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Essential lift modernisation at a Community Centre in Sunderland
Across the UK, community centres play a vital role in giving people an opportunity to socialise and access key services. They provide a range of learning opportunities for both young and mature people. In Sunderland, one of the North East of England’s port cities, there are more than a dozen community centres, providing everything from support for older people to classes for arts and crafts and children’s activities. They also provide a safe place for teenagers to meet and, importantly, access to food parcels for struggling families.
One of the community centres owned by Sunderland Council is Austin House, a two-story modern building located on Shakespeare St, Sunderland, with the centre being run by The Salvation Army.
The team at Jackson Newcastle are proud of the excellent relationship they have built up with Sunderland Council as a result of the successful lift modernisations we have completed over time. A lift performance issue was identified at Austin House, posing a potential problem for individuals with vision or mobility impairments.
Sunderland Council’s building maintenance department asked Jackson to investigate the problems, and we found the issues related to the lift controller and the safe operation of the lift car doors. We provided budget costs to replace the failing lift controller and door operating mechanism and subsequently received confirmation from Sunderland Council to undertake the necessary work.
Jackson locally based engineers operating from our Newcastle Offices undertook the lift controller and door operator mechanism replacements. We worked closely with Sunderland Council’s building maintenance department and The Salvation Army’s onsite management team to ensure minimum disruption was caused to those who use the centre, which was fully operational during our modernisation work.
On completion of the work, our engineers undertook a thorough test of the lift before returning it to full service.