Work to improve access to the Mill Road branch of Cambridge Building Society has just been completed under the supervision of building specialists from Carter Jonas in Cambridge.

The branch at 208 Mill Road re-opened at the end of last month (May) after being closed for just two weeks while improvements to assist access to the branch and its facilities for people in wheelchairs and those with pushchairs took place.

The chief problem was that a step up from the pavement was considered a barrier to access to the branch from the street front.  The branch fronts directly on to the passing footpath, leaving no room for an external revamp so the only option was to form an internal ramp and alter the shop front.

To address this, Cambridge Building Society decided that through the partial, internal refurbishment of the branch, a ramp could be formed in the concrete ground floor.

Carter Jonas has project-managed several branch refurbishments for the building society – in Ely, Soham, Cambourne, Bar Hill and Cambridge city centre – and the firm was appointed in this role for the Mill Road branch to undertake the specifying and tendering of the contract of works, arranging statutory consents, organising input from structural engineers and overseeing the interior fit-out.

David Sparrow, Senior Building Surveyor at Carter Jonas in Cambridge, said:

"We worked closely with the contractors and with Cambridge Building Society’s own project team throughout the programme of works in order to re-open the branch as quickly as possible and with the minimum inconvenience and risk to customers and staff alike."