Alan Boswell Group has appointed Gillian Anderson Brown and Alastair Drew to the Board of two of the Group’s companies.
The pair will join the Board of both Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers Ltd. and Alan Boswell & Company Ltd., the Group’s Financial Planning division, in newly created roles.
Anderson Brown has worked for the company since 2008 as HR manager and becomes Director of Human Resources.
Drew will take his seat on the Board of both companies whilst maintaining his role as Group Financial Controller, a role he has held since 2013 after joining from Virgin Money.
Group MD, Chris Gibbs, said: “I’m delighted that Gillian and Alastair have agreed to take on these positions which will strengthen the leadership of the two companies.”
The appointments come as the Group prepares for expansion at its Head Office in Norwich which will see the Financial Planning Division move into newly refurbished offices at Cedar House in the city.
This year, we’re taking the stress out of the season and wrapping Christmas up in the most festive competition of the year: Win Christmas!
With over £2,500 worth of prizes, this incredible giveaway has everything you need to make your festive season magical. From luxurious gifts and Christmas essentials to memorable experiences and indulgent treats, our Win Christmas prize bundle features products and experiences from every corner of our store.
What’s in the Prize?
Our Christmas bundle is designed to cover every festive need – minus the turkey! For a sneak peek at what you could win and how to enter, click here
Delta-Simons – environmental consultancy for commercial and residential developers -presented atInogen’sWorldView Conference in Beijing last month. Directors,Alex FergusonandDamian Robinson, made the trip to China for the 23rd conference hosted by Inogen Associate, ESD China.
In 2014, Chinese outward direct investment (ODI) entered a new stage, with more Chinese companies investing in more industries in more countries. According to the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, non-financial ODI in 2014 reached US$102.9 billion, an annual increase of 14.1 percent*. China is increasingly seeking to invest in advanced, innovative countries with the UK ranking as third globally out of 144 countries, according to the Pinsent Masons and Cebr Infrastructure Investment Attractiveness Index**. Chinese investment is happening in a range of new sectors including real estate, construction, infrastructure, high technology, agribusiness and manufacturing.
As such, stakeholders are seeking to better understand the environmental and social risks faced by Chinese investors. By learning from and avoiding the mistakes of other countries, China can better manage the investment risks associated with environmental and social issues, whilst simultaneously becoming a leader in integrating sustainability into overseas investments.
Alex Ferguson presented an overview ofbrownfield redevelopmentin the UK to the conference, stating “The UK has a mature real estate market with a cycle of development of land. Due diligence is required at each stage to consider environment andsustainability, ensuring that investment value is protected”.
In addition, Inogen Associates from across the globe presented on the specific opportunities for investment in the USA, Brazil, Western Europe, Australasia and Africa, as well as China and the wider Asian economy. This demonstrates the Inogen Alliance’s ability to deliver global services in the EHS and sustainability sectors.
Delta-Simons is an associate ofInogen, a global corporation providing multinational organisations with environmental, health and safety solutions. The Inogen business model provides a single point of contact for all environmental health and safety and sustainability services through the employ of 4,300 resources within a global network of consultants.
A new bus advertising campaign has been launched to raise awareness and funds for our nook appeal.
A photo of Leigh Smith and her daughter Beatrice, feature in a new advertising campaign in 106 buses across the Norwich network operated by First Bus. Leigh, husband Toby and son Elliott have received support from EACH in caring for Beatrice who was diagnosed with the rare heart condition, restrictive cardiomyopathy, and sadly died holding her parents’ hands at Great Ormond Street Hospital on 24th February 2014 – she was less than three months old.
After Beatrice died, the family travelled to our Quidenham hospice where they received care and support until Beatrice’s funeral. The family continue to receive wellbeing support. Leigh attended the launch of our nook appeal in November 2014 in the presence of EACH Royal Patron HRH The Duchess of Cambridge.
The new adverts are aimed at raising awareness of the our £10 million nook appeal to build and equip a new children’s hospice for Norfolk, which is needed as the current hospice in Quidenham is restricted in its facilities and development. The campaign has been made possible thanks to the generosity of bus company First Eastern Counties.
Ady Culpin, PR Manager First Midlands, South East and Essex, said: “First Eastern Counties are pleased to be supporting EACH and endorse the excellent work they undertake in providing care and support for families and their children who have life-threatening illnesses. As a local community provider, carrying thousands of people on our buses around the area every day, we can provide a platform to spread awareness and encourage our customers and staff to get involved in supporting EACH.
“Today, we will be fitting posters on our buses as a first step in supporting the charity, with additional events and initiatives planned for December and January to raise funds and awareness for EACH.”
Leigh said: “It was very emotional to see the adverts in place for the first time. I’m just so proud of what Beatrice has achieved and how her story and photo is helping to raise awareness and funds to help such an important cause, not only to our family, but to the hundreds of families across the region relying on EACH care and support.
“The support and kindness shown to our family in the most difficult of times was, and is, immeasurable. EACH, and every single person we’ve met throughout Beatrice’s journey was and is truly exceptional and world class. We will forever be grateful to them for everything they have done for our beautiful girl and they will always be a massive part of our lives.
