Goodman Business Park, Birmingham
First Impressions Count
Many commercial landscapes incorporate a water feature of some description to enhance the otherwise sterile and impersonal character of a business park. Water is restful, it creates character, it forms an impression.
Which is why most prestigious business parks, owned or managed by commercially astute companies, boast a water feature somewhere close to the entrance. They know that first impressions count, and that first impressions sells commercial office space.
The water feature, be it a lake, a row of fountains, or an artificial waterfall, attracts the eye and becomes the focal point of the landscape. It helps to sell properties, because potential tenants or purchasers know that it will make the same positive impression on their own clients.
However, like all hard and soft landscaping, water features require regular maintenance if they are to continue to portray the desired image. Aquatic plants need controlling, waterfalls need scrubbing, fish stocks need managing, pumps need servicing, wind blown litter needs collecting. Most of these tasks are outside the skills set of the average landscape maintenance contractor, whose men are rarely insured or equipped to work in or near water.
This is the service that Kingcombe has supplied on many business and municipal parks throughout the country over the last 20 years, building an enviable reputation for regular attention to detail and responding promptly to our clients’ needs. We agree levels of service and budgets on an annual basis, and liaise closely with our clients’ facilities management staff and landscape contractors to ensure that the water does indeed reflect the quality of their business premises.
This service extends to our own in-house accredited staff carrying out six monthly electrical safety checks on all relevant equipment, leaving our clients confident that their Duty of Care responsibilities have been properly addressed.
Similar attention is paid to municipal park lakes, many of which are now ageing and present significant health and safety issues for local authorities to contend with. Kingcombe staff are fully equipped, trained and insured to manage that risk on a regular basis on behalf of our clients.
That same attention to detail is valued by golf courses, whose green keepers can concentrate on the quality of their playing surfaces whilst Kingcombe staff work alongside ensuring that the water hazards, such an essential landscape element on so many courses, meets the expectations of their club members.
The Head Green Keeper at Dyrham Park Golf and Country Club, in Barnet, North London, recently confirmed that “when I come to do my budgets for the coming year, Kingcombe is the first cost that I put in”. He knows that we will quietly get on with our job, ensuring his river and lakes continue to reflect the quality of his course, leaving him to concentrate on what he knows best.