Rethink brings seven Class 6 compliant vehicles into its fleet
Doncaster construction site hoarding provider Rethync has bought a new fleet of Class 6 compliant vehicles to coincide with the company’s office relocation. The vehicles were sourced from fellow Doncaster business, Lyndon Systems.
The acquisition of these seven new vehicles marks an important milestone for Rethync as they continue to expand their operations and meet the growing customer demand.
Rethync MD Phil Chadwick said: “We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of our new fleet of class 6 compliant vehicles. This investment demonstrates our unwavering commitment to meeting the evolving needs of our customers and ensuring their satisfaction. The expanded transportation capacity will enable us to respond even more efficiently to project demands, regardless of the location.
“As we continue to expand our operations, it is essential to have reliable and efficient transportation options in place. The new fleet will not only increase our overall capacity but also enhance our ability to deliver projects on time, ensuring customer satisfaction remains at the forefront of our priorities.”
Stirlin marks new era of expansion with latest hire
Lincoln contractor, Stirlin, has welcomed Jayne Southall to its team as business development manager.
The creation of the role marks a new era of expansion for Stirlin. For over 15 years, the company’s focus has been exclusively on serving private clients and joint venture development partners. However, this move signifies a strategic step toward embracing new opportunities with external clients.
With an impressive background as CEO of the Lincolnshire Showground spanning over a decade, Jayne brings with her an extensive network of contacts and important relationships across Lincolnshire.
In her new role as business development manager, Jayne will be strengthening important relationships with Stirlin’s clients and championing the company’s pursuit of external contracts.
Jayne’s career journey spans various domains, including sales, operational management, and financial responsibilities within the construction sector. Beginning her professional journey in the timber import industry, she later transitioned to the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society in 2006, taking on the role of finance and administration manager. Her dedication and expertise led her to rise to the role of CEO in 2011, where she was responsible for all aspects of the society’s commercial and charitable activities including overall responsibility for the Lincolnshire Show and the Showground Events Business.
Reflecting on her new role, Jayne shares: “I am delighted to embark on this journey as the business development manager at Stirlin. Having steered the Lincolnshire Showground through the pandemic, I decided it was time to look for a new challenge.
“I’m looking forward to the collaborative strides we will take together at Stirlin. I’m eager to reconnect with familiar faces and forge new connections to contribute to the company’s growth as it opens up to external contracting.”
Tony Lawton, Managing Director of Stirlin, says: “We are delighted to welcome Jayne as a valuable new addition to the Stirlin team. Jayne will play a pivotal role in Stirlin’s continued growth and fostering fresh opportunities. We’re looking forward to seeing where this next chapter will take Stirlin.”
Spencer Group staff raise more than £3,000 for food bank charity
Staff at Hull-based engineering company Spencer Group have raised more than £3,300 and donated thousands of items to a foodbank charity.
Staff chose The Trussell Trust as the company’s Charity of the Year for 2023, and have organised various fundraising activities since January, including bake sales, fitness challenges and table tennis tournaments.
They have also taken part in events such as Race Against Hunger, a 5km run, walk or cycle and Total Warrior in Leeds, while staff are also due to take part in an inflatable 5km event in Lincoln and the Yorkshire 10-mile race in York as part of the wider Yorkshire Marathon event in October.
The money raised will be donated to The Trussell Trust, which supports a nationwide network of more than 1,300 foodbanks and provides emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, as well as campaigning for change to end the need for foodbanks in the UK.
Items donated at Spencer Group’s head office in Hull are delivered to Hull Foodbank in Paragon Street, Hull city centre, every fortnight and are distributed to four other Trussell Trust foodbanks across the city, where support is needed most. Donation points are also located at every Spencer construction site across the country, with each site donating to local foodbanks in the region.
Matt Mallory, Marketing Manager at Spencer Group, said: “A lot of our charitable work in the past has involved purely raising money and it’s brilliant to be able to give back to the local community by donating food and other essential items to the foodbank.
“Staff have brought thousands of items into our head office in Hull, as well as our sites across the UK, and we’re delighted so many people have got on board with fundraising, events and donations to help the local community.
“Our colleagues are helping to make a big difference and we’re really proud to support the charity.
“The events we’ve organised and taken part in have been great for team spirit and it’s a been a huge team effort. We’re looking forward to raising and donating even more before the end of 2023.”
Last year, Spencer Group staff raised £7,008.91 for Andy’s Man Club, a men’s suicide prevention charity which offers free peer-to-peer support groups across the UK and online.
South Yorkshire firm’s first reimagining of air compressor rolls of the production line
The first reinvention of air compressor technology in more than 85 years has rolled off the production line of a £17m new smart factory at Finningley near Doncaster.
It’s been made by Lontra, an engineering technology company led by innovator Steve Lindsey, which is committed to answering increasing demand by quadrupling the production of their innovative LP2 Blade Blower year-on-year until 2025.
This plan is designed to meet growing industry requirements and provides the market with a new, environmentally sustainable solution for air delivery in industrial settings all over the world.
Mr Lindsey said: “Seeing the first LP2 Blower come off the production line was a real milestone moment for the business.
