New route through Broad Marsh site opens up new opportunities
A new pedestrian route is to be opened up across the demolished section of the former Broadmarsh shopping centre, showing fresh progress for an area of the city that’s undergoing huge change.
The route will provide uninterrupted open air access between the Southside of the city into the city centre for the first time since the Broadmarsh centre was built in the early 1970s. The building created a huge barrier, requiring visitors to be funnelled through part of the shopping mall to get into the heart of the city. More recently, a covered walkway has been in place to maintain pedestrian access during demolition.
City Council leader, Cllr David Mellen, said: “There are huge changes underway in the Broad Marsh area, with vastly improved streets creating pleasant areas to walk and relax, along with the new car park that’s already open, bus station that’s now started running coach services and the Central Library where fit-out gets underway this summer.
“Of course, one of the major changes is the demolition of the former shopping centre, which makes way for a fantastic vision of what could replace it. We’re pleased that this phase of demolition is now nearing completion, allowing us to open up a new open air pedestrian route between the Southside and city centre for the first time in almost fifty years.
“This is a small but significant step towards creating a reimagined gateway to the city that will play an important role in Nottingham’s future, making it a more attractive and accessible part of the city.”
Now that contractors Willmott Dixon acting on behalf of the City Council have demolished a substantial section of the shopping centre, including areas most recently occupied by Argos, BHS, Boots and TK Maxx among others, it’s possible to provide a pedestrian link between Collin Street and Listergate.
The new route will open later this summer with the previous covered walkway being closed. The move comes as work progresses on extensive improvements to the streets around the new Broad Marsh Car Park, Bus Station and Central Library building – with work to fit out the library due to get underway this summer and National Express starting operating from the new bus station earlier this week.
The section of Carrington Street alongside the new building is now completely pedestrianised and features planting and benches, with the area alongside Middle Hill near the new Nottingham College building given similar treatment. The section of Canal Street alongside the new building is now only accessible for buses, taxis and cycles – reducing another barrier in the city.
The work – funded through a successful bid for the Government’s Transforming Cities Fund – will also see Collin Street transformed from four lanes of heavy traffic to a public space between the new library and what will become the reimagined Broad Marsh area, linked to the Sussex Street area near the college via amphitheatre steps.
The new pedestrian route across the site will eventually be fully developed to tie in with the Collin Street improvements and become part of the ‘green heart’ space that’s been set out in the vision for the Broad Marsh site. The walkway will be four metres wide, with lighting and CCTV and bollards at either end, fenced off from the demolition site either side with windows to see progress on the site.
75 new homes coming to Keyworth
A local housebuilder has revealed that a further 75 new homes will be built as part of a development in Keyworth.
Redrow East Midlands’ Nicker Hill development already features a range of two, three, four and five-bedroom family homes built as part of the development’s first phase.
The new phase will also bring a mix of two, three, four and five-bedroom homes.
Ryan O’Sullivan, sales director for Redrow East Midlands, said: “We’re delighted to be bringing an additional 75 new homes to Keyworth as part of our Nicker Hill development.
“Homes at Nicker Hill offer versatile layouts that allow for time spent together as a family, as well as additional bedrooms suitable for growing families, or those looking for versatile space that can serve as a study, playroom, games room or even wellness space.
“This development, which includes houses from our award-winning Heritage Collection, has proven to be a hit with buyers searching for authentic 1930s charm blended with a modern and high-spec interior.”
Expand your network at the East Midlands Bricks Awards 2022
Taking place on Thursday 15 September, at the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, the East Midlands Bricks Awards 2022, a stand-out event in the business calendar, will celebrate the region’s property and construction industry while providing a prime opportunity to connect with local decision makers over canapés and complimentary drinks.
The event will additionally feature John Forkin MBE DL, Managing Director at award-winning investment promotion agency Marketing Derby, as keynote speaker, as well as award-winning mind reader, magician, and professional mentalist Looch, who will bewilder and astonish guests during the evening’s networking.
Thanks to our sponsors:
Tickets can now be booked for the awards event – click here to secure yours.
With nominations OPEN for East Midlands Business Link’s annual Bricks Awards, submit your entries for the prestigious event now – showcase your business, team and projects. Award categories include: most active estate agent, commercial development of the year, responsible business of the year, residential development of the year, developer of the year, deal of the year, architects of the year, excellence in design, sustainable development of the year, contractor of the year, and overall winner. To submit a business or development please click on a category link below or visit this page.- Most active estate agent
- Commercial development of the year
- Responsible business of the year
- Residential development of the year
- Developer of the year
- Deal of the year
- Architects of the year
- Excellence in design
- Sustainable development of the year
- Contractor of the year
- Overall winner (this award cannot be entered, the winner will be selected from those nominated)
William Crooks, Managing Director of Cawarden, reflected on winning an award in 2021: “After being named Contractor of the Year at the British Demolition Awards at the start of September, we were absolutely thrilled to win the same accolade from the East Midlands Bricks Awards a few weeks later. The event is a real showcase for the regional property and construction sector and we are proud to be recognised for our project and service delivery expertise as a leading specialist contractor.
