Pochin appoints Da Rocha-Faria following WAG success

Pochin Construction has appointed Lara Da Rocha-Faria as corporate and social responsibilities manager.

Da Rocha-Faria previously worked in education for eight years, as a learning mentor, before spending two years with corporate training company SFL.

Her new role will involve engaging with local communities and ensuring all Pochin Construction sites offer interactive learning opportunities for all surrounding communities.

Da Rocha-Faria was initially brought on as an advisor to Pochin on its construction of the new Welsh Assembly Government's offices at Llandudno Junction.

Commenting about the appointment, Jon Pochin, managing director of Pochin Construction, said: "Lara's involvement in opening up the barriers between the WAG construction site and the local community has been a great success, and certainly helped in achieving our goal of making the site an interactive learning opportunity for local schools and residents. We were so pleased with success of Lara's involvement in the WAG scheme that we decided to roll this out to all our construction projects."

As well as adhering to company's corporate social responsibility policy, the decision to create this position came in response to the considerate constructor's code of considerate practice, whereby all construction firms are encouraged to achieve high scores in the eight stages set out by the scheme.

These stages are; considerate, environment, cleanliness, good neighbour, respectful, safe, responsible and accountable.

Pochin explains: "In order to score highly on this scheme, we felt it was imperative to have someone on site whose main role was to liaise with the local community to keep them informed of procedures on site and offer interactive learning opportunities wherever possible.

"Lara's unrivalled experience will be invaluable in achieving high scores in the more 'human' categories of the scheme, such as good neighbour, respectful and considerate, and will play an instrumental role in ensuring that every Pochin project leaves a positive impression on its surrounding community."

Da Rocha-Faria added: "When a new development is planned, local residents often feel that their opinions on the impact of the scheme are being ignored. By involving local schools and residents in the development of the scheme, we can help to ensure the scheme sits well with the community."