The Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) conjures up an image akin to Viz’s Pathetic Sharks — overly polite sea creatures who think it bad manners to eat people.

One imagines that a Considerate Constructor is one who would quietly alert a colleague to pull up his sagging trousers, or refrain from calling out “Cheer up love, it might never happen” to those of us too old and ugly to be wolf-whistled — though wolf-whistling, too, is not something that a CC would contemplate. Indeed, the scheme was set up to disavow the public of such clichés.
If you note a lack of dirt, dirty looks and general antisocial behaviour on a building site near you, it could be due to the CCS’s pioneering work.

But surely a tidy, quiet and environmentally friendly building site is against nature, and surely there must be some old cowboys who resent the whole thing? I put this to Edward Hardy, the general manager of the CCS and one who admits that his own mother laments the passing of the wolf-whistle. He reckons that the industry is professional and well regulated for the most part. “It is a small minority who everyone talks about who give it the wrong image . . . but last year we signed up about 25 per cent of all construction work in the UK.”

Those sites follow an eight-point code of practice that takes into account respect, the local environment, cleanliness, safety and responsibility.

But how can you drill less noisily or dig huge holes less dirtily? Hardy, who doesn’t really go into the specifics, says: “Well, if you live near the site and have clouds of dust billowing in the windows it’s not acceptable. So it’s about minimising the impact.”

He adds that site workers have lots to give to the local community. They often visit schools, set up five-a-side football teams to play against the local pub, and do things such as paving community centre car parks free. This is all splendid, of course, but if all this good conduct trickles down to the builders who do up your kitchen, what will we have to complain about at dinner parties?

Michele Kirsch