Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business Issue 36 | Page 20

20 | Aycliffe Today Business
Middlesbrough mayor Dave Budd and Finley
Structures managing director John Finley (right)
with Finley estimating manager Andrew Workman
and senior production controller Phil Metcalfe.
By Martin Walker
Mayor signs steel which will construct
new town centre office development
Middlesbrough mayor
Dave Budd signed his
name into a landmark
project which signifies
the start of its steel
production.
Middlesbrough mayor Dave Budd with
Finley Structures managing director
John Finley at the steel firm’s premises
in Newton Aycliffe.
T
he town’s elected mayor visited Finley
Structures in Newton Aycliffe after the
family-run construction firm won a contract
to fabricate and erect the steel for the new
Centre Square development in Middlesbrough.
The 210,000 sq ft scheme, which is being
delivered by Ashall Projects, will create a 21st
century business destination in the heart of
Middlesbrough with Grade A offices.
Preparatory works began on the site in
August and main contractor Bowmer and
Kirkland awarded Finley Structures the steel
contract.
The Aycliffe firm – which built the steel
frame for Hitachi Rail Europe’s new facility
in Aycliffe as well as factories for Nissan
and Unipress in Washington and Nifco in
Eaglescliffe – has fabricating 685 tonnes of
steel, which will make up two structures (one
465 tonnes and the other 220 tonnes) before
erecting it on site.
The whole Centre Square development is
expected to take 14 months to complete.
Mayor Budd signed and dated a large panel
of its structure, which has been welded into
the steel, and he said: “It’s not something I’ve
done before!
“But it emphasises how important the
new developments on Centre Square are, to
Middlesbrough and the wider area, and it's
great having a local company do this as well.
“When I look outside my window every
day I can see holes being dug in the ground,
and very shortly the steel from here at Finley
Structures will be going up, and at that point
people will really start to think about what this
will mean to the whole of Middlesbrough.
“It's enormous because of the number of
jobs it potentially brings with it, and that's really
what our Investment Prospectus is about.
“A lot of the projects are actually happening
now and that tells a different sort of story, and
maybe it raises ambitions that we can do these
things.
“There's a lot more optimism about and
actual physical structures like this really
emphasise that.”
Finley Structures, founded in 2000, is well-
known for working on high-profile projects in
the North-East – other notable projects have
included Teesside University’s Curve building
and Middlesbrough Council’s Sports Village –
but the firm also works across the UK.
The company’s founder and managing
director, John Finley, said: “It’s good to win
local jobs, it keeps people employed and we
use as many suppliers and contractors from
around the North-East to work with us to build
the contract.
“We’ve just completed the Gate
development at Durham, we’ve won another
contract with Unipress up at Washington and
we have another couple of contracts coming up
with Sir Robert McAlpine.
“So we’re very buoyant at the moment.
We’re actually buying some new machinery and
the contracts we have go well into January, so
our order book is very strong.”