The green builders highlighted in the campaign for going it alone
BY HIS own admission, Elliott O’Doherty did not do well at school and was working part-time as a pot washer at a cafe when his career took a different turn.
Joining the Scarborough Construction Skills Village last October, the 18-year-old has since learned brick-working, plastering and joining, leading to an apprenticeship at local building firm JA Small.
He said: “I like building something and I’m proud of what I have done – going back, checking and seeing if the work is right.
“I now look at buildings all the time, seeing something different every day. I don’t know what I would be doing otherwise, probably nothing. You don’t want to be washing up the rest of your life, do you?”
His experience is one of more than 170 jobs or apprenticeships created by the skills village, with 62 learners at the site in Middle Deepdale going into employment or apprenticeships in construction last year.
And the company that runs the site, which is moving to bigger premises at High Eastfield Farm, is expanding its work on the green agenda.
It has launched SoHoCo, a social-housing company with a focus on green construction and wants to build carbonzero homes with super-highinsulation and electric carcharging points as standard.
Such is the firm’s green focus that it appears in the devolution submission to Government by North Yorkshire leaders, who want the powers and funding to make England’s largest county the first “carbon-negative economy” by 2050.
Managing director Graham Ratcliffe said: “Our new social housing company includes a green model to support future eco-friendly house-building in the area. In doing so we are supporting the idea of a stronger future for the North.”
As well as aiming to produce higher-quality, environmentally friendly housing, North Yorkshire leaders want funding to invest in sustainable energy sources to support the decarbonisation of the economy.
These included financial incentives for firms to encourage investment in zero carbon or zero waste employment sites, using methods such as capture and use of rainwater and waste water.