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The committee 2013
Michelle Allen - CHAIRMAN
Abigail Cutts -
VICE-CHAIRMAN
Brigitte Peach - SECRETARY
Simon Shaw - TREASURER
NEXT MEETING
Friday, June 7th, 2013
7am at The Everyday Champions Centre,
Jessop Close, Newark
Keith Girling - CHAIRMAN
Anne Robson - VICE CHAIRMAN
Stephanie Whitchurch -
SECRETARY
NEXT MEETING
Monday, May 20th, 2013
6pm at Aura Commerce and Technology Centre,
Manners Road, Newark
Elaine Ellison - CHAIRMAN
NEXT MEETING
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013
at The Moorings, Castlegate, Newark
For more information please contact Elaine Ellison
at
[email protected]
To help create and sustain an economic environment that will make Newark a vibrant and rewarding market town to live in, work in and visit.
-
Encouraging active networking and enterprise
creation within a business friendly
enviroment across the private and
public sectors.
- Establishing a long-term vision
for the town and a broad consensus to
deliver it.
- Defining, encouraging and
facilitating an appropriate retaul mix.
- Helping promote Newark as a distinctive
tourist destination and place to stay.
- Projecting Newark locally, regionally and
nationally.
- Becoming an award-winning town within
three years.
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NEWS FROM OUR LAST MEETING
WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS:
At Newark Business Club, Sara Chadd
encounters all manner of inventions from a
new cycling patent to trains and LEPs. The
meeting was followed by Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce’s
“Showcase, Market and Sell” event.
It was the first Newark Business Club
meeting under new chairman Michelle Allen
(Wright Vigar) and deputy chairman Abigail
Cutts (Funfair Brewing Company). The place
was awash with engineers and sponsored on
this occasion by Newark architectural
engineers Viridis. Director Lee Marshall
demonstrated his portfolio of buildings from
London to Edinburgh, where energy usage and
substantial design costs were being saved.
Viridis, with Place Architects (Lincoln)
represents one of only three national
teams tendering to design the prestigious
new Bomber Command Memorial Centre at
Canwick Hill.
We used to have the East Midlands
Development Agency. But today, Peter
Richardson, D2N2 Chair, reminded us that we
have already had the replacement Local
Enterprise Partnership for two years. The
LEP is a tight-knit team of business leaders
dedicated to lobbying for the best deals
across Europe for ‘the country’s most
inspirational postcode’.
“In London and Europe, they must learn what
we need here to drive successful business,”
he enthused. Five key enterprise
sectors where the LEP will concentrate its
attention include the visitor economy as
well as traditional areas such as
construction.
Visitors were also high on the agenda for
the next speaker, Ian Yeowart, from Alliance
Rail. We were unexpectedly treated to a
graciously-conducted sparring session
between the Open Access giant and
franchise-consumer champion Bob Poynter. All
I learned was that frankly you need to be
inside the boxing-ring to understand the
rules of the game and what’s at stake here.
Alliance Rail are offering big promises of
jobs and investment but not necessarily more
trains that run on time from Newark
stations, from what I could gather, which
seems rather to defeat the object of the
enterprise.
After the punch-up, everyone warmed to the
next speaker, Sam Pearce of Jelly Products,
Eakring and his invention, Loopwheels.
A shock-absorbing alternative to bicycle
spokes, the loops provide tangential
suspension. Innovative crowd-funding
through Kickstarter is generating the
£40,000 backing to start production at
Boughton. Michelle Allen of Wright
Vigar, Ian Underdown of RA Information
Systems, Stephen Pinegar of Brick Tinting
Solutions and Dean Hyde, AIFCI, were among
those who confirmed Loopwheels’ universal
appeal by leaping on the bike, with help
from Jelly co-director, Gemma Pearce. Smiles
all round.
At the busy Showcase, Market and Sell
event, eight of the exhibitors, including
Loopwheels, were revealed as ventures
hailing from PERA’s Growth Accelerator
stable. The event’s workshop sessions
included speed networking and social media,
with IT expert Jon Egley who, incidentally,
recommends Google Plus. My good deed was to
introduce Jon to Newark and Sherwood’s
Business Growth which hopefully will attract
some of D2N2’s free social media sessions
our way into Newark. Wheels within wheels.
FOCUS ON...
Viridis Building Services Ltd.
Newark design engineer goes for growth:
ENGINEERING is not everybody’s idea of an exciting occupation. But
trouble-shooting environmental engineer Lee Marshall sees more
than his fair share of adventure.
Mr Marshall, a Chartered Engineer, runs Viridis Building Services
Limited, based at Newark’s Beacon Business Centre. As well as
new-builds, he regularly gets called in to sort out other peoples’
construction nightmares, the kind of mistakes that can turn factories,
churches and blocks of flats, into an unaffordable disaster area or even
candidates for demolition.
“You do need technical expertise,” said Mr Marshall, “but as well as the
maths, you need creative design flair, because we have to deal with
architects all the time. The main added ingredient is client
communication. Most clients are afraid to tackle contractors head-on and
they will put up with losses, sometimes totalling millions of pounds,
just because of a design fault in their heating or ventilation systems.
But if the figures speak for themselves and we provide those figures,
major savings can be made both on installation costs and on regular
energy usage costs, even years after the event.”
In the last year, Viridis’ energy-saving portfolio has included a range
of heritage, industrial and residential buildings across Britain:
St Helena’s Church, South Scarle, St Peter and St Paul’s Church,
Shelford, Grahame House in Falkirk, Scotland, Croythorn House in
Edinburgh, Tillbridge House, Sturton-by-Stow and a recent commission at
Norwell, near Newark.
Viridis is rapidly gaining a reputation as the design engineering firm
of choice to work locally with a number of architects and builders,
tendering for prestigious projects which include the Bomber Command
Memorial Centre at Canwick Hill, Lincoln in partnership with Place
Architects of Lincoln.
“I would love to get involved with Newark’s new Civil War Museum,” said
Mr Marshall, who takes on his first Newark Apprentice in July this year.
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