Stalwart takes gardening leave then quits after his replacement on 拢400m project that he had led

Colin Small, Bovis Lend Lease鈥檚 former project director on the 拢400m BBC Broadcasting House redevelopment, has left the firm after being removed from the project.

Small, who had worked at Bovis for 33 years, was taken off the scheme despite winning the contract and leading it for three years.

He left Bovis four weeks ago after a period of gardening leave. He has now opted for early retirement from the firm because he did not want to pursue other roles. He has been replaced on the BBC project by Michael Handley.

A spokesperson for Bovis said: 鈥淲e were coming to the end of the construction stage and were gearing up for the technical fit-out stage and that is an area of expertise that Mike has.鈥�

Radio 2 and Radio 6鈥檚 music operations are due to move into the redeveloped building in September, and the rest of BBC Radio will start to move in at the end of the year.

It is understood that Small was disappointed to be taken off the project, especially as his involvement was one of the considerations that won the contract for Bovis. However, Small, who had spent his entire career at Bovis, said he had reached an amicable settlement. He said: 鈥淣o reasons were given for my removal.鈥�

A source close to Bovis said Small was taken off the job because of tensions with Land Securities, the BBC development partner.

Small said he was proud to have worked on the project and that he and Bovis director Les Chatfield had been 100% committed to winning the contract on the company鈥檚 behalf.

鈥淭hat was the hardest I have ever worked to win a job, we had to go through hoops. It wasn鈥檛 given that we would win. We didn鈥檛 know until the day we got the phone call that we had won.鈥�

Small said the decision to appoint Bovis was 鈥渇air鈥�, despite accusations from rival Schal that the BBC had run a 鈥渞igged鈥� tender.

Small has now joined Ardmore Group, a north London contractor, as construction director.

Ardmore has a turnover of about 拢330m. Small is working on projects including a mixed-use regeneration scheme in the centre of Chelmsford, Essex, and a casino scheme for Heron International in Glasgow.