Kier carries out vital refurbishment work at East Durham church

Published by Elizabeth Pokorny for Kier Services in Communities and also in Housing

Residents and church goers in Peterlee, East Durham, celebrated the successful completion of vital refurbishment works at Peterlee Methodist Church by local volunteers and leading repairs and maintenance provider, Kier.

Employees from Kier were joined on site by local apprentices from East Durham College and volunteers to complete the improvement works, which included the installation of new floors, ceramic tiles for the walls and a kitchen, donated by Kier, as well as painting and a gas and plumbing overhaul. The refit took just five days and was concluded by a hand-over ceremony held on 27 September 2012.

Members of Kier's supply chain provided labour for the work including gas fitting and plumbing carried out by Pressmac and floor laying carried out by New Deck. Two students from East Durham Technical Academy gave up their time to tile the walls, and Kier presented them with a £50 tool voucher each to say thank you.

Kier project skills & CSR manager, Terry Hanlon, commented: “Helping the communities in which we work is of vital importance to us and we are delighted to have been able to help the church continue to provide an important service for many years to come; it was heartening to see so many people in attendance. I would like to thank all the Kier staff involved and those from our supply chain partners who have given up their time to ensure the project was completed on schedule.”

The new kitchen will be available for community groups to learn new skills and to cater for events happening at the church.

Representatives from the church, Margaret and Nat Watson, said: “This refurbishment has given our church a much needed makeover and we are so grateful to Kier for all the hard work the team has put in and for kindly donating a brand new kitchen. We have been very proud to have the whole community involved in painting and restoring the facilities. By working together we hope to have produced a centre which can be enjoyed by generations to come.”

Kier works across the East Durham area providing Decent Homes refurbishments to more than 9,500 social housing properties locally managed by arm’s length management organisation, East Durham Homes.