🌿 Last chance to enter the Clean and Green Awards! Entries close on Sunday 9th November, so if you’re driving sustainability and innovation across Norfolk and Suffolk — now’s the time to shout about it.
Whether you’re a business, project or individual making a real difference, we want to hear your story. Let’s celebrate those leading the way in creating a cleaner, greener future.
The General Product Safety Regulation came into force on December 13, 2024 and places new responsibilities on British companies exporting to the EU, European Economic Area (EEA) and Northern Ireland (NI).
William Bain, the BCC’s Head of Trade Policy, answers the key questions about the new legislation.
What does it do?
The legisliation places new requirement on certain, but not all, goods exporters in Great Britian to the EU, the EEA and NI1.
The General Product Safety Regulation was proposed by the European Commission to address safety concerns over products entering the EU2.
It is designed to deal with goods sold via online marketplaces or other distance sale means which were non-compliant with EU safety standards and risked harm to consumers.
A precautionary principle runs throughout the new obligations and processes introduced by the Regulation, alongside strong traceability of products. The legislation was first consulted upon four years ago.
Footnotes
[1] European Economic Area – including the EU, and three EFTA states – Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein.
Norse Commercial Services and Great Yarmouth Borough Council have formed a new Joint Venture Company to manage and maintain the council’s community housing stock.
GYN Asset Management Services took over the asset management and building maintenance of the Borough Council’s stock of 6,000 houses as of October 1st.
The 10-year agreement is initially worth around ÂŁ6 million a year, and is expected to rise over the coming years. It extends Norse’s partnership with Great Yarmouth Borough Council – GYB Services, another joint venture between the two organisations, handles local services including refuse collection, cleaning, grounds maintenance, pest control, and other frontline services.
The new partnership will take over Strategic Asset Management, Responsive Repairs, Voids Maintenance (housing stock that becomes vacant), Major Works, Planned Improvements, Cyclical and Statutory Maintenance, Neighbourhood Plans and New Builds.
There will be significant investment in new vehicles, and in IT aimed at improving efficiency and responsive repairs timescales.
“We are really pleased to be building on our long-term relationship with Great Yarmouth Borough Council, which goes back to the formation of GYB Services in 2002,” commented Norse Managing Director Peter Hawes. “This new partnership takes the number of joint ventures Norse Group has with UK local authorities to twenty-three, with a combined annual turnover of more than ÂŁ140 million.”
Cllr Penny Linden, the borough council’s cabinet member for communities, said: “This new joint venture company aims to make sure all maintenance and improvement work is done to the highest standards, in the most effective, efficient and economic way.
“By operating more efficiently, the borough council will be able to make savings, which will benefit tenants as the savings will be re-invested in council homes.
“And the new approach will also mean improved waiting times, a better quality of work, and overall better customer care, while providing a range of apprenticeships and increased opportunities for local businesses.”
This partnership follows the recent formation of Newport Norse, a joint venture in South Wales, and the company expects further significant growth over the next few months. Norse Sales Director Geoff Tucker said, “With these new partnerships, and a large number of contract awards across the UK, we have seen a 15% increase in turnover this year, and we expect this success to continue.”
18 additional staff TUPE transferred into the new company.
In the lead-up to the eagerly anticipated art sculpture trail, GoGo Safari, Chantry Place is thrilled to announce the arrival of three mysterious animal crates on Saturday, the 24th of May, and they’re inviting families and visitors to come along, get involved and unleash their inner explorer.
Unveiled with a fun, safari-style spectacle featuring volunteers from Chantry Place, Break – the charity behind the trail – and other sponsors, the animal boxes will appear at Chantry Place and be placed in key locations throughout the Centre. Sponsored by Chantry Place, Keeler Recruitment, and Osiris IT, each box will feature clues and interactive elements to help visitors guess the animal sculpture inside – or at least imagine it!
Visitors can take part in a drawing competition, collecting special sheets on the day to take home and sketch the animal they believe is inside the box. Chantry Place has £150 worth of Langley’s gift vouchers to give away, with each winning young artist receiving a £50 voucher.
