John Cobb and Sons Ltd

John Cobb & Sons Ltd was founded in 1947 by F. (Ted) Cobb at Wheathampstead. The company is a family business now in its third generation. In 1971, the business was taken over by Ted Cobb's son John, who has since been joined by his own sons John and James. All employees are directly employed by the company and are affiliated to the Construction Skills Certification Scheme in their relevant trade. The company is an approved contractor of various local councils. The company has joined Constructionline, the United Kingdom's leading construction certification service. The company employs a health and safety adviser.

All staff are employed full-time and possess the necessary CSCS certifications. The company operates from a large two-acre site situated in Cambridgeshire close to the Hertfordshire/Essex borders. The company serves Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Beds, Bucks and East Anglia. The company's services include construction and surfacing of roads, footpaths, car parks and driveways, using conventional coated materials, surface dressing with hot bitumen and stone chippings, and resin bonded surfacing. The company sells building materials including road planings, hardcore, gravels, aggregates and various reclaimed bricks and block paving. The company can provide references from various clients.

Tarmac surfacing and resurfacing form the backbone of this Orwell firm's output, and accounts of private road schemes and domestic driveways reveal a settled pattern. Several customers remark that entire groups of residents were delighted with the completed surfaces, describing the tarmac as smooth and neatly laid. The politeness and skill of the workforce come up again and again, with named thanks for John, Jason, Kerry and James Cobb, whose conduct on one finished scheme was singled out.

Tidiness is another theme: teams are described as fastidious, leaving little disruption for those living nearby. Customers call the pricing good and fair for the standard reached, and the company is portrayed as responsive, efficient and pleasant to deal with from first contact to completion.

Awkward ground conditions, including buried fibre connections and relentless rain during setting, were taken in their stride, and the finished work was judged to look really good. The business is further characterised as reputable and long established, with one account referencing more than seventy years of trading. Repeat commissions on private roads around Radlett, Ashwell and St Albans underline the loyalty the firm attracts, and the smooth finish of resurfaced tarmac stays the detail customers most often highlight.