Press Releases: May 2007
As part of the Council's new Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) the Regeneration Section of the Council plan to help start up businesses through the development of incubation centres in Ashfield. Incubation centres provide office space together with professional business support and advice to help nurture new companies. This can provide them with the first step on the way to growing their business and help them to survive during the early stages of development, when they are most vulnerable.
The main aims of this initiative will be to:
- Increase the number of business start-ups per head of population
- Increase business survival rates
- Provide good quality and flexible workspace
- Meet an identified shortfall in starter office space currently available within the district.
- Provide flexible leases
- Ensure business support and advice is available to new tenants
One property, Kingsway Lodge on Kingsway in Kirkby-in-Ashfield has been identified for immediate renovation. Funding has been secured from the Alliance Sub Regional Strategic Partnership and will be used together with LEGI funds to refurbish the existing building whilst retaining the character and structure. This would provide 5 office units and facilities including a kitchen, toilets and a meeting room. The long term plan is to provide a network of incubation centres in the district.
The Centre was opened by Ashfield MP, Geoff Hoon; Chairman of the Council, Cllr Harry Toseland and Paul Davies, Chair of LEGI's Executive Board.
Andrew Smith, Head of Community and Economic Promotion stated 'that the project aims to encourage emerging, innovative businesses with growth potential to locate within the Ashfield area by providing suitable accommodation and business support. It is well documented that by providing this type of intensive support vastly increases chances of business success'.
A Biz Fizz coach, employed via the LEGI will be based at Kingsway Lodge and will be looking to advise people with a business idea on how to take it forward.
Nottinghamshire Business Venture (NBV) is working closely with the District Council in providing ongoing support to the businesses located in Kingsway Lodge. NBV will have a regular presence in the centre offering guidance and support to new start businesses in the area.
Ashfield MP Geoff Hoon visited Quarrydale School, in Sutton-in-Ashfield last week to congratulate staff and students on the school's excellent Key Stage 3 results. On the visit, Mr. Hoon was taken on a tour of the school and took the opportunity to chat to both staff and students. Following the tour, Mr. Hoon spoke to the School Council, a group made up of pupils, and was asked a series of searching questions on his role as Ashfield's MP.
Geoff Hoon said: 'I am delighted to have had the opportunity to celebrate these results with everyone at Quarrydale School. They have all worked very hard and deserve recognition for this fantastic achievement. It is encouraging to see further success stories in Ashfield's schools.'
Headmaster Craig Weaver said: :We were delighted to welcome Mr Hoon to Quarrydale. He was able to see what achievements had been made recently and learn about our aspirations to gain specialist status in Science and Mathematics.'
Mr Weaver went onto say, 'Mr Hoon also met with our School Council, which provided with a valuable opportunity for the students to talk to Mr Hoon about his work and how he became an MP.'
On Friday 14th May, pupils from Movern Park Primary School in Kirkby-in-Ashfield proudly showed off the NatWest Supergrounds playground project they helped to design to local MP Geoff Hoon.
This was Mr. Hoon's second visit in two weeks to a Supergrounds project. Last week, he visited the Supergrounds project at St. Mary Magdalene Primary School in Sutton-in-Ashfield and was so impressed; he wanted to see the other project in his constituency.
Supergrounds is a £6m, six-year community programme funded by RBS Group (of which NatWest is part). It has so far helped 300 primary schools across the UK, including Movern Park Primary School, to transform their existing school grounds into more attractive and stimulating places where children can learn and play in safety. By the end of 2010, a further 600 primary schools will have benefited from the programme.
The involvement of NatWest employees is central to Supergrounds. NatWest staff nominate a primary school, giving it the opportunity to improve its school grounds and then help the school plan, develop and implement its project over the academic year. Schools receive £4,000 cash and help in-kind to the value of £3,000. Gail Allen-Turner from NatWest nominated Movern Park Primary School.
Geoff Hoon commented: 'Having stimulating outdoor space at school is extremely important to a child's development and I very much welcome the improvements which are being made to school playgrounds such as the ones at Movern Park and St Mary Magdalene Primary Schools as a result of the Supergrounds programme.'