Jo Bates, General Manager of Chantry Place, said: “We’re so excited to kick off the countdown to GoGo Safari with this fun and immersive experience for families. The animal boxes are a great way to get the community guessing and engaging before the trail officially launches in June – and we can’t wait to see the wild guesses and even wilder drawings!”
The animal boxes will remain on display at Chantry Place for four weeks, giving families plenty of time to get involved before the full GoGo Safari trail launches on the 23rd of June, transforming Norwich and Norfolk into a vibrant safari landscape of over 50 large-scale animal sculptures which include rhinos, gorillas, lions, elephants and giraffes.
As a proud presenting partner and sponsor of the trail, Chantry Place will feature six large sculptures and 16 mini-giraffes designed by local schools, making it one of the key destinations on the trail.
Delivered by Break in partnership with the Zoological Society of East Anglia, alongside Norwich BID, and Chantry Place, each sculpture has been designed by talented artists and sponsored by local businesses and raises vital funds for Break and their life-changing work for young people in, around and beyond care. The animal boxes were produced by CIM Signs & Graphics, and Chantry Place thanks all sponsors and Break for their support in bringing this epic experience to life.
Don’t miss the adventure – come to Chantry Place on the 24th of May to discover the mystery, make your guess, and let your imagination run wild!
Swarm is really pleased to welcome Chris Reeve (Superman) who has become the newest member of the Operations team here at Swarm HQ here in Wymondham.
Chris has been involved with Swarm unofficially for over a year as he is coming to the end of his enterprise apprenticeship working with Robert Aston, the founder of Swarm. Now due to Swarm’s growth he has officially has moved over in a duel role in supporting the operations team and growing new business opportunities.
Chris Perry, Swarm’s Managing Director, said, “I am happy that Chris has joined us officially as he will be fantastic addition to the team that always go above and beyond in matching the right candidates for our employers positions.
As a Swarm apprentice, Chris Reeve really embodies the enterprising characteristics of Swarm and as such, he has already proven his ability to encourage businesses in taking on young people to support their organisations. There really is no better way to encourage businesses to take on apprentices when the person they’re talking to is an apprentice themselves.
With a name like Chris Reeve, I have very high hopes for him and I am sure that he will be dedicated to the role when he is not donning his red cape and saving the world.”
On joining the company, Chris Reeve commented, “I am delighted to officially join the Swarm Apprenticeships team. Since becoming an apprentice I’ve become extremely passionate about the brand and the direction in which the organisation is moving. I’m thoroughly looking forward to getting stuck into the role and getting to know more people in the local business community.”
Chris Reeve will be out in the business community at events so please look out for him (minus spandex) and hear his apprenticeship story. Who knows, you may just want one yourself.
It’s a pivotal year in the Ideal Home Shows more than 100 year history, with 2015 seeing the show return to Olympia for the first time since 1978. A change of venue brings a whole new set of challenges for an event of any size, not least one the scale of the Ideal Home Show. As a result, the show management team were keen to quickly assess visitor experiences and to do so, chose to partner with Zing for their 2015 spring event insights.
Zing Director, Lisa Holt said “We are thrilled to be working with award winning event organiser Media 10 on such a prestigious event in such a landmark year. Our approach incorporates our unique iPad research pods, which mean we’re able to provide daily visitor experience feedback during the show and we’ll supplement this further with post-show online research.”
Holt continued “We’ve worked with some amazing event brands since our launch in 2011 and are keen to continue to build our events portfolio. We’ve recently re-launched our website (www.zinginsights.com) to help us to demonstrate our expertise and the benefits of working with qualified research professionals.
Our very happy client base has been kind enough to spread the word about working with Zing through referral and recommendation. We know they’re happy because we conduct our own customer research which helps us to make sure that we’re delivering the best product and service possible.”
Ideal Home Show Marketing Manager, Jo Bowry said “We chose to work with Zing because of their multi-layered approach to research, which suits our need for both on site and post show surveys at the show this year. With the show in a new venue, our customer insights will be more valuable than ever before to ensure we are delivering the high level of visitor experience that the show is renowned for and we are pleased that Zing are on board to help us deliver this.’
