St John’s Marlborough is a mixed secondary school with academy status in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, for students aged 11 to 18 and large grounds.

We were engaged to remove a significant number of Ash trees due to Ash Dieback. Ash dieback is a highly destructive disease of Ash trees (Fraxinus species), especially the United Kingdom’s native Ash species, common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior). It is caused by a fungus named Hymenoscyphus fraxineus (H. fraxineus), which is of eastern Asian origin.

We had to advise on how the work would be carried out and had to be considerate of their particular environment with regards to minimising any damage to playing fields and hedgerows and also the safety of their students and staff as well as our own operatives. We had to undertake the work during the summer holidays when the school was student free. We provided very detailed RAMS and put out signage clearly delineating an area of work.

Our works included removing small Ash trees, tall Ash trees with difficult access and Ash trees of a very significant size from very difficult positions. Our operatives used equipment ranging from small chainsaws and pole saws up to our Merlo Roto which was able to mechanically cut and grab large sections of trees and our whole tree chipper that was able to chip all of the arisings and removed them from site. This kept our operatives mainly at ground level and significantly improved our safety.

”I would have to say that EJM rank as one of the highest quality contractors that I have ever engaged in more than a decade as the Site Manager here. We made a plan together and they followed it through exactly and went above and beyond to ensure the job was done correctly and that we were happy with it, which we were very much so. Something that I always appreciate with companies is when they find the balance of being extremely capable and well equipped to do their works but still being grounded enough that you have the sense that everyone from the admin through the senior staff to the operatives know each other, are knowledgeable about what they do and are respectful of each other’s experience and opinions.”