Education broadband provider raises £1m

Tess Egginton
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Education broadband provider raises £1m
A Yorkshire company that provides broadband and cloud services to schools throughout the UK has secured £1m from NPIF II – Mercia Debt Finance, which is managed by Mercia and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II), and Mercia’s SME Loans fund. The funding will provide Talk Straight with additional working capital to support its growth following a buy-out of the business. The buy-out has given control of the business to David Tindall, while enabling Timothy Sedgwick – who retired five years ago – to realise his investment. The company, which is based in Ilkley and employs 70 staff, supplies over 2,500 schools and academies using its own cloud-based services which enables it to maintain strict controls over the flow of traffic and content. Talk Straight was founded in 2005 by David Tindall and Timothy Sedgwick and initially provided internet phone services to businesses. However, following changes to the rules on school broadband, they saw the opportunity to offer a specialist service and schools now make up over 90% of its client base. Talk Straight has been growing steadily in recent years, with turnover increasing by 15% to almost £11m in the year to May 2024. The NPIF II funding will enable it to bolster its team with the creation of around six new jobs and expand its sales and marketing activities. David Tindall, CEO of Talk Straight, said: “Traditionally school broadband was provided by local authorities but increasingly they are pulling out of the market and schools can now shop around for the best deal. “Talk Straight has already built a reputation as a leading supplier to the education sector. This funding will enable us to continue our growth and pursue our aim to become the largest provider of broadband to schools in the UK.” Andy Heaton of Mercia Debt added: “Talk Straight has been expanding steadily in recent years. As more schools turn to independent suppliers, the market is growing and as the company currently supplies 10% of schools, there is huge potential. We are pleased to be able to support David and the team to help them take advantage of the opportunities ahead.”

York firms offered free help with recruitment and retention

Stuart Pearcey
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York firms offered free help with recruitment and retention

With nationwide job vacancies at their highest for 25 years, businesses in and around York are being invited to a free and interactive session to explore how they can attract new employees and reduce staff turnover.

Organised by City of York Council’s Economic Growth team in partnership with Start and Grow York, Recruitment and Retention: Resilience will take place in York’s Priory Street Centre on Tuesday 8 October from 8:30 am – 1pm. HR experts from across York and North Yorkshire will be exploring how businesses of all shapes and sizes can improve their staff recruitment and retention processes in cost-effective, inclusive and innovative ways. As well as unlocking practical advice on the day, attendees will be introduced to a wide range of support programmes offering fully or part-funded support to resolve their staffing issues. Attendees will hear first-hand from local businesses, including York’s Grand hotel, about how they developed creative solutions to attract and retain talented and highly motivated employees. There will also be plenty of opportunity for attendees to network over free refreshments. Councillor Pete Kilbane, Executive Member for Economy and Culture at City of York Council, said: “Attracting and keeping great staff can be a real issue, and it’s clear that businesses across the country are still struggling to fill vacancies. “Last year’s event was a truly inspirational day, showcasing how thinking outside the box when it comes to solving staffing challenges also helps make the world of work a fairer and more diverse place. “I’d whole-heartedly encourage all York businesses to come along and share their experiences and ideas at what promises to be another informative, useful and thought-provoking event.” Ian Carlier, CEO at Momentic, who are delivering the Start and Grow service, said: “Through our work supporting start-ups and small businesses we are seeing the increased need for a more structured approach to recruitment that breaks down barriers, and misconceptions behind common staffing problems faced by employers. “We’ve designed our recruitment and retention support programme based on feedback from our previous programmes and York’s business community to work on a solution-based outcome model for each attendee. “It’s been great to see so much early interest in this support and we look forward to building on the success of our peer network approaches to help local businesses get the right employees in the right roles, at the right time.”

Water bosses could face prison time for river pollution

Stuart Pearcey
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Water bosses could face prison time for river pollution
The most significant increase in enforcement powers in a decade forms part of major new legislation to crack down on water bosses polluting Britain’s rivers, lakes, and seas – and could see offenders in the dock and behind bars. The Water (Special Measures) Bill has been introduced to Parliament and will give regulators new powers to take tougher and faster action to crack down on water companies damaging the environment and failing their customers. The introduction of the Bill comes as Secretary of State Steve Reed met representatives from the water industry, investors, environmental groups and campaigners to out his plans to transform the water sector.  He said: “The public are furious that in 21st century Britain, record levels of sewage are being pumped into our rivers, lakes and seas. After years of neglect, our waterways are now in an unacceptable state. “Water executives will no longer line their own pockets whilst pumping out this filth. If they refuse to comply, they could end up in the dock and face prison time. This Bill is a major step forward in our wider reform to fix the broken water system. We will outline further legislation to fundamentally transform how the water industry is run and speed up the delivery of upgrades to our sewage infrastructure to clean up our waterways for good.” The Bill includes significantly increasing the ability of the Environment Agency to bring forward criminal charges against law-breaking water executives. It will create new tougher penalties, including imprisonment, for water executives when companies fail to co-operate or obstruct investigations. The new legislation will also ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses who fail to meet high standards to protect the environment, their consumers, and their company’s finances. Other measures in the Bill include severe and automatic fines for a range of offences, including allowing regulators to issue penalties more quickly, without having to direct resources to lengthy investigations. It will also introduce independent monitoring of every sewage outlet, with water companies required to publish real-time data for all emergency overflows. Discharges will have to be reported within an hour of the initial spill. “

Secretary of State grants development consent for Cottam Solar Project

Stuart Pearcey
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Secretary of State grants development consent for Cottam Solar Project
The Cottam Solar Project application was yesterday granted development consent by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. The project is a proposed new solar and energy storage project that would cross the county border between Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, and is being developed by Island Green Power. It’s the 85th such scheme of 142 applications submitted so far.

The Cottam Solar Project is named after its grid connection point at the existing National Grid substation at Cottam Power Station. The proposals involve a series of four site areas, known as Cottam 1, 2, 3a and 3b, which will host solar arrays, grid connection infrastructure and energy storage facilities.

The proposals also involve cable route corridors, accesses and environmental mitigation and enhancement measures. The development stretches from north of Blyton, through Corringham to an area bordered by Willingham, Fillingham, and Sturton, before turning west to cross the Trent near Marton en route to Cottam.

Island Green Power has delivered 26 solar projects worldwide totalling more than 1GW of capacity. This includes 14 solar projects in the UK and Republic of Ireland

Rail operator pumps £11,000 into community projects

Stuart Pearcey
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Rail operator pumps £11,000 into community projects

Eleven projects designed to improve social mobility in deprived areas across the north of England have been awarded funds totalling £100,000 by rail operator Northern.

The train operator’s Customer & Community Improvement Fund opened for applications in May with schemes that focussed on early careers, education outreach and inclusive employment encouraged to apply.

Major grants of £20,000 were awarded to Pudsey-based Building Futures Together and to Scope for their ‘Youth Community Collective’ scheme in Leeds.

Building Futures Together will use the funds to deliver a vocational work experience programme for people interested in a career as a plumber or an electrician, while Scope’s work will focus on helping disabled young people improve their skills and confidence.

Grants of £10,000 were given to:

  • Olympias Music Foundation for its ‘Learn to Play’ initiative, which provides free music lessons for children aged 6-18 from low-income backgrounds in Longsight
  • The Look Ahead project in Wakefield, which supports 16-year-olds to gain qualifications in beauty and nail services
  • The Work For All scheme, which supports older people that have been out of work to regain confidence, presentation and interview skills across Derbyshire and Tameside
  • Neurodiverse Community Catterick for their ‘Pride in Youth Ability’ project, which will promote independence and confidence for young neurodivergent people
  • High Peak Community Arts for their ‘Social Mobility Through The Arts’ project to deliver training, volunteering and leadership experience for people in Gamesley (Glossop) and Fairfield (Buxton).

Grants of £2,500 have been given to Improving Lives, a scheme that provides training in employability skills such as customer service, retail, time management and communication; Keeping Digital Foundation in York, which helps young people develop the vital skills required to support careers in STEM fields; NMC Design+Print in Winsford, who will provide vocational training in graphic design for young people with muscular dystrophy; and Special Needs Under Fives in Bolton, which supports special needs children in an early years settings.

Northern MD Tricia Williams said: “Helping to improve social mobility across our network is something we see as really important.

“Transport connectivity is itself a vital element of the wider support structure – but the organisations we’ve awarded grants to as part of this year’s Customer & Community Improvement Fund are specialists with direct, hands-on experience.

“With our support, these groups can make a huge difference to people’s lives and we look forward to hearing the many success stories that will follow.”

Wagamama signs 15-year lease on property at The Springs

Stuart Pearcey
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Wagamama signs 15-year lease on property at The Springs
Restaurant chain Wagamama is to open at The Springs retail and leisure centre at Thorpe Arch Leeds having agreed a 15-year lease on a new 3,482 sq ft outlet and creating more than 50 jobs. Rachel Vickers, Senior Commercial Manager at Scarborough Group International, developer and asset manager of The Springs and Thorpe Park, said: “This incredibly popular brand perfectly complements our customer base, enhancing our status as a vibrant destination for food and drink.   The Springs has established itself as the go to place for shopping and leisure, not least because of its highly accessible location thanks to recent major improvements to local infrastructure. “The Springs is one the best performing out of town locations across the UK for many of our store operators.  This is because we have a transient visitor profile as well as an established working community of over 7,500 people on the business park. New neighbouring residential communities, both existing and planned, alongside 150 acres of community parkland and green open spaces, make our offer even more compelling.” The Springs Leeds marks wagamama’s 10th new opening in 2024. Since launching its first restaurant in London over 30 years ago, wagamama has become a household name with 169 locations across the UK.  The stylish new restaurant is set to open in October providing 120 internal covers and 30 external covers.  Open seven days a week, it will create 52 new jobs for the area. Milly Pearson, Regional Marketing Manager at Wagamama, said: “We will open the doors to our brand-new restaurant in Leeds in October.”    

Yorkshire Water spends £3.4m on storm overflows into Rover Humber

Stuart Pearcey
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Yorkshire Water spends £3.4m on storm overflows into Rover Humber

Two projects together valued at £3.4m to improve water quality in the Humber have been undertaken by Peter Duffy Limited on behalf of Yorkshire Water.

The projects involve improvements and upgrades to storm overflows in Brough and North Ferriby, both part of a wider £180m investment across Yorkshire to reduce the frequency and duration of discharges from storm overflows

First for attention was a £900k improvement scheme at Brough Combined Sewer Overflow, diverting the existing incoming sewer from Humberside Enterprise Park to a new wet well.

Work is also underway at Ferriby High Road to complete a £2.5m improvement, to create a new below ground sewage pumping station with additional storage. Work includes the installation of new pipework, manholes, and a new rising main.  The investment at both overflows in East Yorkshire will help improve water quality in the Humber.

Lumi Ajayi, project manager, Yorkshire Water, said: “This work is part of £180m investment by Yorkshire Water to improve watercourses and water quality by reducing storm discharges across the county by April 2025.

“These important upgrades to the storm overflows at Brough and North Ferriby will prevent infiltration from the Humber and reduce storm discharges and overflows into the estuary during periods of prolonged or heavy rainfall.”

Train operator predicts travel transformation as cost of driving continues to rise

Stuart Pearcey
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Train operator predicts travel transformation as cost of driving continues to rise
Train operator TransPennine Express is predicting travel transformation as the cost of driving continues to escalate. Highlighting that car insurance quotes have risen by an average of £348 this year alone, Kathryn O’Brien, Customer Experience and Transformation Director at TPE, said: “We could be on the precipice of a huge transformation in the way we travel according to our latest research. Car running costs are increasing year on year, faster than the rate of inflation and they’re that high that it’s forcing them off the road.” She added that 17-24 year-olds are being impacted most, with the average car insurance quote rising by £688.
Further research from TPE reveals that more than a quarter (28%) will now switch from driving to travel by train, and this percentage is set to increase as 13% of drivers say that if costs don’t come down they will stop driving forever. Kathryn added: “Our affordable prices mean that if Brits want to make the switch and start travelling by train, they can sit back, relax and make the most of our modern, clean and comfortable trains without watching the pennies as they get behind the wheel.” The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) compared per passenger emission data from rail business routes in Britain with the equivalent per-passenger emission data for the same trip by car. According to its research across 100 routes, it has been measured that the train is almost nine times greener than using a petrol or diesel car​, more than four times greener than using a plug-in hybrid electric car​ and almost two-and-a-half times greener than using a battery electric car.

Zenko Properties plans for growth with new office and new appointments

Tess Egginton
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Zenko Properties plans for growth with new office and new appointments
Independent Leeds city centre residential sales and lettings agency, Zenko Properties, has completed a move into a prominent position on the ground floor of Graphical House in Leeds city centre and appointed two new team members, as it gears up for growth. Zenko Properties has leased 1,200 sq ft of space in the recently refurbished building, which is three times the size of its previous office. The firm has appointed two highly experienced property professionals, Lisa Dennett and Faye Batty, who have more than 20 years’ combined experience of the city centre residential market. Managing Director Tobias Duczenko, who founded Zenko Properties, said: “We have been based on The Calls since 2015, when we were appointed to sell the apartments at The Chandlers, but as the business has grown and we’ve recruited more people, we have outgrown the space. “Expanding into Graphical House was the logical next step, with room for 12 desks, a board room, a welcome area for clients, as well as a breakout area with a kitchen for our team, it’s ideal. There’s also the potential to take more space in the building as we grow. We are delighted to welcome Lisa and Faye to our team and are really looking forward to putting the new office through its paces.” Zenko Properties currently manages 500 properties including prominent city centre developments, Lamberts Yard, Spencer House and Devonshire House.

Major investment in UK expansion for recruitment specialist

Tess Egginton
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Major investment in UK expansion for recruitment specialist
Stafforce, a recruitment specialist and part of Nicholas Associates Group, is making a significant investment in its future by opening seven new hubs across the UK. The new hubs will be located in Newport, Blackburn, Daventry, Bristol, Barnstaple, Loughborough and Tilbury. This ambitious growth initiative is a key element of the strategic plan being implemented by Kelly Kendall COO, who has recently joined the Group and taken charge of driving growth. The plan emphasises investing in people, talent, and new locations to ensure that Stafforce continues to be the recruiter of choice for both clients and candidates. This expansion is backed by the unwavering support of Executive Chairman Nick Cragg and CEO Paul Smith, reflecting their confidence in the recruitment sector’s potential for growth. The new hubs are set to strengthen Stafforce’s ability to serve clients and candidates across the UK, reinforcing the company’s commitment to excellence in recruitment and its long-term vision for sustainable growth. Kelly Kendall, COO, Nicholas Associates Group, said: “Our investment in these new hubs is a testament to our commitment to providing exceptional service to our clients and candidates. By focusing on strategic locations and investing in our people, we are positioning Stafforce to be the recruiter of choice across the UK. “This expansion strengthens our presence and enhances our ability to connect top talent with leading employers in the region.” Paul Smith, CEO of Nicholas Associates Group, added: “This ambitious growth plan is a clear signal of our confidence in our potential to lead the market. “With the full backing of our executive team, we are committed to driving this expansion forward, ensuring that we continue to deliver outstanding results for our clients while creating new opportunities for our employees and the communities we serve.”
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