Member News

Freebridge Community Housing are delighted to announce that their outgoing Chief Executive, Tony Hall, has been nominated for a Housing Heroes Award in the Lifetime achievement in housing category.

Tony Hall, who will be leaving Freebridge at the end of the month, after almost 14 years at the head of the West Norfolk housing and community organisation, has spent over 30 years working at a senior level in social housing and local governments all over the country.

Tony was previously Director of Community with the Borough Council and oversaw the transfer of almost 7,000 homes to the newly established Freebridge in April 2006. Since then the organisation has made an impact through activities such as the decent homes improvement programme, the regeneration of Hillington Square, taking over the ownership and management of Providence Street Community Centre and the Discovery Centre, and developing many new homes.

The Housing Heroes Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday 10 September as part of Housing 2020 – Europe’s largest housing event, which this year is going entirely virtual.

Tony Hall said: “When I announced my retirement at the beginning of the year I didn’t think I’d be finishing my time in housing in such unusual circumstances. That said I feel very lucky to have worked in this hugely rewarding sector in a job that I’ve enjoyed and hearing the news of my nomination has been a very pleasant surprise during my final weeks here at Freebridge Community Housing.”

The winners of the 2020 Young Norfolk Writing Competition – Norfolk’s largest annual creative writing competition for young people aged 11 – 18 – have been announced alongside the identity of the fourth Young Norfolk Laureate.

The annual competition, which celebrates creative writing in all its forms, is a partnership between the National Centre for Writing (NCW) and Young Norfolk Arts (YNA). It received a record number of entries in 2020 with over 500 young people in the region submitting their freshest, boldest work.

Hannah Garrard, Learning and Participation Programme Manager, NCW said: ‘The fact that young people in Norfolk have been writing so creatively and eloquently throughout these difficult past months is a testament to their strength of character and resilience. Never has access to writing, reading and books  felt more important for this generation of creatives. Giving young people a platform to express themselves is what the YNWC is all about and it’s been an honour to read their work this year.’

Lucy Farrant, Director of the Young Norfolk Arts Trust, said; ‘It is a great honour to partner with NCW on delivering the competition and hosting the awards event. It is always one of my favourite parts of every Young Norfolk Arts Festival as it is a joy to celebrate the talent of all of our young writers and for them to inspire their peers and future generations.’

The winners of the Yong Norfolk Writing Competition 2020 (in alphabetical order) are: • Mathilda Armiger, 18, Paston College • Florence Bullion, 14, City of Norwich School • Kasey Challenger, 18, Dereham Sixth Form College • Jessica Creedon, 17, Notre Dame Sixth Form • Ella Cunningham, 13, Norwich High School for Girls • Mathilda Peak, 13, Litcham Secondary School • Ryan Taffee-Fowle, 18, Wymondham College A further 12 young writers received commendation from the judges.

The competition is supported by Norfolk County Council and Arts Council England and focuses on engaging young people to become more involved with the arts while celebrating the writing talent in the region. Entries could take the form of stories, lyrics, narrative for games, graphic stories, poems, spoken word, scripts, podcasts, plays, articles, journalism or essays.

Robert Rickard, 14 – 19 Advisor for NCC, said: ‘The competition is a great collaborative initiative that we are delighted to support each year. Across the UK, writing talent remains hidden among many thousands of young people: we are proud to help many of our young writers express and develop their ability.’

For the first time, the 2020 Young Norfolk Laureateship will be awarded to three young people: Mathilda Armiger, Kasey Challenger and Ryan Taffee-Fowle. Over the next 12 months they will work as a collective, receiving creative and professional development opportunities from NCW and working towards an original collaboration to be performed next year.

Ryan Taffee-Fowle said: ‘I am very grateful for this opportunity. Growing up I always struggled with English but still enjoyed it, so finding poetry gave me an effective outlet that wasn’t constrained by any set rules.

This laureateship will give me many opportunities but perhaps the most exciting is the platform to show other young people how powerful their words can be.’

