A leading North Wales builder has slammed the Government for lack of clarity after shutting down its sites because of the coronavirus epidemic.<\/p>\n
Mark Parry, joint managing director of Brenig Construction, said the company made its decision on moral grounds as it was impossible for staff and sub-contractors to work safely.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve been getting mixed messages from the Prime Minister and from other Cabinet members, telling us to carry on and at the same time maintain social distancing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell that\u2019s just not possible on a building site and if it\u2019s not possible to keep everyone safe we feel that on moral grounds we have to shut down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a difficult decision and there are other major contractors in North Wales who are still working but we felt that any company with a moral conscience had to shut down straight away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brenig Construction Group, based in Mochdre, near Colwyn Bay, and headed by joint managing directors Mark Parry and Howard Vaughan, is active across North Wales with sites in Conwy, Denbighshire and Flintshire.<\/p>\n
The company employs 70 staff as well as sub-contractors and took the decision to close down immediately, sending staff home and operating with a skeleton crew at their headquarters, but even that hasn\u2019t saved them from some unjustified criticism.<\/p>\n
Mr Parry said: \u201cYou can\u2019t just down tools and walk away from a building site so we did have some staff on each site shutting down and making everything safe and we\u2019ve had a number of abusive phone calls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ring up, give us a load of abuse and slam the phone down but we\u2019ve just been making sure there is no danger to the public on the sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do applaud the Government for much of what they\u2019ve done but we have badly needed more clarity from them for construction industry which is the third biggest part of the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout of a third of those in the industry are self-employed and they haven\u2019t found out what support there will be for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government have put \u00a3330 billion aside for interruption to employment but no-one seems to have a clue how it will work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in limbo but we believe we have taken the correct moral decision to close down but we still don\u2019t know what support we will be given by the Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will pay all our staff in full by the end of the month and by then we will hopefully know what\u2019s happening and how to access the support we need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard Vaughan added that there were other complications around the supply of materials and travelling to and from sites and he said: \u201cEven if it was possible to keep people two metres apart on a site, many of them travel together to the sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite all these factors others have been carrying on regardless so we could be putting ourselves at a disadvantage but we feel it is the moral thing to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cA person with coronavirus can infect 400 people in a month and we employ 70 people so that could be 28,000, that\u2019s the scale of the effect we could have on the NHS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brenig Construction was founded in 2012 and the company now employs 70 people directly and is turning over \u00a311 million a year, with \u00a321 million of work already secured in future contracts.<\/p>\n
For more information go to https:\/\/brenigconstruction.co.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n