“There is no price that can be placed on this, nor anything than can mend our heartache and bring our little girl back, but giving, and telling how these very special organisations have helped us allows us to say thank you in a small way.”
Gary Cook, EACH nook appeal Corporate Fundraiser, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to be working with First to raise both vital awareness and funds for our nook appeal and would like to thank them for their very generous support.
“To be able to advertise completely free of charge in 106 buses across the Norwich network, means we’re be able to reach a wide audience, whom we hope to inspire to donate to our cause. The beautiful picture of Leigh and her daughter Beatrice is an inspiration to us all, reminding us of the importance of the care and support services offered to local families.
“We’d like to thank Leigh’s friend Rob Dodsworth, ofRob Dodsworth Photography,who took the beautiful photo of Leigh and Beatrice and has allowed EACH to use the image to raise vital awareness and funds.
“In our new advertising campaign we’re asking people to text NOOK10 followed by either £3, £5 or £10 to 70070. It really is that simple and will make a real difference to the local life-threatened children, young people and their families we support across Norfolk.”
Swarm Training and Swarm REAGIT are excited to announce their next open day being held at our purpose built engineering centre in Norwich!
Our open days are always popular events where we open our doors to welcome parents and potential apprentices as well as new and existing employers from around the county!!
Come on in and meet some of our current apprentices, meet the dedicated teaching and support team, view the ever expanding facilities and meet some of our supporting organisations too!!
MigAnglia will be onsite with their incredible Fronius virtual welder as well as their welding kit and demonstrating their Swift Cut CNC plasma profiling table as well as Nederman extraction with some of their incredible range of extractors!
During this event, you can gather information on apprenticeship opportunities, learn about the various pathways in engineering or look at a commercial course to upskill yourself or your team members.
Apprenticeships Norfolk will be delivering sessions around government funding and initiatives and help to remove some of the confusion around what’s available and how you access it, and how they can support you to employ an apprentice to grow your business.
We will also be launching our new Carpentry and Joinery Apprenticeship which will officially begin in July. If this is of interest to you and your staff, we highly recommend coming to see how it will be run, what facilities we have and to meet our very experienced tutor! You can then register and enrol staff on the day if you are ready to.
Our full range of practical Apprenticeship courses includes:
Level 2 Carpentry & Joinery (launching in July 2025)
Level 2 Engineering Operative
Level 2 Welder
Level 3 Pipe Welder
Level 3 Metal Fabricator
Level 3 Maintenance & Operations Engineering
Level 3 Installation & Maintenance Electrician
If you would like to attend, you can Register Here for the 10am – 12pm session or Register Here for the 1pm to 3pm session.
Alternatively, call Lou Stannett on 07951 950197, or email her on lou@swarmgroup.org.uk for more details.
Norwich-based outsource call centre business OpenContact is taking over the skyline of London after partnering with another iconic tall building, 20 Fenchurch Street aka “The Walkie Talkie”, to provide telephone booking services for the restaurants in the Sky Garden at the top of the 38-storey skyscraper. This follows an ongoing partnership with The Shard, Europe’s tallest building, which began in 2012 when OpenContact was appointed to handle the telephone bookings for their viewing galleries – The View from the Shard.
OpenContact’s Managing Director, Fiona Temple said “I am very proud of our associations with these buildings in London. As prestigious London attractions they demand extremely high levels of customer service, and this is something that the team at OpenContact have been delivering for all of our clients for the last 15 years. We now have a very strong foothold in the visitor attraction market, and plan to grow further based on our experience.”
OpenContact are also enjoying further growth thanks to their long term partnership with the UK’s number one forest adventure company Go Ape, for whom they have been providing call centre services for over 11 years. Go Ape’s owners, Adventure Forest Limited have just launched a new business in Glasgow: Air Space, Europe’s largest indoor trampoline park, and OpenContact are again providing the telephone booking services.
Needless to say, vertigo is not an ideal condition to suffer from for the OpenContact team, as they get to visit all of their client’s locations as part of the training programme, to ensure they can talk knowledgeably and enthusiastically about the experiences with customers.
The team has grown by over 15 people in the last 8 months, and currently employs 58 in total, with aims to grow this further in 2016. Sales have also grown by 25% year on year. Fiona Temple says “This growth, through existing clients and new client acquisitions, means that not only can we create additional employment in Norwich, but also invest in the business in terms of technology, infrastructure and training. All of which adds to the continuing growth and strengthening of the local economy.”
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We are happy to announce that after an impressive response with the Dacia brand, the Holden Group have decided to bulk their digital signage portfolio, by promoting the Volvo brand on our screens across Norfolk. Combining both animation and video footage of the V40 T2 R-Design along with it’s attractive monthly cost, the advertisement certainly grabs the attention of our captive audiences.