“This is the first commercial innovation seen in the air compressor market in 85 years and it can’t come soon enough. Heavy industry uses these products to deliver power to manufacturing lines, to drive furnaces, convey material and blow away granules in cement factories and crumbs in biscuit factories.
“All that blowing comes at a heavy cost to the environment. Compressors account for a staggering 10% of Europe’s industrial electricity use, which equates to more than 10TWh (Terawatt-hours) of power per year and some 4.3million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
“We have an innovation that has been designed and now manufactured in the UK, with the investment in our Smart Manufacturing Centre giving us the capability to scale up quickly to meet what we expect to be huge demand.”
Rathlin gets permission for further oil and gas exploration in the East Riding
The Environment Agency has issued a permit variation to Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited to drill additional oil and gas wells and carry out commercial production at West Newton A well site in East Riding of Yorkshire.
The latest consultation on the draft permit in June follows an initial consultation on the application which took place in December 2021. After reviewing all the information submitted in the application and considering all comments from the public and evidence, the Environment Agency has granted a variation to the environmental permit.
Kathryn Richardson, Area Environment Manager at the Environment Agency, said: “The Environment Agency is satisfied that the appropriate measures are in place for oil and gas extraction without causing harm to the environment or human health and, after exploring the issues and concerns that have been raised, it cannot find any reason to refuse the application.
“Before we finalised our decision, we reviewed and considered all comments received. The views of the local community on this site are hugely important, and we thank everyone for their contributions through the consultation.
“In assessing this permit variation, we have completed a detailed and rigorous assessment of Rathlin Energy’s application to ensure the operating techniques and control measures at the proposed facility comply with the legal requirements of the Environmental Permitting Regulations – which are in place to protect people and the environment.”
Rathlin Energy has operated its exploratory oil and gas drill site at West Newton A in East Riding since 2013 under the conditions of an environmental permit. It wanted to vary that permit to allow for the creation of six additional wells and sidetracks, the relocation of oil storage facilities and the installation of gas engines that will produce electricity for export to the National Grid. The company has already secured planning approval for the proposed activity. It is required to have both planning and environmental permitting approved before operations can commence.Firms to donate £135,000 after Bradford pollution incidents
A housing construction company and its contracted engineers will donate a total of £135,000 to the Aire Rivers Trust after polluting Pitty Beck multiple times while building a new housing estate near Bradford.
Keepmoat Homes Ltd, specialising in building residential housing and which owns the site at Heron’s Reach near Bradford, will donate £100,000, while Applebridge Construction Limited, contracted by Keepmoat Homes for the first phase of the development, will donate £35,000.
An investigation by the Environment Agency found that Pitty Beck was polluted a number of times between October 2016 and November 2018 while construction was underway.
The companies submitted Enforcement Undertakings to the Environment Agency, which have now been accepted.
An Enforcement Undertaking is a voluntary offer made by companies and individuals to make amends for their offending, and usually includes a donation to an environmental charity to carry out improvements in the local area.
On 13 October 2016 Keepmoat Homes reported pollution from its site, and an Environment Agency officer confirmed that silty water was running from the site and into the beck. The same happened on numerous occasions over subsequent months. The company did not have an environmental permit to allow for treated water to be discharged into the beck.
As part of the requirements of the Enforcement Undertaking, Keepmoat Homes revised its surface water management plan for the site, constructed urban drainage ponds, purchased a siltbuster and gulley bags to remove sediment from the water leaving site and improved its inspection and monitoring regime.
Applebridge Construction employed a full time health and safety manager, reviewed and updated its environmental management system and delivered bespoke training to staff.
Environment Agency Area Environment Manager Ben Hocking said: “Housing construction companies – like all companies carrying out any major development work – have a responsibility to ensure their work does not impact on the environment and we will take action when pollution occurs.
“While we will always take forward prosecutions in appropriate cases, Enforcement Undertakings are an effective enforcement tool to allow companies to put things right and contribute to environmental improvements. They allow polluters to restore the harm caused to the environment and prevent repeat incidents by improving their training and procedures.”
Dewsbury furniture firm has £2.5m funding package guaranteed by export credit agency
UK government’s export credit agency has issued a guarantee allowing Dewsbury furniture firm Jay-Be to access a £2.5m funding package from Santander UK, which will allow it to boost sales of UK-made products to more than a dozen overseas markets including USA, Canada and the UAE.
Already a supplier to high street names like John Lewis, Bensons for Beds and Next, Jay-Be began exporting in 2012 and now serves customers in more than 15 countries. With this foothold, it will now be able to use UKEF support to ramp up its international sales and bring a Yorkshire export to more people than ever.
Based in Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, Jay-Be designs and makes all of its products in the UK. Further expansion overseas will help to support jobs within the UK manufacturing sector.
The newly announced UK government guarantee means that Jay-Be can continue its export growth by extending its next-day delivery service to overseas regions where it operates. The extra £2.5m will allow it to invest in overseas facilities where it can keep local stocks, making it possible for the Dewsbury firm to deliver to customers all over the world within a single day.
