Members of the Midlands construction and property business community teed off for charity on Thursday 18th September at the annual CAPS charity golf day, organised by Blueprint Interiors and Gleeds. £10,500 was raised at the event for Motor Neurone Disease Association, a charity which provides support to people living with and affected by Motor Neurone Disease (MND) in Britain. The CAPS (Construction and Property Sector) golf day was held at Radcliffe on Trent Golf Club in Nottinghamshire and saw 22 teams playing in a Texas Scramble format. Taking the winning spot was Nottingham-based engineering consultants HEXA, with other teams winning accolades around the course during play. Funds were raised from team entries, an auction, a raffle, sponsorships, and pledges of support from players who contributed to the charity’s ‘wish list’ of donations. Since CAPS began in 2017 it has raised over £100,000 for Midlands-based charities through its annual golf days and other fund-raising events. John Tansur, commercial director at Blueprint Interiors, said: “The support we receive each year from the business community continues to astound us. We see such generosity and it’s fantastic to see so many come together each year to make a marked difference to incredibly important causes. Thank you to everyone who played, supported and donated, and to Radcliffe Golf Club for hosting us.” Dave Ford, director at Gleeds, said: “We were blessed with the weather again this year and with people’s support. MND is a particularly cruel disease, and by bringing members of the region’s construction and property sector together to have fun and raise money to fund research and support, has been extremely rewarding.” Simon Fotheringham, vice-chair of the Notts Branch of MNDA, said: “We can’t thank John from Blueprint Interiors and Dave from Gleeds enough for all of their hard work in putting the day on, and for choosing the Notts Branch of the MND Association as their charity for this year’s CAPS golf day. “The amount raised from the amazing generosity of everyone involved on the day, as well as all of the sponsors will make a significant difference to local people living with MND, as well as their families and carers. Thank you everyone for your support.” Sponsors on the day included Pygott & Crone, Hexa, Blueprint Interiors, Wilmott Dixon, Influence Landscape Planning & Design, Watermans, BSP Consulting, Urban Edge, YMD Boon, Car Crowd, Core Architects and 200 Degrees Coffee.

New images show how a £20m grant will be spent this autumn on improvements to Bulwell town centre, with initial construction work set to start on Monday 20 October. Updated proposals were shared in May following months of planning to capture as many suggestions as possible from a major consultation exercise carried out in 2022. More than 500 residents, businesses and community groups took part and five key themes emerged in their feedback: increasing people’s pride in Bulwell, more high-quality green space, making it easier to get around the town centre, more cultural activities for families, and enhancing the night-time economy. All these comments were taken into consideration as the project team put together a plan to deliver a range of improvements to make the town centre more attractive. This will include the Bulwell Bogs area, which will be fully refreshed with a new planting and landscape design, including a high-quality play offer to cater for all ages. It will see renewal and expansion of the splash park and introduction of a refreshments kiosk with toilet and changing facilities to make the park a great place to visit – particularly in summer months. Lighting and CCTV will also be upgraded.

At Market Place existing market equipment will be replaced with new stalls, along with better access to electrical power on site, supporting both new and existing vendors, while the bus station toilets will be rebuilt and modernised. Wider public realm refurbishment is also planned. Paving will be renewed across the pedestrianised areas of the town centre along with new seating and landscaping. Connections will be improved between the Market Place and the Bogs area to bring these separate parts of the town centre together. These projects have been developed using allocated funding from a Government grant. Some budget remains and the council will work with the local community over the coming months to establish where to invest this.

Councillor Neghat Khan, leader of Nottingham City Council and executive member for strategic regeneration, transport and communications, said: “We hope that the detailed images being released today will further excite the people of Bulwell about the fantastic raft of improvements coming their way over the next few months. “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time to take part in our consultation process. This was deliberately designed to be detailed and wide-ranging because we knew how important it was that the final projects going forward were what local people and businesses had asked for. “We’re particularly excited by the revamping of the Bogs area. These are a legacy of current and former ward councillors in the town and we know just how well-loved and used they are by families in Bulwell. “I think people are going to be thrilled when they see the new splash park take shape, along with a host of play equipment and places for children to have fun and express themselves. “We wanted to make sure that market traders benefited from the grant money we’d secured. They’ve been engaged throughout this process and the new market will be a fantastic place to work and shop. “There will also be significant work done to the wider public areas of Bulwell, including the market square and public toilets. “We look forward to work starting soon. We deliberately scheduled the works for this time of the year so that the splash park could remain open during the summer for families to enjoy. The market will also operate throughout.”