “It’s a constant worry to me with all the noise and lights living so close to a building site.”

The spokesperson for STNM said: “Sacyr has also presented itself as if it were the benefactor for the community through the ‘community benefits’ it is supposed to disburse. What Sacyr does not make clear is that these benefits come through the Mutual Investment Model contract, which ultimately is paid for by the Welsh Government and the public.

“Velindre Trust papers state delivery of the community benefits for young people not in employment, education or training ‘is proving very challenging’ and a mitigation plan has been requested. What this mitigation plan will mean in terms of Sacyr providing jobs and apprenticeships for these young people is not clear.

“It is surely no surprise that local people find Sacyr’s joining of the

Considerate Constructors Scheme incomprehensible.”

Sacyr was invited to respond.