This is the latest instance of UKEF helping small and medium-sized enterprises across the country access trade funding from the private sector. Four in every five companies which the export credit agency supported in the last year were small-to-medium-sized companies and based outside London.
This deal is also a step forwards for sustainable UK manufacturing, which will help this country’s innovative exports reach a wider international audience than ever. Jay-Be uses materials like sustainably sourced wood and recycled plastic. In 2023, it won the British Furniture Manufacturers ‘Future of Furniture Excellence in Sustainability Award’.
Roger Durrans, CEO of Jay-Be, said: “We are extremely appreciative of Santander UK and UK Export Finance for this support. Our journey into international markets over the past few years has presented its share of challenges, but achieving the export of our beds and mattresses overseas is an accomplishment of which we are very proud.
“Now that we have successfully established a presence in multiple countries, this export loan facility is pivotal. It will enable us to maintain stock in each export market, enhancing our ability to provide an improved local service, which will significantly accelerate our global expansion strategy and ultimately contribute to creating more employment opportunities in our area.”
New £5.5m training centre welcomes first young engineers
A new £5.5m training centre will launch the engineering careers of more than 60 young learners now it is open for business.
The new arrivals at the building at Pioneer Business Park in Stallingborough are among 250 taking up courses at three sites owned and operated by Humberside Engineering and Training Association (HETA).
The new centre is purpose-built and provides facilities for electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and fabrication and welding, with an IT suite, classrooms and meeting rooms.
It sits at the heart of North East Lincolnshire Council’s £42m South Humber Industrial Investment Programme (SHIIP) area, which is being promoted as a major industrial development opportunity.
Iain Elliott, HETA’s Chief Executive, said: “This is the culmination of about nine years of thought, discussion and planning – and more than a few sleepless nights. We couldn’t have picked a worse time to build it. We exited Covid, the war started in Ukraine, material costs were soaring and supply of materials and labour were an issue. But we were only two weeks late and we were on budget.”
The total investment is £5.5m, broken down into a build cost of about £4.2m with land purchase, fees and VAT making up the rest.
Iain added: “It’s a £5.5m investment in the future of engineering training in North East Lincolnshire and beyond. It’s for those people who are coming out of school and want to take engineering as a career and for employers who need that skilled labour coming through. We know young people are now seeing apprenticeships and engineering and other technical trades as a viable alternative to university.”
New Sheffield BTR development fully let
Iron Yard, Sheffield’s latest Build-to-Rent (BTR) offering, is 100% let just 14 weeks after it was launched to the public.
More than 30% of the 95 one and two-bedroom boutique apartments were let to tenants on the first day of the launch, and a recent open day attracted more than 100 potential tenants, demonstrating the strong demand for high quality BTR living in the city.
Situated in the heart of the city centre, Iron Yard features a gym, concierge service, residents’ lounge, co-working space and communal garden, as well as extensive private parking with EV chargers available.
Oblix Living CEO Rishi Passi said: “Iron Yard was designed to meet the needs of Sheffield’s rising community of young professionals. Everything from the communal amenity spaces to the on-site team and of course the design and finish of the apartments themselves.
“I’m delighted that the development is 100% let in such a short space of time. The demand has been so strong and the response overwhelmingly positive. It’s a real testament to the city and to the partnership with Centrick that Iron Yard has attracted such a diverse range of residents so quickly.”
Residential property management specialist Centrick has been appointed to manage Iron Yard, providing its BTR services, through its new VICI platform.
VICI director Clare Johnson said: “Iron Yard is a fantastic development and we are looking forward to working alongside Oblix Living to deliver outstanding consulting and operational BTR services, which we have continued to grow over many years of experience and expertise in this key growth sector.
“We are going to work together with tenants to create a thriving, sustainable community within this fabulous new development and are already planning the next unmissable community events.”
Work starts on mixed use refurbishment project in Wakefield
Main construction contractor, Priestley Construction, has started work on a £2.5 million mixed use refurbishment project on Marygate in the heart of Wakefield city centre.
The design and build project will see Marygate House, which was originally built as an office building in the 1970s, transformed into 26 apartments over three floors.
In addition, the existing ground-floor retail units will be upgraded with new shop fronts and canopies, to create an impressive and rejuvenated streetscape, on behalf of developer, IP Marygate House.
The development will offer a selection of smart studio apartments, as well as one and two bedroom homes.
The scheme has been designed by Leeds-based PDG Architects and Bingley-based Holdgate Consulting Engineers is providing structural engineering services.
Nathan Priestley, CEO of the Priestley Group, said: “As a Yorkshire-based business, we continue to see the huge potential in the region’s smaller towns and cities, such as Wakefield, which is a city on the up, driven by a council that is committed to bringing its ambitious regeneration plans to life.
“We are thrilled to start work giving Marygate House a new lease of life, as well as significantly enhancing the local street scene in a sought-after part of the city centre, within the main retail centre and close to the historic Civic Quarter.
“Our experience in delivering high quality residential developments in key city centre locations has enabled us to create a vision for a scheme that will be a fantastic place to live, as well as being a valuable asset for both Marygate and Wakefield as a whole.”
