Blake Morgan advise on Welsh council’s revival of Fairwater project
Blake Morgan advised Cardiff Council on its multi-million pound injection to revive the Fairwater Community Campus project.
Work stopped on the £108m Fairwater project after contractor ISG Construction Ltd went into administration. However, in a bid to protect the supply chain, Cardiff Council intervened to keep it live. It acted quickly to secure the site and retain the ISG site team.
The council did not terminate the contracts with the supply chain. Payments owed to the supply chain were in excess of £7 million and the Council reached an agreement with the administrator of ISG EY, to arrange payment to the supply chain and step in and onward novation of the main and supply contracts to an interim sub-contractor.
A tender process is underway to find a replacement contractor to complete the works. The campus is set to house three new school buildings catering to Cantonian High School, Riverbank School, and Woodlands High School.
PWC provided commercial advice with Blake Morgan offering legal advice to the council. The team who worked on the project from the leading law firm were Joanna Rees, Sophie Latham, Tomos Lewis, Skye Partridge, Luke Williams, Mali Hurford, Simon Lewis and Paul Caldicott.
Construction Partner Joanna Rees commented:
We were delighted to be able to work with Cardiff Council to keep this project alive. It acted swiftly and decisively and is dedicated to realising the educational facilities for the community.
I think the take away is that while termination seems the obvious way forward in the stress of a contractor insolvency, clients should stop and think before taking that final step. As termination leaves you with no options. There are benefits to keeping the supply chain live and on occasion should help deliver a significant project for the local community.
Blake Morgan’s Construction & Development team provide a pragmatic and commercially focused service for clients across the construction industry and supply chain that keep projects moving forward.
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