Domestic Bursar ’ s Office

Stuart Websdale, Domestic Bursar

The scope of my role covers Housekeeping, Gardens, the Boathouse, Maintenance, Housing, the Porters and the Catering, Conference and Events departments. I’ m supported by a team of strong managers, who have worked together to achieve several major projects this year while adjusting to the new normal after the pandemic. Our Housekeeping team is led by Sonia Horton, whose biggest challenge has been recruiting staff to allow greater flexibility, including weekends. A recruitment event in the spring targeted new Ukrainian residents, and we are delighted to welcome two of the attendees to the team. Sonia has recently been promoted into the role, replacing Claire Andrews, who started here as a cleaner 20 years ago. Many thanks to Claire for her long service. The restricted access to rooms during the pandemic increased our focus on efficiency, and we encouraged students to become more self-sufficient including engaging with the new recycling facilities to separate waste contributing to our ongoing sustainability drive.

Our gardens continued to reflect the move towards sustainability on the site. Our wildflower meadow was remarkably successful this year and we drew up plans for a second meadow in Library Court. As we replace gardening equipment, we try to select battery-powered over petrol machines. In April, the whole College community gathered to say a fond farewell to Paul Stearn, who retired from his role as Head Gardener after 33 years of service to the College. We are incredibly grateful for the care he has taken to develop the gardens and the team during this time. In recent years he made vital contributions to our sustainability work, including creating the woodland walk in 2006, the wildlife meadow, the pond (pictured below) and the compost bays.

d o n B i n t a r M b y o o t P h

We welcomed his replacement, Lee de Grammont, who came to us from a role as Grounds Manager for the Cambridge University Sports Service, and prior to that worked at Trinity Hall. Lee will bring with him a strong understanding of both traditional College gardens and sports turf management. He is looking forward to further developing the grounds and gardens and the team ’ s skills. We offer congratulations to Callum Norrie, who passed his apprenticeship exams with excellent results.

Rowing Coach and Boathouse Manager Jonathan Conder successfully completed his studies, graduating with a Master of Science (MSc) in Sports Coaching from the University of Gloucestershire. Work on the Boathouse included upgrading the alarms and adding four CCTV cameras to provide full footage and improve security. We installed a hardwired fibre internet connection to make the building fully IT compliant, which allowed us to upgrade the fire alarm system to communicate more reliably with the Porters ’ Lodge.

Everybody who visits the site regularly will be aware of the building work on the kitchen project and the dining halls. I offer my sincere thanks to members of the College for their patience during this period of disruption, including Fellows, students and staff impacted by the noise and by the loss of the cricket ground while we install ground source heat pumps to contribute to our sustainability targets. We look forward to opening our amazing new facilities in the autumn; you can read more about them in the spring edition of Jesuan News.

The maintenance of our properties on and off site is a continuous process, overseen by Richard Secker. Our off-site, College-occupied buildings include Lower Park Street, Malcolm Street, Jesus Lane and New Square. All are designed in line with our ambitious sustainability policy, including double glazed windows, LED lighting and high-grade electrical appliances, subject to local planning authority approval.

On site, we have continued to replace light fittings across the buildings and most are now exclusively LED. We have also been fitting secondary glazing and draft exclusion doors across the site, subject to local planning authority. Staff training and development successes this year included Mehmet Osman, who started at the College six years ago and recently passed his electrician qualifications. Jason Badcock, who joined the team under an apprenticeship, has now gained his full qualifications in general maintenance.

We continue to invest in the Chapel annually and this year our focus has been on the roof. We replaced rotten timber and some of the lead roofing. Improvements were made to the access points to make them safer, and the lightning protection was strengthened. This has been a major project and we look forward to taking the scaffolding down before the start of the next academic year.

The Housing team welcomed an organisation called AccessAble to audit accessibility across the whole site. They analysed every detail from the width of doorways to the height of light switches and door handles to ensure that our site is as compliant as possible with recommendations. The information has been mapped out and made available online to help people plan their visits. The audit will be updated in autumn 2022 once the kitchen and dining rooms are completed, and then ongoing annually. We also invested in measuring and analysing household energy ratings; a huge project carried out in response to new regulations for rental properties. These findings will help us plan further improvements for sustainability.

We are also adapting our transport options to encourage carbon friendly journeys, including plans to increase the number of spaces for secure, undercover bike parking. One of my responsibilities as a member of the University Transport Working Party is to learn from other Colleges and share best practice.

The Porters ’ Lodge is only a few years old, and the impacts of COVID-19 meant that

Left to right, Jo Dell'Orto, Manager of the Roost café bar and Jesus resident Justine Lancelin at a waste recycling point in Chapel Court

we have only recently made full use of it as a greeting place and a sanctuary for our students. Head Porter, Simon Durrant, was delighted to welcome students with a hot chocolate event to promote the support offered by his team. He was delighted to see the return of the Bumps event, where he rowed alongside our crews and cheered them on. The Porters were crucial in supporting our big events again, including Degree Day and the May Ball with 3,000 guests, our first since 2019. They also helped to manage several film crews, including one returning for another series of Professor T broadcast on ITV.

Our Porters carried out a thorough fire safety compliancy programme including inspecting the 2,347 doors on the site and checking and replacing fire sensors. New maps showing the exit points of each building are in production. Site security remains a priority; we are vigilant about maintaining and installing CCTV cameras and we staff the Lodge continuously 24/7, 52 weeks a year.

Our Manciple, Alexis Moreau, saw an encouraging return of demand for the conference and catering facilities. Accommodation bookings were the first to recover, while the conferencing and events business adapted numerous times to changing COVID-19 requirements. I am proud that we kept catering services running throughout the pandemic, which encouraged staff retention. Despite this, many casual staff moved back overseas and have been replaced by enthusiastic local sixth form students, who require higher levels of training and development to maintain excellent standards of service we are striving for.

Alexis and his team led the way in sustainability by encouraging changes in everyone ’ s behaviour including meat-free days, recycling and sustainable purchasing. We thank Jo Dell’Orto, Manager of the Roost Café, for her commitment in this area. Our work was recognised by the University, who awarded the College two Green Impact Awards (including the Platinum Award). This is testament to the work of all our staff and the wider College community. We are delighted that our Decarbonisation Plan received a significant boost with the award of funding from Salix Finance, which paid for a site-wide consultation to eliminate fossil fuels and modify buildings. This information will guide our plans in the years ahead. n