Norwich International Airport has become one of the first in the UK to transition to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) aerodrome regulatory regime, underlying its growing reputation as one of Britain’s most progressive airports. Only the fourth UK site to transfer to the system, which all European airports must adhere to by December 2017, Norwich is among a small group of pioneering aviation hubs setting the pace for the industry.
“Norwich has always worked hard at being one of the country’s most progressive airports, which is why we agreed early this year to become part of a pilot initiative mapping the approach required to transition to the new European wide system,” said Richard Pace, Operations Director at Norwich International Airport.
“While our existing procedures and approach to safety made the process relatively straightforward, taking the initiative not only kept us ahead of the game, but will also enable airports around the UK to learn from our experience and best practice.” EASA is the centrepiece of the European Union’s aviation safety system, working alongside the European Commission and the National Aviation Authorities (NAAs) to improve standards. The Agency develops common safety and environmental rules, monitors the implementation of standards through inspections and provides the necessary technical expertise and training to support the system.
All UK Aerodromes open to public use and which serve commercial air transport and where operations using instrument approach or departure procedures are provided fall within the scope of the EASA regulations, which came into force on 6 March 2014. Norwich participated in a pilot scheme designed to identify best practice for UK airports transferring to the scheme early this year, then became one of the first to formally make the switch a few weeks ago.
Richard Pace added: “I felt it was important for us to play a key role in the process. Despite their importance to local communities and economies regional airports are often drowned out by the noise generated by larger sites, and we wanted to ensure that our voice would be heard.” Norwich owner Regional & City Airports (RCA) – the airports division of Rigby Group PLC – believes that the announcement will also deliver benefits for its operations at Coventry and Exeter.
John Spooner, Director of Airport Management at Rigby Group’s airports division Regional & City Airports (RCA) said: “One of the key benefits RCA offers its airports is shared experience and expertise. With Norwich having so successfully completed its role as an industry pathfinder, the knowledge gained during the exercise will greatly ease the transition process at Coventry and Exeter Airports.”
For 2 years now our Operations Director Francesca de Lacey has been going on about her love of reusable nappies, and her despair over the lack of information for parents about the options available.
So imagine her delight when JMS was approached by the owner of one of the UK’s biggest reusable brands – Little Lamb Nappies – to create some professional promotional videos.
Being herself a user of cloth nappies and the brand, Francesca was the perfect choice to front the productions – a first for a reusable nappy brand – and show, ‘mum-to-mum’, how they work.Covering the 3 main types (One Size Pocket, Sized Pocket and Nappy & Wrap) the films introduce the numerous benefits, look, absorbency and fit of cloth nappies.
Filming took place in our TV studio in Norwich with one day shooting presenter links and a second day capturing the antics of 6 ‘cloth bum baby’ models for the title sequences.
The short films are a great introduction to this growing market and JMS has loved working with this fantastic brand and shooting with a bunch of funny, crazy and unpredictable youngsters! (oh, and the babies too….!)
Local insurance brokers and financial planners Alan Boswell Group (ABG) have announced they will be supporting ‘Break’ as their Charity of the Year for 2015. Break, a Norfolk based charity has been providing a diverse range of specialist residential and community based services for vulnerable children, young people and families across East Anglia for over 45 years.
Alan Boswell Group have committed to sponsoring two dragons in this year’s GoGoDragons! Heritage Trail around Norwich City centre before the dragons are auctioned off for the charity and will also be taking part in Break’s other events including the Hunny Bell Cross Country and the Great Norwich Duck Race in August.
Additionally the Group will be hosting a golf day at Costessey Park for corporate guests and hoping to improve on their own performance in the annual ‘Boswell Cup’, an inter-business football tournament held at Carrow Road in May. Various raffles, cake sales and dress down days will boost the coffers in what, the Group hope, will be another bumper year in terms of charitable giving.
Director of Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers, Heath Alexander-Bew, said: “Raising money for charity is a really simple way of helping our local community whilst building team spirit. It is a classic win-win situation and we’re really pleased to be able to support Break during one of their biggest fund raising years ever.
“GoGoDragons! promises to be an incredible event and we’re really pleased to be a part of it. We’ve chosen to take part in the Heritage trail to help highlight the incredible buildings whilst building stronger links with the community.”
