Colin France (FCIOB FRICS FRSA MCIArb)
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Colin France (FCIOB FRICS FRSA MCIArb) |
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This is a brief history of the experience of Colin William France, Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building and Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
• I began my career in quantity surveying with a builder when I joined Wm Airey and Son ( Leeds ) Limited as an articled apprentice quantity surveyor. I graduated in 1965 with the benefit of attendance at the Leeds College of Technology (now Leeds Metropolitan University ). I was subsequently elected into membership of the (then) Institute of Builders and of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in the 1960s and became a Fellow of each body respectively in 1983 and 2003. I became a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in 1988.
• With Aireys I began measuring and valuing for purposes of bonus payments to the labour force; bricklayers, joiners, plasterers, painters and attendant labourers mainly. I completed my apprenticeship in 1965, by which time I had attained the position of Senior Surveyor. In that position, I was responsible not only for the cost management of individual projects but also for the supervision of intermediate level and junior staff, working on a "team" basis. I managed the cost administration of the construction of a bus garage at Middleton. Leeds City Council was the ultimate end user and the project was valued at about £½million in the mid-sixties, then the largest single project which Aireys had undertaken, by monetary value.
• During the period 1969-74, I became Chief Surveyor with R M Thompson Limited and later at Manston Contractors Limited, both then medium-sized contractors. During that period I began to develop my experience in the resolution of disputes in the construction industry.
• In 1974, I formed my own consultancy practice, YBA Consultancy. This practice was based upon providing a quantity surveying and building cost economy consultancy and advisory service, principally to contractors and sub-contractors with whom I had worked during my years practising the profession of quantity surveyor in the employ of two contractors. During the first year I undertook general quantity surveying duties such as preparing quantities and estimates for contractors and also preparing variation accounts on their behalf.
• During 1976 I formed a partnership with Albert Edward Batty FRICS, FCIArb, to undertake a broader spectrum of the quantity surveying and building cost economy profession. At the beginning each partner worked from his own home and our first commission was the re-measurement of a nine-storey reinforced concrete framed office block in Sheffield , total value approximately £3 million. During 1977 I obtained my first commission to provide a full quantity surveying service for an extension to a working mens club in the Leeds area.
• From1977 to 1979 the Practice was consolidated by the influx of further commissions, both for full quantity surveying services from clients with building projects in hand and also the advisory and consultancy services to contractors described above at paragraph 3. We also obtained commissions to advise contractors in numerous disputes and prepared and delivered seminars on subjects associated with our professional expertise. Further qualified staff were employed.
• During 1981 we obtained further commissions for quantity surveying services on larger projects, for example, the construction of a development for Leeds Federated Housing Association, value about £400,000.00. We also began to work in the civil engineering field of construction activities, notably the Selby Coalfield project working in conjunction with an Architect employed principally for the "overground" (building) work but developing specialist consultancy "below ground".
• For several years during the mid-1980s I supervised pre-contract quantity surveying services related to large projects in the Middle East before such work became scarce.
• I have been commissioned variously by clients to carry out the following duties on various schemes
• traditional quantity surveying;
• on the basis of the Cost Analysis, assist the architect in finalising the design; • prepare Bills of Quantities from architect's drawings nad invite tenders; • advise on receipt of tender; • draft contract documents; • carry out all post-contract duties both as quantity surveyor and project mamager including preparation of Bills of Variation before Final Certificate; Within this category are a number of schemes for City Councils, Housing Associations, private and corporate clients.
• The Practice was re-styled the Batty France Consultancy in 1984. I am the Senior Partner at the Shipley office. From that time, I have frequently been commissioned in the role of expert witness, mainly relating to specification, valuation and time for completion of construction work.
• I was appointed by Bradford Metropolitan Council to appear as expert witness in the matter of a dispute between the Council and a large insurance company arising out of the construction of houses at Micklethwaite, Bingley. I have been consulted in regard to major disputes on the extension of Bradford Centre Telephone Exchange (Architects, Property Services Agency), construction of flats at St Anne's Court, Liverpool (Housing Association work) and also a substantial dispute arising out of the construction of accommodation for old people, contract value about £1.2 million, in the Manchester area.
• As a single practitioner during the early years, I undertook pricing of building work. In 1987, I began a specialisation in computerised estimating. Since that time, I have estimated the costs of construction for work from £1thousand to £10million in value, sometimes by way of preparation for a tender bid by one of several contractor and subcontractor clients.
• I also began to draft specification clauses for clauses in tender documents, initially for the purpose of the procurement of building work and thereafter as a tool in the administration of building contracts.
• Since 1989, I have been appointed as expert witness in the matter of construction industry disputes regarding inter alia, a hotel in Leeds (Contract Sum about £7million), an office block in London (£10million), a theatre in Leeds (£10million) and a hotel in Newcastle (£4million). I have acted as lay advocate in the matter of construction industry disputes regarding a school in Bradford (£2million) and I had the conduct of arbitrations respectively on behalf of two contractors relating to disputes and differences concerning work packages for which the contractor contracted with a local authority each in a civil engineering, management-style contract in Leeds (£3million).
• My experience for the cases in which I have acted both in the capacity of expert and lay advocate relates inter alia to the writing of specifications, estimating and valuation of the cost of construction work, together with delays and disruption and consequences therefrom.
• More recently, I have been instructed by a firm of specialist joiners and shopfitters for whom I have given evidence in court.
• I am a practising arbitrator and was first appointed as an arbitrator in 1993 to decide matters in dispute arising out of a building contract since which time I have been appointed each year in that capacity.
• In December 1993, I was formally appointed a member of the BEC panel of Adjudicators.
• For the Chartered Institute of Building, I am a Past-Chairman of the Yorkshire Branch and continue to serve on the committee; former Member of the Board of the Faculty of Architecture and Surveying; and a Past-Chairman of the Leeds and West Yorkshire Centre (from March 1996 to December 1997) and continue to serve on the committee. I am Vice Chairman of the Board of Concourse (the Centre for Art and Architecture in Yorkshire, based in Leeds ) and Chairman of the City of Leeds YMCA .
• In 1997 I studied for and passed examinations in Arbitration Practice and Procedure and Award Writing, externally from the College of Estate Management, Reading.
• I have conducted the financial management of several lottery projects (two of which I was responsible for the entire management of the construction process). Lottery projects require an increasing proportion of the whole time commitment dedicated exclusively to facilities for the disabled. • More recently, I have studied for and received accredication in adjudication with the Chartered Institute of Building.
• In the recent past I have undertaken:
• expert evidence in the Construction and Technology Court concerning the refurbishment of a house in North London recently reported; • a mediation relating to a dispute on the subject of an easement and a septic tank; • a binding adjudication relating to the construction of a factory and office for which a contractor and building owner also required resolution of their differences by discussion;
• preparation of contract documents and consultant's appointments for a PFI project; • drafting partnering contracts for a recently privatised local authority-based housing agency;
• acting on behalf of referring and responding parties in the process of adjudication pursuant to the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. ..back to Company Personnel |
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