Plant, Equipment & Site Operations own connection with Pallion stretches back to the beginning of her working career.
“ This was actually the first site visit I ever came on during my working career. My dad brought me here and I remember walking into the building when it was full of men working,” said Amanda.
“ To come back now and see it operational again is fantastic. A building of this size and structure was built for industry, and seeing the cranes working and activity coming back into it is something special.”
Returning to Pallion decades later, this time with Durham Lifting playing a role in bringing its lifting infrastructure back into operation, makes the project particularly significant.
Colin’ s Career in Transport and Logistics Colin’ s career began at just 15 years old when his father signed a contract for him to start with Foden Trucks.
After initially training as a mechanic, he progressed into supervisory positions before deciding he wanted to experience another side of the transport industry and moving into truck driving. That eventually led him back to college to complete his CPC qualification and begin a career in transport management.
Roles with Interlink and Magnet Kitchens followed, before Colin joined LV Shipping, where he would spend approximately 29 years progressing from Transport Office Manager through to Associate Board Member and ultimately a full Board Member, with responsibility across the company’ s northern operations.
His extensive background in transport, logistics and shipping has given him a strong understanding of the scale and coordination required for an operation such as Pallion.
Having initially expected retirement to mean spending more time with his classic and project cars, becoming involved in the site’ s revival has instead given him another major project to focus on.
“ The place has grown on me, and so have the people,” Colin said.
“ To see what they’ re trying to achieve here and to see a site like this being brought back to life, it’ s great to be part of it.”
Proud to Play a Part For Durham Lifting, supporting Colin and the team is about much more than supplying equipment.
After an extended period of downtime at the facility, the project has required the knowledge and experience to understand the condition of the existing cranes, identify what was required and support their return to operational use.
Through its Service Division, Durham Lifting has been able to provide the servicing, maintenance and technical expertise behind the lifts themselves, helping ensure lifting activity is undertaken safely and in accordance with the required standards.
Combined with the company’ s lifting equipment supply and wider engineering capability, it means Durham Lifting can support customers throughout the process, from assessing existing infrastructure through to servicing equipment and supplying the lifting accessories required for the operation.
There is an added significance in seeing that expertise being used within a building that has played its own part in the North East’ s engineering history.
As materials continue to arrive and operations develop, the project represents both a new use for the site and a continuation of what the building was created for: heavy industry, engineering and lifting on a significant scale.
For Amanda, returning to the location of her first ever site visit and seeing industry operating within the building again brings things full circle.
For Durham Lifting, it represents another opportunity to use decades of lifting expertise to help bring an important piece of North East industrial heritage back into productive use.
www. durhamlifting. co. uk
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