City of Portsmouth College alumni leads project with Bell Group to give Highbury Campus a pre-term facelift

City of Portsmouth College’s Highbury Campus is looking fresh and clean in time for the new Academic Year, all thanks to the super speedy work of the local branch of a national company.

With just five working days to get the job done, Bell Group erected a series of intricate scaffolding rigs and completed a mammoth paintjob in time for enrolment. The project was facilitated by Mark Bannon, a former painting and decorating apprentice from the College, who is now Operations Manager of the Wessex Paint branch of Bell Group.

“We usually take two to two and a half weeks to complete a job like this,” said Mark. “There have been some tricky challenges due to the layout, especially in the reception areas, but we’re happy to say we got it done in time.”

“We love working with local schools and colleges. It’s nice to work within our communities.”

In all, a team of 11 painters and three apprentices gave a fresh lick of paint to many of the front-facing areas of the campus, including the main reception, the Street corridor, side staircases and walkways in reception on the first, second, and third floors.

They used a total of 100 litres of matt emulsion on the ceilings, 120 litres of acrylic eggshell on the walls, 15 litres metal shield on the stairwell treads and 10 litres of undercoat and gloss on woodwork.

Chris Loveday, Interim Chief Operating Officer at City of Portsmouth College, said: “We are incredibly grateful to Bell Group and to Mark and his team for coming in and performing above and beyond to get our Highbury Campus looking so fantastic ready for the new term. We’ve had new branding graphics installed across our campuses over the summer as well, so students can expect a bright new look when they arrive for class.”