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Shortlisting success: HMP Fosse Way and Pick Everard up for major honour

22 Apr 2024

Ali Ratcliffe

Ali McGovern

Director

Pick Everard has been shortlisted for a prestigious industry accolade for its work on one of the largest and greenest prisons in the country.

HMP Fosse Way and its project team have been nominated in the Project of the Year (over £50m) category at the Construction News awards, which recognise industry best practice and excellence.

The prison, which completed in July last year, is a category C prison that continues a blueprint design programme Pick Everard established with HMP Five Wells in 2022, collaborating closely with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on a new sustainable vision for its prison estate.

We acted as lead designer for the £286m project, which houses 1,715 prisoners across a 16-acre site, powered by renewable energy. Our multi-disciplinary services included architecture, civil engineering, building engineering, sustainability and energy, structural engineering, landscape architecture and interior design.

“HMP Fosse Way reflects a new standard for prison design that Pick Everard is incredibly proud to help deliver. It incorporates biophilic and salutogenic principles alongside a wealth of prisoner services, including a gym, library and classrooms, which are designed to positively shape rehabilitation efforts. It is also the most energy efficient in operation, with offsite manufacturing and renewable energy generation helping drive net zero efforts across the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) estate.

“The project also represents a continuation of our blueprint design established at HMP Five Wells, and we’re proud that the MoJ have chosen us as their Client Designer for a further four new build prisons. Everyone at Pick Everard is delighted with this shortlisting, which is testament to the hard work and reputation of excellence we have established in the UK justice sector.”

— Ali Ratcliffe, director at Pick Everard

Throughout the project lifecycle, HMP Fosse Way generated an overall total social value of £312m, contributing positively to local schemes and supply chain efforts. More than 490 jobs were created as a direct result of the project, with 73 serving prisoners and ex-offenders employed on site.

Pick Everard collaborated closely with contractor Lendlease on the scheme, and PCE Ltd who delivered the superstructure and façade.

David Cadiot, Lendlease’s executive general manager for construction in the public sector & UK regions, said: “We’ve a proven track record of delivering projects to the very highest standards and with economic, social and environmental benefits in the communities where we work.“It’s been an outstanding project and one we’re proud to have delivered for the Ministry of Justice.”

A 250-cell block extension is currently underway in Leicester, feeding into government objectives to deliver around 20,000 new prison places across the country by the middle of the decade.

The winners of the Construction News awards will be announced at a ceremony held at London’s JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel on Thursday 11 July.

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