Court Collaboration set out to deliver a landmark residential development in Birmingham city centre — One East Side — comprising two towers, including one that rises to 51 storeys. When complete, it will be one of the tallest habitable buildings in the city. The development will deliver 667 high-quality homes and a wide range of resident amenities, including co-working spaces, gyms, a cinema, and Birmingham’s highest sky lounge and terrace. Landscaped gardens and courtyard spaces have also been designed to support wellbeing and community.

Baily Garner was appointed to provide Quality Control Inspections (QCI) and Building Services Engineering for this ambitious project. Our remit includes supporting site inspections throughout the build, reviewing programme progress, monitoring quality, and undertaking key benchmarking stages — including dry and wet benchmarks and final snagging inspections. We also take an active role in checking the golden thread of information, ensuring documentation and compliance are properly tracked and managed.

Our experience in complex, high-rise urban projects has allowed us to offer practical, proactive advice to both the client and delivery teams. Our presence has helped foster strong collaboration across the project, maintain high standards of construction, and keep the development on track for successful delivery.

Rushmoor Borough Council appointed Baily Garner to support the regeneration of Aldershot town centre through the delivery of Union Yard — a vibrant mixed-use development comprising 100 residential units, 128 student accommodation units for the University for the Creative Arts, and 2,237m² of flexible commercial space. The scheme, delivered across five blocks, was designed to high standards in line with the Nationally Described Space Standards (NDSS) and Homes England funding requirements. With some blocks over 18m in height, the development also required full compliance with the Building Safety Act.

Baily Garner provided multidisciplinary services throughout the project lifecycle. Our team led weekly operational catch-ups and fortnightly progress meetings with the Council, managing decision logs and advancing the Golden Thread of information. We also chaired fortnightly design team meetings and weekly M&E workshops to ensure compliance with NDSS and Homes England standards.

To meet obligations under the Building Safety Act, Baily Garner coordinated documentation and submissions to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), including the Regulation 38 pack and Gateway 3 application. This supported the client in meeting their duties while navigating an evolving regulatory environment.

Early delays caused by party wall issues posed a serious risk to programme delivery, with an initial 21-week impact forecast. Baily Garner conducted a robust analysis and led negotiations with stakeholders, securing a commercial agreement that reduced the delay to just five weeks — ensuring student accommodation would complete in time for the 2024 autumn term.

We also oversaw the negotiation and planning of s278 works, including stakeholder consultation and a traffic management strategy to mitigate community impact.

On site, Baily Garner set early quality benchmarks and deployed the Field View digital reporting app to track unit progress, identify remediation needs, and ensure issues were resolved to a documented and auditable standard. This transparent approach to quality control supported contractor performance and client confidence throughout.