A major construction company covering the whole of south east England has handed out its annual awards for health and safety to several regional firms.

BAM Construction South East, which, covers eleven counties in the south east of England, plus greater London. Together with its supply chain, BAM employs around 1200 people annually.

BAM’s regional supply chain covers the whole UK, but winners included firms in Watford, Borehamwood, and Aylesbury which achieved success alongside two others in Rochester, Kent and Guildford, Surrey.

Goldmax Ltd, based in Garnett Close, which was founded in 2005 by Gerry Lavelle, was chosen as major contractor BAM Construction’s contractor of the year in the category of substructure, external and demolition works.

Aylesbury-based firm G S Mechanical specialises in supplying mechanical and public health services. It won the internal works health and safety section.

Borehamwood’s Masterson Holdings won the outstanding supervisor category. The company is a specialist in reinforced concrete frames and groundworks.

Among the schemes BAM has under construction are Balliol College and Keble College – where it is delivering a high-end student accommodation scheme for the former and similar accommodation together with research spaces and a historic restoration at the latter. Those are valued at a combined £90 million. The firm is behind a state of the art building for the University of Southampton, Dover Leisure Centre, a business park near Portsmouth, a major £25 million new secondary school for the Nishkam Trust in West London, which is about to open in August and several other significant projects. It has just commenced work on St Michael’s secondary school in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

The firm’s St Albans offices also house BAM Design and BAM Services Engineering, making Hertfordshire a particular stronghold for the company’s UK operations. The UK head office is in Hemel Hemsptead.

BAM’s South East Director Adam Harding said:

“How we co-ordinate the many firms who works for us on our sites, the standards they work to, and how we keep us all safe as well as the public proximate to our works, these are critical factors. We wanted to acknowledge exceptional performance in key parts of our work and that’s what these companies have demonstrated with their work for us.

“We have a collaborative culture which works well for our clients and our supply chain. Good businesses create an atmosphere of open communication. The people who work for us, and how we treat them, are central to our ability to work safely and efficiently.”

Mr Harding said sites such as those in Oxford were tightly confined and the firms had to demonstrate considerable control of risks in such working environments.