Partner Article

Northumberland firm awarded prestigious two year Durham Cathedral contract

A Northumberland asbestos firm has won a two year contract to help the restoration efforts at Durham Cathedral.

Cramlington-based AMS Asbestos Management will provide its full range of asbestos management services to help ensure the safety of the building and the people who use it.

AMS is set to provide asbestos surveying, inspections, training and consultancy as well as give Durham Cathedral use of its award winning ASK asbestos management web portal.

Durham Cathedral, a Romanesque masterpiece creating a window into an era of Britain’s 1000 years past, is the only cathedral in England to retain almost all of its Norman craftsmanship, making it a truly special architectural work.

AMS will be involved with the maintenance and conservation of Durham Cathedral as part of its Open Treasure project as the Cathedral looks to transform the way visitors experience and gain inspiration from it.

AMS will initially complete a review of the current asbestos surveys with a total UKAS-accredited re-survey of all the properties owned by the cathedral, including the main cathedral and approximately 17 residential and office-use buildings associated with it.

It will then complete a full re-assessment of all the asbestos-containing materials, both as a material assessment and priority assessment, to help it generate the asbestos management plan for each property. Finally, it will undertake a review of the asbestos management policy.

Experts at AMS will also provide UKATA Asbestos Awareness Training to all building maintenance and facilities staff, and P405 (BOHS) Management of Asbestos in Buildings to the Estates Management team at Durham Cathedral.

Much of the work AMS will be doing will enable work ahead of the next phase of Open Treasure, which has recently received an award of £3.9 million from the Heritage Lottery fund. AMS is ready to get on site, as preliminary work begins early 2014.

Managing director at AMS, Stewart McNicholl said: “This is a great contract for AMS to have been awarded. Durham Cathedral is an internationally recognised landmark and one the North East is very proud of. Clearly, we’re excited to begin our work for Durham Cathedral, and it won’t be long before we can.”

In recent times, the Cathedral has been used in a variety of films and TV productions, most notably the Harry Potter Series.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .