Halifax leisure centre plans back on track
Plans for the new Halifax Leisure Centre and Swimming Pool have moved a step closer following a review of the leisure services offered by Calderdale Council in the town.
In November 2022 the Council was forced to pause the development of the new Leisure Centre at North Bridge after rising inflation meant the anticipated cost of delivering the project had become unsustainable.
The review which followed covered the options available to the Council for providing leisure services in Halifax in the future. It examined the cost of the new Leisure Centre and Pool scheme and whether, as an alternative, it would be possible to reopen the former Halifax Pool building in Skircoat Road.
Working with an Architect and a Cost Consultant, the Council has adapted, simplified and tested the plans for the scheme, removing some of the facilities, such as the Wellness Suite, steam room and sauna, to make sure it can be delivered using the available project budget.
Cllr Jane Scullion, leader of the Council, said: “This is very encouraging news and gives us real grounds for optimism. We made the very difficult decision in the Autumn to pause the programme because the financial risk to the Council was too great. It’s essential that this project, which is so important to the town, is sustainable.
“Since then, Officers have been working hard to rationalise and refine the proposals, reducing costs wherever possible but still making sure that we will have fantastic new leisure facilities which are accessible and affordable.”
The team has already reduced the total project costs by an estimated 6-10%, bringing it close to the approved budget for the scheme. Work will continue to identify further cost savings as the plans are developed.
The new design for the leisure centre and pool should be finalised by early 2024, with contractors invited to submit cost proposals in the Spring.
The leisure services review also explored the possibility and potential cost of refurbishing Halifax Pool in Skircoat Road. A survey in January 2023 examined the condition of the building which has continued to deteriorate since it closed in 2021.
There is significant evidence that the concrete has failed and there is corrosion of the steelwork within the structure of the building; the roof is unsafe, and it is likely that the cladding system on the external walls has also failed.
The pool tank requires significant repairs and many of the doors and windows would need to be replaced.
The pool opened in 1966 and it’s clear from the survey that large parts of the building’s structure are now no longer safe and that the extent of the refurbishment required to bring it to modern standards would not be economically viable.
The building will now be demolished, and the site made available for redevelopment.
Calderdale Council was awarded £12.2 million from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund to support the development of the new leisure centre and swimming pool.
Mining company backs ‘Made in Whitby’ event for town’s businesses
Mining company Anglo American has funded two days of stalls, talks, demonstrations and live music in a celebration of “Whitby’s creative spirit” businesses.
The event, taking place at Whitby Brewery in East Cliff and supported by the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub, was organised by a collective of Whitby businesses.
Darren Archibald, Director, Whitby Sea Salt, said: “The idea for the Made in Whitby Festival came from conversations with local producers and manufacturers with a view to showcase their skills, ingenuity and entrepreneurship that runs alongside and supplements the already very successful tourism industry.
“The festival has been a great success for all involved, with both stall holders and festival goers happy and smiling. We had interest to be involved from many businesses but could only accommodate a small number within the courtyard of Whitby Brewery. We are looking into the possibility of increasing the numbers of stall holders and festival goers at the next event with the help of very passionate organisations and businesses.
“We were looking at doing the festival at the back end of summer 2023 or early summer 2024 but with the support and energy of Anglo American and York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub we were able to bring it forward to July 2023. We have had amazing help from both these organisations.”
A variety of Whitby businesses took part in the festival, with some using the event to launch new products.
Vicky Bolton, Anglo American’s Social Programmes Manager, said: “Anglo American wants to support local economic growth and connect people to opportunities, supporting the creation of new businesses and supporting existing businesses to expand, develop and innovate.
“Made in Whitby is a fantastic opportunity for businesses from the local area to showcase their world class products and increase awareness of their offering, and Anglo American is delighted to have supported it.”
Harriet Stainton, Business Relationship Manager at York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub, said: “Made in Whitby Festival has been a fantastic showcase of the town’s businesses, local produce and creativity. At the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub, we connect businesses of all sizes to what they need to drive success and manage growth, so we were pleased to support the festival. It’s brought many businesses together and we look forward to working with them further to build on this success.”
Businesses invited to shape policy for Lincolnshire’s tourism economy
Businesses across Lincolnshire are being invited to feed into to new strategic plan for tourism and the visitor economy in the county.
Six workshops are to take tak place across the county in an initiative organised by Destination Lincolnshire, with support from councils across Greater Lincolnshire.
This new plan will be the roadmap that underpins these collective ambitions and will feed in to Visit England and national Government.
There will also be an option to join a virtual workshop online for anyone who is unable to attend, plus an online survey that everyone can fill out to give people the opportunity to be included.
More information and booking links can be found by following this link – Destination Lincolnshire.
UK’s largest-ever electricity ‘superhighway’ will connect Drax to Scots wind farms
National Grid Electricity Transmission and SSEN Transmission have formed a JV company that will ultimately build a 270-mile electricity ‘superhighway project’ which will be the UK’s single largest-ever electricity transmission project.
The ‘Eastern Green Link 2’ (EGL2) project will see the creation of a 525kV, 2GW high-voltage direct current subsea transmission cable from Peterhead in Scotland to Drax in North Yorkshire.
The subsea HVDC cable system is approximately 436km in length with new converter stations at either end to connect it into the existing transmission network infrastructure. HVDC technology provides the most efficient and reliable means of transmitting large amounts of power over long distances subsea.
The EGL2 link will support the growth of new renewable electricity generation, creating jobs and delivering a pathway to net zero emissions targets, as well as helping to alleviate existing constraints on the electricity network.
Eastern Green Link 2 is part of the significant amount of new network infrastructure required for net zero and will play a critical role in supporting the UK’s future security of supply, reducing dependence and price exposure to volatile global wholesale gas markets.Carl Trowell, President of UK Strategic Infrastructure at National Grid said: “The government ambition of 50GW of offshore wind by 2030 demands unprecedented scale and complexity of action. It’s essential that we find new ways to work and unite as a sector to rise to this challenge and this joint venture with SSEN is a prime example.
“Eastern Green Link 2 is part of our Great Grid Upgrade, the largest overhaul of the grid in generations. This new infrastructure will connect more clean, renewable energy from where it’s generated to where it’s needed, helping contribute to lower energy bills over the long-term and make the UK’s energy more self-sufficient.”
Sewell Construction wins award for sustainability achievements
Hull-based Sewell Construction has won the sustainability category at the Constructing Excellence in Yorkshire and Humber Awards.
The judges were impressed by the company’s commitment to net zero goals, the innovative approaches taken to decarbonising its work, and dedication to delivering social value.
Sewell Construction Joint Managing Director Mark Boothby said: “This includes using electric diggers and plant equipment, solar powered cabins on site, maximizing digital technology and replacing diesel with vegetable oil-based fuels.
“We also divert 97% of waste from landfill, and have created a community project where over 100 school children created their own bug hotels to enhance biodiversity in their back gardens.
“The Sewell Construction team also uses a sustainability tracker, which monitors the benefits to the community from each project. This includes opportunities for young people to be involved, either in apprenticeships and graduate schemes, or through school engagement, volunteering by staff, support for charities and training.
“We’re thrilled to have won this award, as it demonstrates the commitment we have to making a difference in the community.
“Our whole team is working really hard to make sure every part of our business is as green as sustainable as possible, delivering a positive impact and legacy in our communities wherever we go.
“Over the last year, we’ve created over £90 million of socio-economic impact in the Yorkshire region, and we’re not stopping there. We’re determined to keep on making every effort to bring our emissions down, continue creating value in our communities and be at the forefront for sustainability in the construction industry.”
Record growth for firm drawing confidence from crises
A training business which helps people take confidence from crises is reporting record growth after steering clients through Covid and economic decline.
Debbie Kuhr-Jones, Director of K2 Training Services, said her workload has doubled from the combination of increased demand for remote training and recurring interest in her long-term specialist area of re-training after redundancy. Debbie was driven to setting up the business after experiencing redundancy twice herself. In 1998 she lost her job as a typist so used her pay-off to upskill herself while also picking up various jobs it pay the bills and learn about technology. That commitment led to her becoming training manager at a Hull-based IT company and when that closed in 2007 she decided to go it alone offering specialist Microsoft tuition. As a one-woman business Debbie provides regular work for two freelance trainers with a client base which includes such major employers as the NHS, a number of global businesses with operations in the East Yorkshire area and her own landlord – The Deep Business Centre in Hull. As she delivers services to clients as far afield as London, India, Singapore and the United States, Debbie says she noticed two big changes in the use of technology by big businesses as a result of Covid. She said: “The obvious one has been the use of Teams. Some of my clients are in sectors which never stopped at all during lockdown and they had to have all their training delivered remotely rather than in person in our training suite or at their offices. “I wasn’t sure it would work because sometimes you couldn’t see the people, just their initials on the screen. It’s important to watch them to make sure they are picking everything up, but we got there. In 2020-21 about 75 per cent of our work was on Teams. It’s still big, but now about 85 per cent has gone back to face-to-face work.” The second stand-out change has been a stronger commitment by businesses to train their staff. Debbie’s work for The Deep highlights two scenarios. She said: “We have been doing training for staff at The Deep, filling some of the gaps and training in Excel, Word and Outlook specific to their roles rather than including things that aren’t relevant for them. “We also trained a chef who wanted to move into a different role and suddenly needed to develop his IT skills to work on things like training plans and product contents, dietary requirements and other procedures and policies. “The Deep is one of the majority of businesses which have always been serious about training, but elsewhere there were some employees who had never received formal training on computers. It was just assumed that we all knew how to use them. “If someone’s laptop breaks a company has no qualms about replacing it but when technology changes they rarely show the same commitment to help people use it properly. That changed as a result of lockdown because IT became more important than ever in terms of keeping a business running.”More than 100 Yorkshire creatives attend free seminar about latest trends in digital advertising
Cutting-edge trends and techniques in digital advertising pulled in professionals from a wide range of sectors as the latest edition of a free pan-Yorkshire forum focused on creativity.
The seventh of the Power Hour sessions presented by Hull-based agency 43 Clicks North was the first to attract a full house of over a hundred to Social in Humber Street, Hull.
Industry experts from Leeds, Middlesbrough and the hosts tackled the challenges around effective use of creativity in digital advertising. Contacts and clients from sectors including work space design, law, managed IT support and business membership organisations told of their takeaways from the event.
Mike Ellis, Managing Director of 43 Clicks North, announced plans to post the presentations online and develop a podcast service for people who missed out on tickets.
Dave Ellis, co-founder of Leeds-based agency Everything’s Fine, spoke about the quest to delivery thumb-stopping creatives – the ads that make people pause, grabbing the attention when the average user scrolls 300 feet of content a day.
Tom Berridge, Head of Paid Media at 43 Clicks North, underlined the importance of innovation. He said: “There’s no such thing as too much creative. Platforms evolve, companies grow, consumer behaviour shifts. There are a lot of challenges to overcome and the only constant is change. You need to revisit strategy as often as you can.” Power Hour was launched by 43 Clicks North as a post-pandemic initiative to put top tech talent from East Yorkshire alongside some of the key players from bigger cities. All seven sessions have taken place at Social, with interest snowballing among people who work in digital marketing and the businesses they serve. Georgina Barkworth, Marketing Manager at Chameleon Business Interiors, said: “This was my first Power Hour. I am very keen to develop my knowledge in marketing and specifically in advertising and this was a great opportunity to hear three industry experts from across the region and get their insight. “It’s been fantastic listening to them, hearing things we already do and also picking up new ideas that we can try. I left with a bunch of ideas that I can take and run with, and that’s exciting.” Joanne Brady, Digital Marketing Executive at Future Humber, added: “We like to support local events and marketing collaborations and from a personal point of view I always learn something new. It’s a good opportunity to reassure myself that we are doing the majority of it right which is never a bad thing! We knew a lot of the people here and many of them are Bondholders and it’s good to see them working together to expand their own knowledge.” Mike said: “It’s all about building the digital community in East Yorkshire by connecting with top agencies across Yorkshire and beyond, bringing their expertise here and showing what we can do for them. There’s plenty of evidence that businesses in other sectors are applying the knowledge from Power Hour to develop their own digital marketing capabilities, and that’s a great outcome.” The next Power Hour will take place at Social on Friday 7 October.New online service seeks to support company directors by raising awareness of potential pitfalls
The Insolvency Service has launched a new online information hub to help company directors push their business forward by being more aware of potential pitfalls.
It is specifically designed for directors of micro, small and medium-size limited companies, although it will also be useful to others. Directors of limited companies, unlike sole traders, must comply with certain statutory obligations. These can range from hairdressers and builders with their own companies to directors of mid-sized companies in the IT sector, for example.
Examples of the kind of advice available on the information hub here, include:
- understanding company finances, director duties and obligations.
- how to recognise early warning signs of financial distress.
- how and when limited company debts can become personal debts.
“We hope this new one-stop shop provides the solution and helps directors take their companies in a positive direction.”
Jonathan Cooper from The Directors Helpline said: “The launch of the Directors Hub is a welcome tool in the current climate for Directors of all types and sizes of businesses. We have been pleased to be recognised by the Insolvency Service as an important part of its development, due to the number of Directors we help on a monthly basis and will continue to support its ongoing development.”Scheme attempts to get ex-offenders into work with household name companies
Hundreds of prisoners are being encouraged to take jobs in the retail and logistics sector on release to plug skills gaps in entry level roles, helping reduce reoffending while supporting businesses.
‘Unlocking Retail and Logistics’ events were held in over 30 prisons across England and Wales with the aim of helping British businesses fill some of the estimated 1 million vacancies in the UK by employing qualified prison leavers.
Events were run by businesses including supermarket giants The Cooperative and Iceland plus well-known retailers and logistic companies such as Oliver Bonas, Greggs, and DHL.
The campaign is part of a wider drive from the government to get more prison leavers into work as evidence shows it grows the economy and cuts crime.
Ex-offenders in full time employment are up to nine percentage points less likely to reoffend when released and more than 90% of surveyed businesses who employ prison leavers report they are motivated, have good attendance and are trustworthy.
Not only does this grow the economy but by keeping prison leavers on the straight and narrow it also helps tackle the £18 billion annual cost of reoffending and cut crime.
Prisons Minister Damian Hinds said:
There is a golden opportunity right now for companies working to fill vacancies by taking on prison leavers. Not only does it help grow the economy but it is proven to cut crime.Over 90% of businesses employing prison leavers report they are motivated and trustworthy – making them prime candidates to plug some of the current skills gaps in the UK.
Red Arrows fly-past marks opening of newly built dye bay facility
The Red Arrows staged a fly-past over RAF Waddington to celebrate the opening of a new £3.6m facility to help prepare the aircraft for the team’s exciting displays.
Eight of the iconic Hawk T1A jets flew over their home station to mark the opening of the new Dye Bay facility, built on behalf of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) by VIVO Defence Services and Henry Brothers Construction.
The facility, which is next to RAF Waddington’s runway, formed part of a pre-planned aerobatic training flight at their home base on Thursday.
The 260m2 facility is the first of its type built to enable an aerial display team to carry out the critical maintenance required on the aircraft’s dye pods. It features a purpose-built plant to create the famous red, white and blue plumes, cleaning and washdown areas, a maintenance workspace, storage for spare parts and office space.
The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, formed in 1964, recently completed its move from RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire, to nearby RAF Waddington.
Wing Commander Adam Collins, Officer Commanding, Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, said: “Colourful smoke trails are a vibrant feature of displays and flypasts by the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team. The trails have an important flight safety role too. They allow the pilots to judge wind speed and direction and to locate other aircraft when different sections of the team’s formation are several miles apart.
“Responsible for replenishing the Red Arrows’ smoke pods are two dedicated dye teams. Working to tight timescales, these engineers ensure the red, white and blue trails look the part when Red 1 calls ‘Smoke on, go!’.
“The official opening of the new dye bay marks a step change in the quality of infrastructure and working environment for dye team personnel. The new bespoke facility allows the critical processes of smoke-pod maintenance and servicing to take place in better surroundings, increasing efficiency and safety.
“The project is a real team achievement between VIVO, Anderson Green, Henry Brothers, DIO and RAF Waddington Works Services and ensures that the Red Arrows’ signature red, white and blue trails will delight and inspire global audiences for years to come.”
Adell Vass, DIO Regional Delivery Central Region Head, added: “The Red Arrows are such a beloved element of our national identity that to provide support to their 2023 Display Season, on their relocation to RAF Waddington is to be celebrated.
“This team came together, to successfully deliver both a temporary and permanent complex Dye Bay solution, at short notice and to tight timescales. The collaboration and engagement by all parties was key to this success and I am very proud of their achievements.”
VIVO Defence Services acted as the Principal Designer and Contractor on the £3.6m project and Henry Brothers were contracted to carry out the construction. Other members of the team included lead designers Anderson Green, whose team included CBP Architects, civil and structural engineer Hexa and Fuels consultants BPS Ltd.
Jerry Moloney, VIVO Managing Director, said: “Everybody loves the Red Arrows and to be able to watch them carry out a fly-past over something your organisation has been involved in is just incredible.
“We at VIVO led the construction of this building with a number of partners and the Red Arrows are so pleased with what has been produced they wanted to mark the occasion in this way, that is amazing and well done to everyone involved.”
Ian Taylor, Henry Brothers Construction Managing Director, added: “The Red Arrows are famous around the world, and we were very excited to have been appointed to build a maintenance facility at the new home of the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team. The dye pod facility is absolutely crucial in helping the display team to create the famous plumes that we see in the air when the Red Arrows perform their amazing aerobatics.
“Henry Brothers has strong links with RAF Waddington, having worked on several different schemes at the base, and we are proud to have supported the Red Arrows in the team’s next chapter, helping them to continue to provide the breath-taking air displays that they are renowned for.”
As the new home of the Red Arrows, RAF Waddington will receive further investment under the Defence Estate Optimisation (DEO) AIR Programme. The project will deliver refurbishment and modernisation of over 8000 m2 of existing infrastructure including space for aircraft parking and runway access as well as maintenance capabilities, a refurbished aircraft hangar and office space.
Plans also include new, modern Single Living Accommodation (SLA) to replace the existing life-expired accommodation as part of a wider scheme to deliver replacement SLA across a number of projects. The uplift in facilities will see about 150 additional personnel operating from the site once complete.