Research shows that stimulating playgrounds can significantly reduce bullying, stress and vandalism whilst providing an outdoor education resource for teachers. The objective of Supergrounds is to improve school grounds to assist the educational and emotional development of children, and to encourage and support the involvement of NatWest employees; resulting in strengthening the connection between bank staff and their local communities.
NatWest/RBS developed the Supergrounds programme in partnership with Learning through Landscapes (LtL), the national school grounds charity working to help improve and develop school grounds.
R&D Tool and Engineering's new UK facility in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire was officially opened on 11th May by The Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP, Minister for Europe and MP for Ashfield. The Opening Ceremony formed the conclusion of a well-attended event including presentations from Mr Hoon as well as from EMDA, the East Midlands Development Agency and R&D.
R&D moved to the purpose-built 27,000 square feet late last year from leased premises in the nearby area. The new facility is 50% larger than the old site and work is already underway on the on-site Development capability.
The move into larger premises last year was made on the back of growth and an expansion of the sales network and has provided R&D with the necessary platform to handle further anticipated business growth. Customer feedback to the new site has been very positive so far.
R&D's Managing Director, Alan Tolley, outlined how the relocation would help R&D continue to move forward:
'This is a very important day for R&D for many reasons, over the past few years we did feasibility studies about manufacturing in China and Central Europe, but, given our skilled workforce, the road network, airport facilities we enjoy in the area the management team at R&D decided this was the place we would compete in a global market.
Therefore we have made the commitment to base our European manufacturing facility in the East Midlands, this has been made possible with the assistance of the East Midland Development Association, Nat West with whom we bank (and who provided us with the mortgage for this wonderful new facility) and our many other first rate suppliers.
The challenges we face in the coming years will be immense, but 80% of the tooling manufactured this year have been for export to markets in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, France, Spain, at the last count we have exported tooling to over 40 different countries.
Our competitors come from far afield as well, our main competitors are based in Japan, India, Argentina and nearer to home France and Bulgaria, we view this as a challenge not a threat.
We see our main competitive edge being the service we offer and the ability to be able to offer the complete package to our customers; we have language skills within our sales department and are looking to strengthen this in 2007.'
Commenting on the Opening, Geoff Hoon said:
'I am very grateful for the invitation to open R&D's new factory in Sutton. I am delighted that R&D is consolidating its operations in Ashfield with this purpose built facility.
R&D is a successful global business which is enjoying continued growth and I am very encouraged that the company is displaying an ongoing commitment to the Ashfield area. This is welcome news for local jobs and the local economy.'
Jeff Moore, CEO of emda (East Midlands Development Agency) added:
'Businesses like R&D Tool and Engineering Ltd are the backbone of our economy and we must make sure that all businesses have the capacity to maximise their economic contribution. I am delighted that they have chosen to expand their business here.
emda has helped to the company to locate here but I also want to take this opportunity to thank R&D Tool and Engineering for their active support in emda's work to help exporters overcome the language and other barriers that companies face when trading internationally.'
Storytelling and design was top of the agenda for Ashfield MP Rt. Hon Geoff Hoon when he recently visited Selston C of E Infant & Nursery School, on Friday 11th May to see how both teachers and pupils are using creativity in learning.
Creative Partnerships is a national scheme aimed at boosting school curriculum activities through creative industries ranging from dance and art to film and design.
Developing new approaches to creative learning in 36 areas of England, one of which is Bolsover, Ashfield & Mansfield (BAM), the Creative Partnerships national programme recently received a glowing OFSTED report for creating lasting partnerships that 'transform schools and lives'.
Running for at least 4 years locally, the scheme is making a significant impact in 20 schools in the Bolsover, Ashfield & Mansfield area and starting to develop new projects involving a wider group of schools.
'Creative Partnerships is all about exciting minds and these partnerships are bringing real benefits for young people and teachers alike. For pupils, it brings improvements in achievement, confidence, motivation, enjoyment and engagement with learning. Teachers have been invigorated, enthused and introduced to new ideas,' said Creative Partnerships BAM Director, Chris Batstone.
