A WILTSHIRE company has been appointed to work on the £50 million Oakfield housing development in Swindon.

The project’s main contractor Mi-space picked Cricklade-based Conlon to build the roads and sewers while preparing the brownfield site for piling. The scheme is being delivered on behalf of Swindon-based building society Nationwide. Work on the 239 new houses began in April, with construction expected to take around three and a half years. The show home will be launched in late 2021 and the first phase of new homes should be completed in Spring 2022.

Nationwide hopes the Oakfield project will be used as a blueprint for other responsible businesses to follow and help tackle housing issues by creating sustainable homes.

The first staff from Conlon began arriving on site at Oakfield at the end of June, and by early August, 29 staff from Conlon were working at Oakfield, with 25 of them living within 20 miles of the site, and all living within 40 miles.

The privately-owned groundworks, civil engineering and demolition company was originally founded in the late 1980s by the Conlon family.

Today, it employs more than 240 fully trained and skilled staff, training many of them in-house and supporting their skills development.

Based in Cricklade, the company operates within a 50-mile radius of its head office.

Conlon’s successful sustainable growth has seen the firm increase turnover to £40m a year, with a focus on staff training and retention ensuring high levels of client satisfaction and repeat business.

Director and owner Dermot Conlon said: “

We are a family business and our growth is less about being profit-driven and more aimed at being satisfaction-driven. We aim to deliver steady, sustainable growth and ensure we have the right workforce in place to ensure quality management. You need a good workforce to deliver a good job, and to maintain client satisfaction.

“Oakfield is a key project for us and we are delighted to be on-site already and working in parallel with the aims and objectives of Mi-space and Nationwide to deliver a pivotal development which provides benefits for local people and the local economy during the construction process.”