Last Friday marked the end of a very intense process culminating in the BBC contracting to lease what will be our fourth big construction project, a new drama production base located in Cardiff.
As the Western Mail reported, the Wales drama centre marks another major milestone in the evolution of high quality drama based in Wales. Building on the existing success of Doctor Who and Torchwood the BBC has decided to create this new location to enable these hit programmes to co-locate with Casualty which is due to move to Wales in 2011. The plan provides the opportunity for the local favourite Pobol y Cwm to also move to the new site.
Located in Cardiff Bay the Roath Basin project is an exciting new project for the BBC and another major project is added to our already wide-ranging 'to do' list. The next step is to secure planning consent and I will provide more details on the scheme once we cross this hurdle.
Impression of how the Cardiff Drama Production Centre will look.
There's a great deal of talk about how we all get a handle on being more environmentally aware. One of my personal bugbears is the amount of material we throw away as it invariably ends up dumped in some landfill site!
BBC Workplace recorded a good start to the year in this respect because we decided to do something different. When clearing out a building in central London which is now surplus to requirements we accumulated a mountain of kit weighing 44 tonnes! Rather than calling for a convoy of skips we worked with our supply chain to re-use the material or recycle it.
I was asked by somebody recently: What's that funny looking cone on the roof of Broadcasting House? Is it a new type of satellite dish? A conical aerial? A folly?
Actually, it's a piece of public art called Breathing which is a memorial to journalists and news staff killed whilst doing their job.
A great deal has been written elsewhere about the sculpture - how it was created by Jaume Pleansa and how it was unveiled in June 2008 by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But I was prompted to reflect as we start a new year and a new decade about why the BBC does stuff life this.
Firstly, in order to re-build Broadcasting House the conditions of the Town Planning consent required the BBC to invest part of the budget in Public Art.
Secondly, and more importantly in my humble opinion, is the existence of a memorial which is dedicated to the 200+ reporters who sacrificed their lives in the cause of free expression.
If you do happen to be in Regent Street in central London after 10pm have a look up and hopefully you will see Breathing project its beam of light into the night sky.
Breathing lit up at night
Welcome back after a much-deserved Christmas and New Year break. I hope you are all feeling invigorated and ready to face the challenges of the coming year. As I write this the country is mostly under a blanket of snow and it looks like London will get some also!
I started blogging 9 months ago and this mini milestone caused me to reflect on where we are today. As Workplace starts a new decade I want to recognise the great amount that the team have achieved over the past year, as well as the enormous agenda we have coming up - from the small jobs to the great tasks ahead. Over the coming weeks I will try to summarise this but in attempting to do so for this blog I had to give up. There's just so much!
Of course the challenge of the day is for us to make sure we do all we can to keep the BBC on air during this unpredictable spell of cold weather - there's never a dull moment. For those involved please keep safe. For everyone who contributes to keeping the 24/7 operation that is the BBC ticking over by providing the catering, cleaning, heating, security and a whole host of other support to the creative effort please keep up the good work.
We also have two very large construction machines on the go - at Salford and in central London plus a fairly substantial project in West London. I'm pleased to report that these are going to plan and are on course to be delivered pretty much on schedule over the coming 12-15 months. We might even surprise some people by bringing them in ahead of time!
We often forget why we do this job and it does no harm to think about how each member of Workplace can make a contribution. In the case of all of the stuff I mention above bear one thing in mind - this is only part of what you and I do. However, by operating and changing the BBC estate we are supporting what the BBC is good at - making great content for the viewers, listeners and online surfers. For me that's what makes this job meaningful and worthwhile.
I wish you all a busy, safe and rewarding New Year.
|14:15 UK time, Friday, 22 January 2010