Martin Green, Project Manager at Break, reiterated Heath’s comments “Our charitable events always prove immensely popular, especially the Norwich Duck Race. It’s a great way for people to enjoy a day out whilst helping others at the same time.
“We’re obviously thrilled to have Alan Boswell Group commit to their fund raising events this year on behalf of Break and are looking forward to a successful partnership.”
GoGoDragons! is a Wild in Art event brought to Norwich by Break charity. You can find out more about GoGoDragons! By visiting the dedicated website or searching GoGoDragons! on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter
About Alan Boswell Group
Alan Boswell Group (ABG) is a Chartered Insurance Brokers and regional Independent Financial Planners with over 220 staff based across five locations – Norwich, Attleborough, Bury St Edmunds, Peterborough and London. Established in 1982 the company offers a wide range of insurance broking and financial services from landlords’ insurance and self-drive hire to pensions, protection and investment advice. Alan Boswell Group are proud sponsors of NCFC and look after the insurance for the Championship Club.
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Norwich Research Park has won a prestigious industry award at
the inaugural Commute Zero Hero Awards, hosted by climate tech provider
Mobilityways. The awards honour organisations and individuals driving
innovative commuting solutions that reduce carbon emissions and foster a
culture of sustainability.
Norwich Research Park has won the Most Innovative Commuting
Solution Award which recognises organisations that develop creative,
forward-thinking solutions to transform the commuting experience.
Norwich Research Park won the award for its creative and
data-driven approach to fostering a cycling culture. Building on a strong green
travel strategy, Anglia Innovation Partnership, the campus management organisation
at Norwich Research Park, launched a successful travel survey and created
engaging in-person events such as Bike Day. With initiatives like the Beryl
bike sharing scheme and free on-site bike repairs, it has made cycling more
accessible, even for students who do not own a bike.
Its commitment is further reflected in the strong engagement
it has established, with over 20% of staff cycling to work regularly. By using
data to drive decisions, Anglia Innovation Partnership has laid the groundwork
for future investments and has built a collaborative, supportive community
across the park campus. In summary, Mobilityways said, “This innovative,
community-focused approach sets Norwich Research Park apart as a leader in
sustainable commuting.”
The Commute Zero Hero Awards, which cover the whole of the
UK, recognise initiatives that have supported more than 53,000 individuals to
make greener journeys over the last twelve months. Among the other winners
are Heathrow Airport, West Sussex County Council and University Hospitals
Dorset.
Nick Goodwin, COO of Anglia Innovation
Partnership, the campus management organisation at Norwich Research Park, said,
“We are delighted that our efforts to move towards more sustainable travel across
the park campus have been recognised with this award. When you consider the growth
of our campus and the number of people that are here every day, it is important
to offer solutions that help our community to use more sustainable modes of
transport to and from work.
“The institutions and companies at
Norwich Research Park have a real sense of community and desire to make the
park campus accessible to our local communities. We are on a journey to deliver
on our strategy and continue our collaborative effort to improve the way we
travel. This award is recognition for everyone who has completed surveys,
communicated to staff and chosen to share a car, get the bus, walk, run or
cycle to work – well done!”
Mobilityways Managing Director, Julie Furnell, commented,
“The Commute Zero Hero Awards recognise those leading the charge in making
commuting greener, healthier and more efficient. Our winners have developed
best practices that deliver measurable impacts in the mission to make
zero-carbon commuting a reality. From reducing emissions to improving the
health, wealth and happiness of their teams, these organisations demonstrate
the transformative power of sustainable commuting solutions. We’re delighted to
celebrate their success and inspire others to follow suit.”
Norwich Sunblinds have been donating a ÂŁ1.00 for each curtain, blind and roman fold sold to a charity each month.
The East Anglian Air Ambulance was the charity for the month of October 2014 and we managed to raise ÂŁ1128.00.
Alan Smith received the cheque on behalf of The East Anglian Air Ambulance he gave the staff at Norwich Sunblinds a brief talk about the work the Air Ambulance and crew manage to do and the work that he as a volunteer does to get funding. Very worthwhile cause, we were very proud to be able to contribute to them and their work.