“It was a great night and provided an opportunity to catch up with some familiar faces as well as meeting new with the wonderful Trent Bridge Cricket Ground as a backdrop. Well done to the Cawarden team for continuously going above and beyond and maintaining high standards for our valued clients. Congratulations must also go to all the other awards finalists and award winners on the night.”
Dress code is standard business attire.
To be held at:
‘Repurposing place’ the theme of Derby Property Summit 2022
The repurposing of place will be the central theme when the Derby Property Summit returns next month.
Featuring a top line-up of respected keynote speakers, the event will take place in Derby city centre on Wednesday 13 July.
Now held as a hybrid event – with delegates present in person and online – it is set to attract business leaders, key decision-makers and investors from across the region and beyond.
Organised by Marketing Derby, the Derby Property Summit will once again be hosted by BBC and LBC business journalist Declan Curry.
This year’s event will explore the role that inward investment, green growth and foreign direct investment can play in repurposing Derby and the towns of Derbyshire in the post-COVID recovery.
It will take place at the QUAD cinema, with the forthcoming Urban Forest installation, in the Market Place, providing the backdrop – epitomising the ‘repurposing of place’ theme.
As a result of the global pandemic, the world has changed – as has customer expectations of place. Blue and green spaces have become more valued – and this year’s Derby Property Summit will explore how Derby and Derbyshire is reacting to this change.
It will showcase £2 billion of current and upcoming development and regeneration opportunities in both the city and county – and will look at how many of these schemes have been designed to support a more sustainable future.
This year there will be an enviable line-up of keynote speakers, who will share international, national and local perspectives.
The line-up includes Courtney Fingar, editor-in-chief of Global Data’s Investment Monitor, Paul Simpson, Chief Executive of Derby City Council and Chris Henning, executive director of place at Derbyshire County Council.
There will also be talking head contributions from economist Jim O’Neill, Baron O’Neill of Gatley, and businessman Sir Tim Smit, the man behind Cornwall’s Eden Project, who is backing plans by Down to Earth for a nature-based regeneration of Derby.
John Forkin, Managing Director of Marketing Derby, said: “We feel that this year will be our most important summit as we look to repurpose our cities and towns. While the challenge is shared, the solutions must be bespoke to each place. We are hoping the line-up of speakers will provide insights and learning that will help shape our plans going forward.”
As well as the speakers, the summit will feature a number of films and presentations, which will show why Derby and Derbyshire is a great place to live, work, invest and play. The summit will also demonstrate the confidence that is being shown by investors in the city and county, creating genuine economic momentum.
Such confidence is not misplaced according to the latest Irwin Mitchell UK Powerhouse report, which said that Derby’s economy will be the fastest growing in the East Midlands by the end of 2023.
Key schemes driving this growth are listed in the Derby Investment Prospectus and the recently created Derbyshire Investment Prospectus, both of which will be showcased at the Derby Property Summit.
90% of large UK organisations suffering a skills shortage
90% of some of the UK’s largest organisations are struggling with a skills shortage and are unable to find talent with the appropriate skills to remain competitive, new research from HR, payroll and finance experts MHR International reveals.
While the larger organisations are struggling more severely, the average UK business is suffering the same fate – four in five (79%) of businesses surveyed say that it is their biggest challenge.
MHR surveyed over 500 senior managers in large organisations across the UK to find out their views on business resilience and the future of their organisations. The research revealed that as well as the size of the business having an impact on access to skills, the age of the business did too – 86% of businesses that have been operating for over 20 years said it was their biggest challenge, compared to just over two thirds (68%) of businesses who are less than five years old.
As well as getting the right skills on board to remain competitive, businesses in the UK are also unsurprisingly still struggling with having sufficient people resources overall. Over three quarters (77%) of managers surveyed by MHR said that having enough talent was a challenge – this rose to 88% for businesses operating for over 20 years.
Again, the youngest businesses surveyed were experiencing this phenomenon less – while still a majority, less than two thirds (63%) of managers from these businesses said having sufficient talent resource was a problem. Given the UK’s entrepreneurial economy, which saw over 200,000 new businesses incorporated in the first quarter of 2022 alone, this might point to employees rethinking their careers and joining smaller workforces at start-ups or younger organisations.
Mark Jenkins, CFO at MHR, said: “It’s no real surprise that in today’s challenging landscape, businesses are struggling to access to the skills they need to keep an edge on the competition. But investing in the right skills, tools and talent is a core part of a business’s ability to withstand further market disruptions, so it’s a hurdle that must be overcome.”
