Heritage at the heart of FWP’s cost and project management work

FWP Ltd has built a strong reputation for its expertise on sensitive restoration and regeneration projects and is using all that knowledge to help deliver the Rochdale Town Hall project.

Founded in its home city of Preston in 1960, today its work covers all aspects of construction, from cost management to architecture and masterplanning. It is truly multi-disciplinary.

With its offices in Preston, Manchester and London, FWP has extensive experience in project and cost management across a wide range of sectors.

Over more than six decades, the firm has played an important role in delivering iconic developments across the UK, growing its staff in numbers to more than 45 in the process.

FWP is proud to have been a member of the team delivering Rochdale Town Hall’s restoration since 2019, working with Rochdale Development Agency (RDA) and acting as quantity surveyor and cost manager throughout the project, to ensure that it remains within budget.

Throughout what has been a complex project, FWP has looked to foster close working relationships with all members of the delivery team, with clear communication and full reporting at the heart of the process.

As well as its current input on phases two and three of the extensive town hall programme, FWP is also working on the National Lottery Heritage Fund supported Broadfield Park Slopes scheme to create a historic landscape setting in the heart of Rochdale, to the rear of the iconic building.

Working on the multiple phases of the town hall project has required complex spreadsheet development to enable the careful management and reporting of all construction budgets and expenditure over the last four years.

FWP has also been keen to contribute and engage with the Social Value work of the programme, providing class support for local schools and hosting cost management seminars for the RDA team.

The FWP Rochdale Town Hall team is being led by Kate Shuttleworth, a partner at the firm. She is a fully qualified Chartered Quantity Surveyor and has been in the construction industry for more than 30 years, providing both cost and project management services on a wide range of private and public sector schemes.

Many of these have involved sensitive conservation areas, with heritage and listed building renovation plans that require a variety of grant funding applications and close cost and project management.

She has been ably assisted by cost and project manager Henry King and associate Sam Shuttleworth – both integral members of FWP’s quantity surveying and project management team.

During his time at FWP Sam has developed a keen interest in Heritage projects and the unique challenges they bring. By using CostX and Microsoft Projects he continually endeavours to use new technologies that can make the project management consultant role more cohesive with the design team.

Henry joined FWP in 2020 and his drive and determination has seen him promoted from assistant quantity surveyor to taking the lead on a number of significant developments.

As well as Rochdale, FWP has also helped successfully deliver a number of National Trust and National Lottery Heritage Funded-supported conservation, restoration and regeneration programmes over the last five years.

These include the award-winning transformation of the medieval Fratry at Carlisle Cathedral – another complex project on a sensitive site.