Southover Primary School children have been designing posters and three designs have been selected to go on display outside Malling Brooks Industrial Estate where the new “soap factory” for John Gosnell & Co Ltd is being constructed.
The winning designs were selected by a panel of judges including Cllr Stephen Gauntlett, Chairman of Lewes District Council, Clive Wilding of Santon North Street, Rita Ellis from the Malling Residents Association and Vicki McGregor from Merit Holdings, the main contractor responsible for constructing the new soap factory. The winners – Melissa Atug (8), Olly Sawers (8) and Mia Weedon (9) – were presented with £25 book tokens by the judges at a school assembly on Tuesday, July 11.
The poster competition is part of a programme sponsored by Merit Holdings Ltd and Santon North Street to involve the community in the North Street Quarter development and to help young people learn about the construction industry in general.
Vicki McGregor, Marketing Manager for Merit Holdings Ltd, said: “Merit is delighted to be working with North Street Quarter on the new facility for John Gosnell & Co. It’s exciting to be working on a project that means so much to the community.
“We are constructing a large highly visible building that has features such as solar panels, a sedum roof which will be planted with grass and flowers. It is bound to attract interest, so we came to the school to talk about the building and what it’s like to work in construction. The children were really interested and drew some fantastic posters about keeping safe on a building site. Thank you to all of the children who took the time to design a poster; they were fantastic and it was very hard to choose three winners!”
The construction on Malling Brooks is facilitated by the North Street Quarter scheme and will provide new facilities for some of the businesses on the development site to relocate to. When completed in 2021, North Street Quarter will deliver 416 new homes, of which 40% will be affordable, space for creative businesses and a new health hub. The scheme is jointly owned and managed by Santon North Street and Lewes District Council.
Cllr Stephen Gauntlett commented: “I‘m really impressed with the standard of the artwork and the level of detail the children have put into their posters. They have clearly listened and thoroughly understood the messages about safety and have illustrated them in a most engaging way.
“North Street Quarter is a very exciting project for Lewes and provides an opportunity for us all to get involved. I am very keen to promote interconnectivity between nature and the built environment and buildings like the new soap factory, with its numerous ecological features, is a fine example of this. But what’s more important is getting the community involved and I’m delighted that the Malling Residents Association and Southover Primary School have been part of the project.”
ENDS
Southover Primary School pupils Olly, Melissa and Mia with judges (L-R) Vicki McGregor, Merit Holdings, Cllr Stephen Gauntlett, Lewes District Council Chairman, Rita Ellis, Malling Residents Association