Lawyers’ guests have sneak preview of Worcestershire Parkway

A sneak preview of Worcester’s new station gave guests of Harrison Clark Rickerbys plenty to discuss at their festive drinks this week, but they didn’t have to be trainspotters to be impressed by the new development.

More than 80 guests visited the station where Marrick Murphy, the scheme’s senior construction manager, talked them through the development’s progress now construction is complete, highlighting its green credentials and discussing the challenges faced along the way.

He said: “People think that construction teams don’t care about ecology, but that could not be further from the truth. Most of us here have agricultural backgrounds and real respect for the land. I am proud of our attention to the ecological needs of this site.”

Mr Murphy explained that the site is home to newts, reptiles and several species of bat, which have been accommodated, the natural flow of water on the site has been taken into account with ponds and water holdings areas, and the site has used very little extra material and no extra topsoil.

Guests, who were welcomed by Charlotte Thornton-Smith, head of HCR’s Worcester office, later heard from Ian Baxter of SLC Rail, who explained the importance of the new station in increasing Worcestershire’s connectivity to new markets across the country.

Charlotte especially welcomed the Hartwright family, who previously owned the land, and stressed the importance of the new station to businesses of all kinds in the area. She said afterwards: “It is a very impressive development and our guests were fascinated to see it. It will immediately give us better links with Wales and the South West and eventually with the North West and East Anglia – all very important commercial centres.”

Harrison Clark Rickerbys has more than 500 staff and partners based at offices in Worcester, Hereford, Cheltenham, Birmingham, the Wye Valley, the Thames Valley, central London and Cambridge, who provide a complete spectrum of legal services to both business and private clients, regionally and nationwide. The firm also has a number of highly successful teams specialising in individual market sectors, including health and social care, education, technology, agricultural and rural affairs, finance and financial services, defence, security and the forces, and construction.