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Common touch

The Candys鈥� luxury One Hyde Park has always divided opinion, as some question the taste of having chilled ceilings and a residents鈥� cinema in an era of austerity. Now, to add to the list of detractors is Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, who, showing his loyalties still lie with the common people, launched a jeering attack on the development at a gig in neighbouring Hyde Park last weekend. Pointing out that he was effectively playing 鈥渋n their backyard鈥�, Cocker encouraged the crowd to make as much noise as possible to disturb their wealthy neighbours. The message: your penthouse-owning dad may be able to block out the roaches, but he can鈥檛 do anything to silence a 47-year-old from Sheffield.

Pimp your CV

It鈥檚 good to see that the feed-in tariff boom is providing much needed work for those affected by the great construction industry job shakeout. Patrick Gulley, the longstanding and now ex-communications director of QS Gardiner & Theobald, has not only set up a PV installation company but has just completed the biggest private solar installation project in the UK. This nugget came to me via social networking site LinkedIn, which also details Patrick鈥檚 career. Prior to becoming a PV bigshot Patrick spent three years running his own business with a short stint at PR agency TTA before that. Interestingly there was no mention of those long years spent at G&T 鈥�

Galliford tried and failed

Galliford Try has landed in a spot of bother after laying a private road as a freebie for an MP鈥檚 wife. Yorkshire MP Graham Stuart says his wife happened to be cycling by workmen from Galliford who were laying roads nearby, and asked if they had any spare asphalt to cover their pot-holed road. She never gave her name or her husband鈥檚. But homeowners can be famously prickly about even the smallest changes to their neighbourhoods. Sadly Galliford have now agreed to rip up its work after complaints from neighbours. Drivers beware!

Pick a wage, any wage

With the news that Ian Fordham will be following Ty Goddard in his departure from the British Council for School Environments to Goddard鈥檚 new venture, the Education Foundation, conversation has predictably turned to what will become of the BCSE - which is recruiting for a chief executive on a 拢55k salary. One Whitehall source this week archly suggested that the organisation 鈥渉as a real chance to be taken seriously鈥� - but there鈥檚 a lot riding on that appointment. Which might be why the job spec makes provision for the salary to rise to 拢70k, with no specific details given on what would elicit such a reward.

Kids draw the darndest things

The most hotly-contested construction contest of the year has drawn to a close - the National Federation of Builders鈥� annual design competition for primary school children to draw the best site-safety poster. As Hansom readers will know, the NFB has had issues in the past with the sheer
quantity of horrifying entries from macabre kids featuring detatched limbs and gruesome deaths. Happily the 300 plus entries this year were 鈥渘ot too gory鈥�.