Said Geoff Hoon: 'I fully support the work that Creative Partnerships is undertaking with schools in Ashfield. I am very pleased that this is the second school I have visited recently where teachers and pupils are benefiting from imaginative and inspiring projects through the Creative Partnerships programme.'
At Selston, 'Wonderful Me' is a whole school cross-curricular project incorporating creative thinking, motivation, empathy, social skills and communication. A range of arts practitioners are bringing colour, dynamism and imagination through working partnerships with staff, children and the wider school community. Other topics have been Africa, The Seaside and Enchantment and Fairy Tales. The practitioners involved have been a musician, a drama practitioner, a sculptor/model maker, and a print maker, a film-maker, a writer and African Drummers.
Following a trip to the theatre to see 'Little Mermaid' the children are being encouraged to reflect upon the experience of a theatre production with the help of the various arts practitioners. This project is a pathway to the children planning, designing and building a permanent outside performance area later in the Summer term.
Headteacher Lesley Shelton and co-ordinators Alison Taylor and Jayne Renshaw will greet Mr Hoon and he will witness Sarah Woodall, a storyteller from Footprints Theatre Trust, working with Year 1 and 2 children using the story of The Ugly Duckling to explore feelings and relationships. This links with the topic Wonderful Me that the children are working on,
'We very much want to share these success stories with the wider community and the young people involved are more than pleased to be able to show their MP just what they have achieved,' added Mr Batstone.
On Friday 4th May, pupils from St Mary Magdalene Primary School in Sutton-in-Ashfield proudly showed off the NatWest Supergrounds playground project they helped to design to local MP Geoff Hoon.
Supergrounds is a £6m, six-year community programme funded by the RBS Group. It has so far helped 300 primary schools across the UK, including St Mary Magdalene Primary School, to transform their existing school grounds into more attractive and stimulating places where children can learn and play in safety. By the end of 2010, a further 600 primary schools will have benefited from the programme.
The involvement of RBS employees is central to Supergrounds. RBS staff nominate a primary school, giving it the opportunity to improve its school grounds and then help the school plan, develop and implement its project over the academic year. Schools receive £4,000 cash and help in-kind to the value of £3,000. School Governor/Parent Marie Lowry from RBS nominated St Mary Magdalene Primary School.
Research shows that stimulating playgrounds can significantly reduce bullying, stress and vandalism whilst providing an outdoor education resource for teachers. The objective of Supergrounds is to improve school grounds to assist the educational and emotional development of children, and to encourage and support the involvement of RBS and NatWest employees; resulting in strengthening the connection between bank staff and their local communities.
Geoff Hoon commented: 'Having stimulating outdoor space at school is extremely important to a child's development and I very much welcome the improvements which are being made to school playgrounds such as the one at St Mary Magdalene Primary School as a result of the Supergrounds programme. I look forward to seeing how other schools in Ashfield are benefiting from the scheme.'
RBS together with NatWest developed the Supergrounds programme in partnership with Learning through Landscapes (LtL), the national school grounds charity working to help improve and develop school grounds.
Eastwood MP, Geoff Hoon will be dropping in for a tea and a chat with the Eastwood Parent Group on Friday 4th May to discuss future changes to the local community.
The Eastwood Parent Group, run by Nottinghamshire County Council began in October 2006 for local parents to take part in a free 14 week parenting programme. The programme helps parents divert their children from becoming involved in crime and includes lessons on handling bad behaviour, giving praise and rewards and setting limits.
Richard and Stacey Inquieti, regular members of the group said: 'It's been good to meet other parents, you know you're not alone and nobody judges you. It's really helped with our children's behaviour and we deal with it in a different way. We've learnt a lot.'
After completing the programme, parents felt that they wanted to continue with the meetings and look at other community projects. Parents have since felt that they have been unable to combat outside influences, especially from their children's peers on the street, who are sometime involved in anti-social behaviour.
The group hopes the meeting with Geoff Hoon, will help unite local police and councillors in the area to help build a stronger community.
Rick Scott, Nottinghamshire County Council's Parenting Case Manager said: 'The Eastwood Parent Group has been a great success and we have worked hard to help parents find positive ways of dealing with different parenting problems. The group has grown in confidence and through their dedication they continue to do a fantastic job in supporting each other and their children.'
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