Landmark £15.5M Loughborough court handed over

One of England and Wales’ newest and most impressive civic buildings – The Loughborough Courthouse - has been handed over to Her Majesty’s Courts Service by local developer William Davis Ltd, in partnership with Willmott Dixon and London & Capital.

The striking three-storey £15.5m landmark building, which will start to hear cases on 12th March 2008, is located in Pinfold Gate in the town centre. As one of over 300 magistrates’ courts in England and Wales, The Loughborough Courthouse will provide first class facilities, replacing Loughborough’s previous courthouse in Woodgate, a former police station built c1860.

William Davis Ltd appointed main contractor Willmott Dixon to construct the multi-million court, which comprises:

five court rooms, two with video screens custodial facilities open plan administration offices consultation and waiting rooms for defendants and witnesses court hall a secure van docking area

Funded by asset manager London & Capital, who now own the building as part of its specialised Public Sector Real Estate Fund, and designed by architects Stephen George & Partners of Leicester with engineers and sustainability advisor, Arup, the high specification 37,000 sq ft courthouse occupies a site of approximately one and a half acres adjacent the route of the proposed Loughborough Inner Relief Road. The building’s distinctive design has been created using a mixture of high-quality stone masonry throughout, decorative curtain walling (non-load bearing exterior walls) and copper cladding to the façade of the building.

The building is ‘highly sustainable’, with a design which adopts all the latest best practice techniques in sustainable building and has already achieved the highest BREEAM rating of ‘excellent’, the industry standard for measuring sustainability in new buildings . Willmott Dixon’s in - house BREEAM team advised on design, including recycling and energy efficiency,