In response to this skills gap, half (50%) of UK businesses have focused on employee engagement in the last five years to increase their resilience to market shocks. And while only 4% of the managers surveyed said it would be a challenge to financially cover meaningful operational changes within their organisation, 1 in 4 (25%) are missing key resources such as capital, people and assets to stay ahead of the competition. A slightly higher number (28%) stated that a lack of skills was holding them back from making investments in the tools they need to increase business resilience in the first place.
Jenkins added: “84% of the respondents we surveyed said that resilience was a much higher priority now than it was five years ago. To build true business resilience, organisations must not just focus on employee engagement and training, but also arm themselves with as much data as possible around recruitment, retention and skills required, to establish where the gaps are, and make any operational changes needed to fill them.”
BDO signs long-term office lease confirming ongoing commitment to the East Midlands
Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO LLP has signed a long-term lease in a prominent office building in the centre of Nottingham, cementing its commitment to the East Midlands market.
The firm will move from its current temporary base at Regus in Nottingham city centre to its new East Midlands hub at Water Court on Canal Street later in 2022. BDO will take 3,500 sq ft of commercial space as part of a five-year agreement, joining the likes of global law firm Eversheds Sutherland at the high-profile city centre location.
The Grade A offices, formerly two separate Victorian warehouses, were acquired and comprehensively refurbished by Marlborough Property Company. The offices will be fitted out to provide BDO with a modern, collaborative working space, consistent with the firm’s commitment to supporting its agile-workforce, with employees encouraged to work from wherever they can be most productive, whether that’s a mixture of client sites, office hubs or from home.
Andrew Mair, head of BDO in the East Midlands, said: “We’re delighted to have signed a long-term lease at Water Court, bringing the firm into the heart of Nottingham’s city centre.
“BDO is absolutely committed to the local market and will continue to invest in the region and create jobs over the medium and long-term. The ambitious, growing businesses across all corners of the region are a key part of the UK’s economic engine and the team is proud to be able to help them succeed.
“Our people are at the heart of our business. The last two years have accelerated the pace of technological change as businesses seek to accommodate a more flexible and remote working model. This has seen BDO nationally commit £10 million to fund investment in technology over the next few years and more than £8 million to repurpose our office spaces.
“The way the BDO team blends its digital connectivity and physical space has never been a bigger priority. Our new permanent space in the city centre will allow for effective collaboration with each other, our clients and colleagues in BDO’s global network.”
Rotheras LLP appoints new head of business development
Rotheras LLP has appointed Marie Walls as head of business development.
Marie brings a wealth of legal and business development expertise to oversee the strategic direction of the firm’s business development activity with a view to leading the business into new areas for growth.
Marie joins Rotheras with over 27 years’ experience in the legal sector, having started out as a personal injury solicitor before moving into business development roles full time from 2008.
Her former business development roles include having spent more than two decades with Nelsons, during which time she setup the successful Fusion Referral Network, working with more than 170 law firms and businesses across the East Midlands. Prior to that Marie spent several years at Freeths. More recently she expanded her business development experience within the healthcare industry, before joining Rotheras at the beginning of May.
When asked about her appointment, Marie said: “I’m so excited to have joined Rotheras and I’m looking forward to working with the team to help to achieve the firm’s major plans for growth. I wanted to join a law firm where their values really are at the heart of everything that they do. The culture is fantastic and given that Rotheras are so client centric, it was an easy decision to join.”Commenting on the appointment, CEO Christina Yardley said: “Marie joins us with an incredible depth of experience and skills. She has a unique profile, combining legal expertise with a proven track record in business development. Marie’s broad range of experience aligns perfectly with the firm’s vision for expansion and growth, and we are absolutely thrilled to have her on board.”
Local coffee legends make huge strides in sustainability
120-year-old family firm, Stokes Tea & Coffee are well known for their top-notch coffee – now they’re also becoming quite the pioneers in eco-friendly innovations.
In its latest developments, the company is installing a cutting-edge heating system that will not only cut carbon emissions by more than a third but enable the company to reduce energy usage and harness solar power too.
The new system is being installed at Stokes’ HQ (where its roastery is also based), at the Lawn Building, a 19th Centuryformer asylum on Union Road in Lincoln. The company moved operations here in 2017 following an extensive £2million refurbishment and restoration project which took two years to complete.
Andy Jackson, project manager at Stokes Tea & Coffee, explained: “We like to make things last at Stokes, but, after 43 years of service from our heating boilers, it was time for an overhaul. Historical buildings are notoriously difficult to heat and we were determined to find a system that would rise to the challenges on both efficiency and emissions.
“We’re pleased to see the installation of our new Viessmann boilers which are so efficient we only need two instead of the previous three and each boiler is 30% more efficient which means even less energy usage and emissions. It’s clever too as it has weather compensation equipment installed which monitors changing external temperatures and automatically adjusts output. This information can be collected, and adjustments made remotely to improve efficiency and we won’t even know it’s been done.