– DOOH is an advertising medium which cannot be turned off, closed, missed or minimised. It’s live, data driven & dynamic along with being contextual, relevant and useful to its viewers. – 86% of consumers say digital screens are noticeable – 80% of consumers find digital advertising screens to be informative – 72% of consumers recall advertising on digital screens
Holden Group Ltd is a family owned; Norwich based business specialising in the supply of New and Used cars, Vans, Service, MOT and Parts. Established in 1928 and representing the Renault UK, Dacia UK, Honda UK and Volvo Car UK brands, Holden has earned its reputation as a company you can trust and rely on.
St Albans saw a 33ft (10m) deep sinkhole appear in Fontmell Close earlier this month; the council are now suggesting that surveys are showing a significant anomaly or possible void underneath the houses. So how do sinkholes happen?
In 2014, the UK press reported seeing an increase in sinkholes appearing across the country*. It has been suggested that the emergence of these sinkholes may be down to climate change and human activity, and with our unpredictable weather conditions will we be seeing more?
Why do they happen?
Sinkholes may have a natural or man-made origin, but typically they are caused by underground voids or loose zones triggered by stress changes as a result of saturation or vibration, either from construction or from existing development (like leaking drains).
Sinkhole is a common term for holes that appear without apparent reason to the layperson. According to the British Geological Survey (BGS) web site** there are various different types of sinkhole:
Surface dissolution or soluble rock: limestone or chalk that dissolves in rainfall or acidic groundwater (see map opposite).
Where a thin layer of loose, superficial material such as sand, clay or soil covers soluble rocks beneath; the soil can be washed into the widened crevices leading to the development of a cavity (suffusion sinkhole).
Where more cohesive material such as clay creates a large sinkhole before finally collapsing (drop out sinkhole).
Sinkholes caused through gradual cave collapse; this is where the collapse gradually spreads up through overlying strata causing subsidence at the surface. These can sometimes extend into rocks creating a caprock sinkhole.Mining can also be significant in causing sinkholes by water intercepting clay-filled voids which subsequently collapse, or by dewatering and lowering of the water table (dene hole).
Some sinkholes can occur as a result of weak unconsolidated material by flowing water, where loose material is removed by a process called ‘soil piping’, creating large voids within the sediment.
What are the impacts?
Sinkholes are not restricted to the UK, and reported international examples tend to add to public unease. One example of a sinkhole caused by mining was seen in Russia where an accidental release of brine in certain parts of the mine caused a sinkhole of up to 80 meters***. Generally in the UK sinkholes are smaller, but can still cause concern and extra costs in the built environment.
The sinkholes we see in the UK can be indirectly caused by human activity, occurring alongside constructions where rain water has been concentrated to a patch of ground such as roofs or tarmac, burst water mains or irrigation. As a result, residential areas are impacted the most affecting infrastructure. The British Geological Survey warn that sinkholes are going to be an ongoing feature of our landscape, particularly if ground remains saturated for long periods of time. Often it is difficult to identify an absolute cause, and subsequently apply a liability to affected parties where damage occurs that has to be paid for.
Many UK case reports are from the south east, because of dense property and infrastructure development where the geology may be thin unconsolidated sand and clay superficial deposits overlying weathered soluble chalk bedrock.
There is a clear planning and environmental conflict between sinkhole risk and the sustainable use of surface water drainage to land. Sinkholes may be used as evidence why sustainable drainage cannot be adopted.
Land stability is a material concern in the UK planning system with a responsibility not only to minimise the risk and effects of land stability, but to ensure development doesn’t occur in unstable locations as well as improve unstable land where possible.
Could more sinkholes be on the way?
Delta-Simons did record an increase in sinkhole activity in 2014, but so far in 2015 there have been fewer events. Possibly because the rainfall has been less extreme nationally, and maybe events on the verge of collapse were triggered last year.
What may have changed is our client’s awareness of the sinkholes and requests to perform specific desk studies and ground investigations to identify risks have certainly increased. See how we can deliver clear understanding of ground conditions, visit our geotechnical services.
Launch plans have been unveiled for first International Aviation Academy-Norwich. Arjan Meijer, Managing Director at KLM UK Engineering and his team joined business leaders and academics at Norwich Castle for the unveiling of the detailed plans for the Aviation Academy due to open late 2016. The academy will be located close to Norwich International Airport terminal and will be equipped to provide training to 200-300 students at any given time. The aim being to prepare either for further or higher education, or higher apprenticeships at the academy. The academy will be the first in the country to create a ‘real world’ learning environment that includes a full size working aircraft. It will focus on offering a broad education and skills training in aviation and will raise the standards of learning using innovative teaching techniques.
Norwich solicitors Cozens-Hardy LLP are pleased to announce that Chartered Legal Executive Rebecca Edwards has accepted the firm’s offer to become a partner.
Ms Edwards, who specialises in residential conveyancing, is the first non-solicitor to be offered a partnership.
Said Jane Anderson, Senior Partner:
‘We are absolutely delighted that Rebecca has joined the partnership. She has made a massive contribution to the firm through her hard work over the past 18 years.”
Ms Edwards who started working at the firm back in 1997 as a conveyancing assistant, said:
“I am delighted to have accepted a partnership and I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to progress my career with the firm. It’s a great place to work and I look forward to many more years advising clients on all aspects of house ownership.”