News
Pole News
Wimbledon Village – Near Completion
Unbelievable to see this fantastic building in its final stages. Just Stunning !!
5 Star Reviews – Very Thankful
Thank you from all the staff at Pole, we are very grateful for the kind words and the comments and we will, “as always” keep up the good service.
Fabulous Location for our Pole Team!!
This project in Whitsand Bay headed up by Teresa Cheuk, is a memorable project for our Pole team.
We could not wait to see the final result and what a fabulous property it turned out to be.
Contact us to see how one of our super team can help you.
Privacy and data protection policy
Privacy and data protection policy
Rev A 01/05/2018
How we obtain your personal data
On starting a new project or quotation, we will ask you for some personal data in order to be able to contact you and deliver our services. This data is most commonly; your name and phone number, though may include other documents (such as Building Surveyor reports or planning application drawings).
You will not be asked to ‘opt in’ to receiving communications form us, as we will only contact you about your project which is of course vital in providing our service to you.
How we store your personal data
Physical copies of your personal data are stored in a secure filing system on our premises. Electronic files are stored on a secure ‘cloud’ based server system with password-protected access.
How we use your personal data
We use your personal data to contact you about your project/quotation and deliver our agreed service to you.
As much as practical, our professional output (drawings, calculations and reports) will be anonymised so that it doesn’t contain your personal data. Therefore, your project address will not constitute personal data.
As a private client, you will not be sent general mail-outs. However, we do send a periodic newsletter to business contacts.
How we share your personal data
We will never share your personal data for reward or barter.
If a report or letter contains your personal data, it will not be provided to third parties unless you provide your written consent OR we believe that doing so is integral in our service to you. For example, we may use your name and other personal data if we are responding in writing to your insurers on your behalf.
In some cases, we will share your personal data with 3rd parties when we believe it is in the interests of and directly related to your project OR where we believe your consent has been implied. For example;
- We may ask for 3rd party quotations on your behalf (such as geotechnical investigations), which would naturally be addressed to yourself.
- We may introduce you to 3rd parties (such as Architects or Contractors).
- We may provide your cellular number if a 3rd party has a need to contact you urgently (such as water leak, or activated alarm system).
- We may refer you to other specialists who would be better placed to assist (such as a waterproofing specialist, if you have damp issues)
If you have any concerns of queries pertaining to the use of your personal data, please call our office to discuss. We are happy to tailor our policy on request.
How we delete your personal data
Quotations for jobs that do not proceed are usually held on our system for 3 years.
Files and data for projects that do proceed are usually held for +10 years.
Physical documents containing your personal data are disposed of confidentially. Electronic documents are deleted.
Your rights pertaining to your personal data
You have the right to know what personal data of yours is stored on our system.
You have the right for that data to be deleted. However, in some cases we will retain some documents and correspondence for insurance liability purposes.
WordPress
We use a third party service, WordPress.com, to publish our website, some of our conference microsites. These sites are hosted at WordPress.com, which is run by Automattic Inc. We use a standard WordPress service to collect anonymous information about users’ activity on the site, for example the number of users viewing pages on the site, to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the site and help us improve it. WordPress requires visitors that want to post a comment to enter a name and email address. For more information about how WordPress processes data, please see Automattic’s privacy notice.
Simon Pole Expert Witness
Simon Pole has recently provided expert reports and appeared in court as an Expert Witness in two cases.
The first of these was in a high profile case in the High Court, in a case called Chaturachanda v Fairholme which concerned a London basement project and whether the neighbour held a right to veto the specifics of the projects on the basis that the underpinning comprised Special Foundations, as defined by The Party Wall Etc Act 1996 .
The second case was a tribunal and concerned historic alterations to a listed building in Oxted in Surrey.
Grand Designs LIVE a Great Success
The Grand Designs Live show at Excel was a great success with professions from all over the world.
Simon Pole had a full schedule as an “Ask the Expert” and discussed all manor of design enquiries including new homes with basements and even a 20m high, brick built octagonal chimney for a property in Norway.
If you would like to receive any structural advice or have a property you would like us to visit, please contact us here at the office on 020 8944 9955
‘RBKC stop illegal basement’
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Unauthorised basement excavation halted by planners
Planners from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea have ordered the owner of 77 Stanhope Mews East, SW7, to stop an unauthorised basement excavation or face prosecution.
The Council received reports from members of the public that the owner was preparing to carry out excavation works inside the property. Planning Enforcement Officers visited the site and warned the owner that legal action would be taken if excavation began without planning permission.
Despite numerous warnings a visit by an enforcement officer, on 20 August, confirmed excavation work had begun. The concrete floor had been broken and two large holes had been excavated which were two metres deep. The spoil that had been dug out was piled up at the side of the holes. As a result the Council’s Planning Enforcement Team issued a Temporary Stop Notice on Tuesday 26 August to halt the unauthorised basement development. If works continue the owner will commit a criminal offence which could lead to a maximum penalty of £20,000 in a magistrates court and unlimited if heard in a crown court.
Cllr Timothy Coleridge, Cabinet Member for Planning Policy, said: “The Royal Borough will not tolerate developers who ignore planning law. Hopefully the property owner now ceases these excavation works but, if not, our Planning Enforcement Team will use all available legal powers to protect residents from this unauthorised development.”
Basement developments can have a big impact on the lives of neighbouring residents which is why a number of planning conditions are attached to grants of planning permission to mitigate this. Any unauthorised basement extension is of concern because planners will not have had the opportunity to assess the impact the development will have on the local area.
Party Wall I Struct E paper
Simon Pole published a paper in the journal for the Institution of Structural Engineers,
The article, for engineers is a viewpoint or opinion article, relaying the experiences of working with many Party Wall Surveyors who wish that more engineers would be familiar with Party Wall procedures. The article concentrates on foundation and basement construction and the complex issues surrounding Special Foundations.
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Luxury new house in Surrey
Luxury new house in Surrey circa 15,000 square feet with basement parking and lower ground floor pool etc. We are designing the house using commercial office technology due to its large room sizes and to remove the relatively slow brick and stonework from the critical building path. It also provides a safe and watertight floor by floor construction to allow other activities to commence below.
Party Wall Engineering
Simon Pole presented a lecture on the role of the advising engineer to the Surrey branch of the Pyramus and Thisbe club. The slides used for the presentation are enclosed within the technical section of the web site for those interested.
Simon also presented to the institution of Structural Engineers on the role of the Engineer both as designer and Advising Engineer to the party Wall Surveyors
Crossrail
We are advising various landlords whose property might be affected by tunnelling. Some 50 properties around Soho Square and surrounding streets are affected by the Tottenham Court Road station and running tunnels. Cement grouting is proposed beneath many of these properties and our task is to advise whether this is necessary and the likely risks/ commercial implications for this strengthening work. We are working with Steve Barker at BSVP Building and Project Consultants www.bsvp.co.uk
