Speedy sale delivered for Prigmore Haulage
Redundancies made at wilko
Business community urged to back Framework’s Big Sleep Out
Nottingham charity Framework has launched its annual Big Sleep Out campaign to raise vital funds to help get the growing number of local rough sleepers off the streets.
The Big Sleep Out is inviting teams from local businesses to sign up to spend the night in a sleeping bag at Nottingham Racecourse on Saturday 7 October. It’s a chance for employers to make a difference and support their employees to take part as a team and pledge funds that will go directly towards helping rough sleepers in Nottingham.
It comes at a time when the charity’s Street Outreach Team found 57 people sleeping rough in Nottingham alone. This is the highest monthly figure this year and the highest number for August in the past five years.
Long term supporters Tesco and Campbell Clinic are already on board for 2023 with Tesco saying “we are really privileged to support such a great event.”
Campbell Clinic added: “The Campbell Clinic dental practice has supported Framework for several years through our Social Legacy Project. Recently, some of our staff spent a few hours with Framework’s Street Outreach Team and this has inspired us to get involved in the Big Sleep Out as a sponsor. We are proud to be supporting this event and looking forward to some of our staff taking part.”
Framework delivers housing, health, employment, support and care services to people with a diverse range of needs across the East Midlands in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and in Sheffield.
Regardless of their past, or the challenges they face, the charity strives to empower people to achieve financial stability, social inclusion and independence, driven by the belief that everyone has the right and potential to achieve a better future.
Framework’s head of fundraising and communications, Claire Eden said: “We need the help of the business community now more than ever to support the increasing number of people who will experience the trauma of rough sleeping this winter, many of them for the first time.”
All the businesses who take part will be recognised by Framework on its social channels and given a toolkit to use in their own communications to help spread awareness and their support.
There are also sponsorship opportunities available which include the programme and website, a stall at the Big Sleep Out village, and across social media. Companies can also sponsor one of the dedicated areas such as the Silent Disco, Children’s Area or Cinema.
Framework’s event fundraiser Natalie Dickson who is organising the Big Sleep Out says: “The Big Sleep Out is the chance to be part of something worthwhile for a good cause. It attracts individuals, groups of friends, families, community groups such as scouts, as well as teams from local businesses. In fact, our corporate supporters often tell us what a powerful and emotive experience it is – team building that makes a difference!
“Sleeping outside in the elements for a single cold October night is challenging enough but, unfortunately, it’s something more and more people have to endure every night.
“Framework’s Big Sleep Out is an opportunity for like-minded people to come together, enjoy a great evening and raise funds for a deserving cause – helping people in need by sleeping out so others don’t have to and providing support that can change lives.”
Companies interested in sponsorship can email Natalie.Dickson@frameworkha.org
Sign up at www.frameworkha.org/sleepout to receive a toolkit to get started on fundraising.
Homebuilder granted planning permission for more than 300 homes across the Midlands
Midlands-based homebuilder Spitfire Homes has secured planning permission for 371 homes across the Midlands in just one week.
Leading the plans is a 280-home scheme in Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, along with a further 61 properties located at a former Sandvik HQ in Halesowen, Dudley, and a collection of 30 new homes in the Worcestershire village of Crowle.
Despite the recent announcements, Ben Leather, Managing Director at Spitfire Homes, says the process of securing planning permission has been an extremely difficult and drawn-out process.
“Despite our recent planning success, as an SME housebuilder we experience significant struggles with the current planning system on a daily basis – something that is felt throughout the industry.
“Reserved Matters permission for one of these developments took almost 12 months to secure, despite being an allocated site in the Local Plan with Outline Permission already in place, and no objections from any statutory consultees. Another development on a brownfield site was challenged by unjustified design and highways requests, whilst staffing changes within the planning department further slowed the process which took over a year.
“These are just some recent examples of how the current system prevents housebuilders from delivering homes that are needed in strategic locations within acceptable timeframes.”
Housing Secretary Micheal Gove recently set out new measures that he hopes will unblock the planning system and enable the building of more homes in the right places where there is local consent.
Developers will be asked to contribute more through fees, to help support a higher-quality, more efficient planning service, but Leather doesn’t think the changes go far enough to provide a deliverable mix of homes, of all tenures, to solve England’s housing crisis.
“We support the principle of paying higher planning fees if it means Local Planning Authorities spend those additional fees on increasing the resources within their teams and it isn’t diverted to other Council departments.
“With increases in interest rates, the cost for SME housebuilders to put sites on hold whilst waiting for planning approvals can be crippling for small businesses, so this change is absolutely essential to promote the future success of these businesses and ensure their continued contribution to the economy.
“The recent Save Our SMEs campaign championed by the HBF further demonstrated the sentiment from housebuilders similar to Spitfire Homes, with 166 businesses signing the open letter to Government in response to recent policy amendments which remove the requirement for mandatory local housing targets, further throttling the amount of planning permissions granted for new homes. It’s vital housing targets are reinstated and are not reliant on conversion of commercial and agricultural buildings to provide more homes as advocated by Gove.
“Increasing the quality and level of resource within the planning system is a significant step forward in the delivery of much-needed new homes.”