“The new system can be set up to heat specific zones or rooms rather than the whole building, and it’s also capable of collecting and using solar energy to heat water – so the scope for further savings on emissions and wastage is huge!
“We are striving to make our Grade II* listed Lawn Building into an eco-showcase location to help share knowledge and experience in waste and emission reduction with anyone who has the challenges of owning or occupying historical buildings like ours.”
Stokes Tea & Coffee may have a long history, but this certainly isn’t holding them back when it comes to leading on cutting edge innovation, and the team remains unshakeable in its focus on achieving ambitious sustainability targets.
Other sustainable actions taken by the firm include:
- The Zero Waste scheme which is designed to cut down on packaging waste by delivering coffee and tea to Stokes’ wholesale customers in reusable buckets that keep products perfectly fresh and in peak condition, saving the use of thousands of boxes and packets
- Reducing road miles through smart logistics, remote problem-solving and a help desk for customers, and sourcing local produce for Stokes’ cafés
- Investing in recyclable packaging and re-purposing/upcycling materials
- Supporting the free top-up refill water scheme
- Planting trees in the UK and overseas
- Reducing emissions with one of the most eco-friendly coffee roasters to cut the use of natural gas and reduce CO2 emissions
- Using smart lighting in Stokes’ buildings
- Introducing a cycle-to-work scheme
NEBOSH launches new service to shake-up in-house health and safety training
NEBOSH – one of the world’s leading providers of health and safety qualifications – has launched a new solution for businesses that want to improve their in-company training.
The NEBOSH Endorsed service will – as its name suggests – endorse great health and safety training. When companies invest in training, they want to see a return. Through a collaborative approach, NEBOSH will help organisations to elevate their in-company offering and deliver measurable behavioural change that contributes to healthier and safer workplaces.
A range of solutions are available via NEBOSH Endorsed. They are all tailored to the needs of individual organisations and emphasise learning that delivers tangible impact:
- Assessment and endorsement of existing in-company learning,
- Bespoke consultation and development of in-company training.
University expertise helps secure major funding to support the future of British farming
Academics from the University of Lincoln have collaborated to secure more than £1.6m for innovative projects that will help to ensure the sustainability of British farming and agriculture.
The funding has been awarded through Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, which seeks projects that will improve sustainability, productivity, and resilience of farming in the UK on a path to net zero.
A total of 23 projects were awarded funding, four of which have involved academic teams at the Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology (LIAT) and Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (L-CAS).
The projects have been developed in partnership with industry leaders and look to address issues faced by those in the industry with new, innovative solutions.
The four projects are:
- Project High Speed Header (HSH): Next Generation Combines, which is led by Eyre Trailers Ltd. This project will develop a novel tractor mounted combine harvesting implement. This simple innovation will significantly reduce harvester mass enabling a flexible tractor mounted system, reducing the environmental impact caused by traditional large machines which cause soil compaction and loss of biodiversity and carbon reservoirs from boundary hedges and ditches. Larger machines also often provide a cost barrier to new farmers; this new solution will lead to a reduction in financial costs.
- The ARWAC Attack Blackgrass in Farming project, led by ARWAC Ltd, will create a robot powered by renewable energy, which will track and hoe blackgrass in commercial wheat crops. Due to herbicide resistance, blackgrass is responsible for £300m of yearly crop losses on UK farms and represents an increasing threat to food security. This project takes mechanical weeding to the next level, using autonomous technology to increase potential wheat yield and drive productivity whilst reducing the use of chemicals, fossil fuels, and manpower. The robot will be co-created and demonstrated on Lincolnshire farms.
- Led by Earth Rover Ltd, the automated selective broccoli harvesting to increase grower productivity and resilience towards net zero project will take a proof-of-concept broccoli harvesting machine to in-field testing, developing a pre-production prototype. The new automated approach will not only help address issues caused by labour shortages, with broccoli typically harvested manually, but also around food waste. The new harvester will harvest the whole broccoli plant, opening the potential to create valuable and nutritious plant-based foods from what was previously seen as crop waste
- The Collaborative fruit (Co-FRUIT) retrieval using intelligent transportation project, led by Performance Projects Ltd, proposes an innovative approach to harvesting, using a novel low-cost robot platform and collaborative human-robot teams. Artificial Intelligence is utilised to allocate tasks, maximising labour efficiency: humans undertake tasks for which they are particularly highly skilled with robots complementing the human skills. This could include robots transporting berries harvested by humans from polytunnels to the packing stations. Co-FRUIT models the activities of individual workers, while using AI and robots to demonstrate a cost-effective and efficient collaborative harvesting solution that achieves a step change in productivity in soft-fruit harvesting and helping to address well-documented labour shortages.
