NEWSBRIEF

Mowlem starts work on Oldham gallery

Mowlem's northern regional building division has started a £6.5m management contract to construct an art gallery in Oldham, Greater Manchester. The 2,750m2 gallery will accommodate exhibition galleries, storage space, a caf', retail, educational and office facilities. Work will finish in May 2001.

Bovis wins £8.5m cinema fit-out contract

Bovis Lend Lease is carrying out a £8.5m fit-out of United Cinema's 20-screen cinema complex in the centre of Manchester. Work will start this month and is due for completion in October.

New Scottish and Newcastle headquarters

Birch Construction has been chosen by leisure and retailers Scottish and Newcastle to build a £12.4m headquarters in Northampton. The Nottingham-based firm is scheduled to complete construction of the 9,000m2 three-storey office block in July 2001.

Design team on track with rail depot job

Multi-disciplinary consultancy Gibb will be working alongside Taylor Woodrow to design the new £30m Central Rivers rail maintenance depot. The depot will be built on a greenfield site near Burton-on-Trent and used to service Virgin's fleet of tilting trains.

No Crash landing for charity abseilers

Fourteen staff at the Construction Confederation, including chief executive Jennie Price, raised more than £6,000 for homeless charity Crash after surviving an abseil down the side of Construction House in London during National Construction Week.

Housebuilder's pre-tax profit up 67%

McCarthy & Stone lifted its pre-tax profit by 67% last year to £20m, on a turnover of £66m. The specialist housebuilder has 70% of the retirement homes market. Chairman John McCarthy announced he is to retire and said he had no plans to dispose of his financial interests. His family holds 18% of the business valued at more than £260m.

TayWood completes Monarch takeover

Housing and property group Taylor Woodrow is paying £88.8m for 45% of the Canadian housebuilder Monarch Development that it does not already own. The company says that the move allows it to streamline its North American housing operations.

BRE acquires Loss Prevention Centre

Building Research Establishment has bought the Loss Prevention Centre, the UK's leading testing and certification body for fire, security and loss prevention, from the Association of British Insurers and Lloyd's. The acquisition for an undisclosed sum, and a multi-million investment by BRE in purpose-built facilities for LPC staff, is seen as an important step in BRE's mission to become a world leader in the provision of testing, risk assessment and certification for the fire, security and insurance industries.

Highways Agency budget

Contract Journal would like to clarify last week's story on the Highways Agency budget (CJ 5 April, page 4). While the Agency's maintenance budget has been cut by nearly £100m, £68m of this has been switched to Transport for London for maintaining the London element of the network and £25m has been reallocated to local authority road maintenance.