Steel firm snaps up substantial Sherwood Park warehouse space
Workplace expansion development moves ahead at Space City
Biomass business snapped up in multi-million pound acquisition
Last chance to enter the East Midlands Bricks Awards 2023 – nominations close TODAY
- 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)
Book your tickets now
Tickets can now be booked for the East Midlands Bricks Awards 2023 – click here to secure yours. The special awards evening and networking event will be held on Thursday 28 September 2023 in the Derek Randall Suite at the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground from 4:30pm – 7:30pm. Connect with local decision makers over canapés and complimentary drinks while applauding the outstanding companies and projects in our region, and hear from Mike Denby, Director of Inward Investment and Place Marketing at Leicester City Council, our keynote speaker. Dress code is standard business attire. Thanks to our sponsors:
To be held at:
Businesses urged to give the gift of Hope in new charity partnership led by Derby agency
Businesses are being urged to give families the gift of ‘Hope’ in a new charity partnership spearheaded by a Derby PR agency.
The me&dee charity has launched a new sponsorship scheme allowing businesses to give families ‘Hope’ – a special keepsake elephant with a voice recorder in the zip-up pouch contained in its ear, which has been used by hundreds of families to record poignant last messages of loved ones, often children.
The device allows families with a potentially life-limiting diagnosis to record the voice of a loved one, providing huge comfort in times of bereavement. The elephant has even been used to record the voice of a very ill boy’s snoring, which his mum listened to after he had sadly passed away.
Now the charity is urging businesses to lend support with a 12-month sponsorship of the adorable elephant, with the offer of one Hope embroidered with a business’s logo as the ideal friendly companion around the office.
The first business to offer sponsorship of Hope is Derby-based Penguin PR.
Maria Hanson MBE said: “In times of bereavement, having Hope the elephant can be enormously comforting to families.
“Hope has been so popular with our families since we first started giving her five years ago. Families started putting little notes in her ears which gave me the idea that we could include a voice recorder. It was prompted by one of the people we help who said what they dreaded most was that they would forget how their loved one’s voice or laugh sounded.
“Since then providing Hope has turned into one of the most powerful things we can do for people. We have had family members recording their heartbeat into Hope’s voice recorder so that if the worst happens, that comforting record of the person who has left us can live on.
“We give Hope too all of our families who are facing short, uncertain or challenging futures. We recently lost a little boy at Burton Hospital. His mum wanted to record his snoring, so that she can hug Hope and listen to him snoring.
“We are now working closely with families at Royal Derby and Burton hospitals who really appreciate being given a Hope keepsake when they are going through tough times together. She is much, much more than a cuddly toy. She helps families keep memories alive, and you can’t put a price on that. And if you get businesses to the office, you might be able to talk about ‘the elephant in the room’!”
Simon Burch, director of Penguin PR, said: “We love working with me&dee and we are delighted to sponsor this worthwhile charity with our sponsorship of Hope. She looks very smart with her Penguin PR logo emblazoned on the front and it’s good to think we are helping families by providing another 12 Hopes through a year’s sponsorship scheme.
“It would be great to see other companies following suit and ordering their own branded ‘Hopes’ too – anyone’s company logo would look great!
“We know how much it means to Maria and her charity to know they can provide comfort to families too.”
Gifting a Hope for 12 months with the option of a specially branded keepsake with your company logo costs £35 a month.
Law firm’s sustainability initiatives – steps towards a greener future?
Climate conscious law firm Sills & Betteridge LLP are delighted to announce the introduction of a range of energy saving, carbon emission reducing initiatives. Its largest undertaking is the recent installation of 79 solar panels to its central Lincoln Head Office with the aim of generating 1/3 of the site’s total energy usage – for 4 months of the year, solar energy will fully power the 4 floor office. Derrick Denton, Director of UK Alternative Energy of North Hykeham in the city who managed the project said of the install “With Sills and Betteridge now occupying the whole of Aquis House, the challenge was to find a solar solution to help reduce the energy use within the building. A total of 79 x 405 W Canadian solar panels giving a system size 30.37kw, 3 x 10kw Solis inverters have been installed using a flat roof mounting system. This system has been equally split throughout the building and connected to the consumer units within the plant room. This system should see 25,000kwh of electricity generated each year and should see a saving of around six tons of CO2 every year. All the inverters are online, and the system can be displayed and monitored from anywhere in the world”. Another investment has been the purchase of a new MG ZS Electric Hatchback car, bought to replace one of the firm’s diesel vehicles. It will be used by members of the firm to attend client appointments, external meetings and events. A charging point has been installed at Aquis House which clients are welcome to use when they are when visiting for appointments. The firm aspires to have a fully electric fleet by 2025. Remote working and online video meetings are encouraged to help reduce avoidable travel across the region. Such methods became very popular with both clients and employees, further to their introduction during lockdown. Digital and paper-light file management and document storage are another efficiency that the firm is embracing, to cut down on paper consumption and the cost of print and archiving. Document management system iManage is being rolled out across the firm to support its main practice management system. Even the firm’s website www.sillslegal.co.uk is green, as verified by The Green Web Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation which tracks how much of the internet runs on green energy. Developed by DBS Internet Marketing, the site minimises the use of resources (and therefore energy) through quick download speeds and user-friendly navigation on all classes of device – and their hosting partner OVH used either renewable or low-carbon energy for 77% of its power last year with plans to increase it to 100%. Chief Executive Officer of Sills & Betteridge, Martyn Hall said “Like many law firms, we are working hard to understand the impact of our operations and working methods on the environment and are actively seeking to reduce our overall carbon footprint with the initiatives and best practices outlined above. Our team have welcomed the new projects and we look forward to introducing more across the wider firm.”