Last year’s Laureate Colette Maxwell-Preston, 13, showed great commitment to the programme and dedicated much of her writing to raising awareness of climate change.

Watch the Young Norfolk Writing Competition Showcase In celebration of the 2020 Young Norfolk Writing Competition and the breadth of young creative talent developing across the county, a special showcase event will be hosted by Young Norfolk Arts Festival this evening, 6pm GMT, over on YouTube Live.

The event has been organised by NCW’s Lit From the Inside team of aspiring young arts professionals and will feature readings from winning and highly commended writers and a performance from local musician Jess Morgan. Everyone is invited to tune in – no booking required. Visit the YNAF YouTube channel from 6pm: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKclyoImEJwNGoNFB3YNELQ/live

For further information on the Young Norfolk Writing Competition, visit nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/ynwc/

As part of our mission to care for people and the planet, we are committed to delivering every product with net zero emissions. This is done in one of two ways:

Using 100% clean energy and electric vehicles (or bicycles)

Using fossil fuels and offsetting the emissions by planting trees and investing in clean energy

As we haven’t yet acquired our electric fleet (but are working on it), we’re reaching net zero by calculating emissions of each delivery and offsetting them.

We have partnered with Carbon Footprint, the leading organisation in carbon calculation and offsetting. Every week, after our deliveries, we use a carbon calculator to work out the amount of carbon produced. The calculator produces our footprint for that week in tons CO2e. This is a measure of green house gas equivalents in carbon dioxide.

Carbon Footprint then advises how much it costs to offset that carbon, and offers a number of environmental projects we can direct that cost towards.

We have chosen to offset our carbon footprint by planting trees, close to home in the East of England. Our chosen project also operates in a “buddy” system: partnering up with a scheme abroad, specifically a Reduced Degradation and Deforestation project (REDD+), which protects the Amazon Rainforest. Each contribution therefore matches planting a native tree on home soil AND offsetting 1 tonnes of CO2 through the REDD+ scheme.

Investing into the future at home, and protecting the future of the planet’s largest ecosystem. A win-win, in our eyes!

The trees we fund will be planted in the coming tree planting season (after summer). As native species trees, they will not only offset carbon emissions, but also support biodiversity in the UK.

Carbon Footprint often work to plant trees directly with schools which will also reap invaluable educational benefits on the environment.

The project runs hand-on days experience days which teach the children to plant the trees and learn about how they support wildlife and improve the air quality.

Once schools reopen again we hope our trees will help inform the next generation on why native species trees are essential to the health and happiness of our environment.

We can keep track of trees planted by Carbon Footprint via their Tree Planting Map which showcases all locations where they have planted trees since 2017.

As we plant more trees in our journey, we look forward to seeing the map grow.

Every time you receive a product from Goodery, you’re helping plant trees in your community and taking carbon out of the air. Good for you, good for others, good for the planet.

By subscribing to our weekly fruit and vegetable boxes, you’ll not only be supporting the environment, but also your local growers.

Try getting your next weekly shop from Goodery: Shop Norfolk Organic Fruit & Veg Boxes, & More

Surely, there can be no worse a time to launch your first television campaign than during a pandemic. Conventional wisdom would conclude such a plan to be a futile waste of time and money. We believe otherwise.

JMS Group has long been an advocate for the power of television advertising, having witnessed the transformative results created for so many of our clients during more than three decades of production. Television has proven itself to be a reliable advertising channel no matter the state of the economy. So-regardless of the current situation-JMS Group has produced its first addressable TV campaign to promote both itself and Sky’s AdSmart platform.  And we’re proud to be the first production company to run a TV advertising campaign in our region.

AdSmart from Sky allows commercials to be displayed only in households that meet a bespoke advertiser-specified profile. The profile is assembled from tens of thousands of consumer data points linked to Sky’s subscribers. JMS Group’s commercial will be displayed in households containing marketing professionals and the owners of SMEs. But why is now still a good time to be advertising? Businesses are fervently reinventing their services. They are shifting to video sales consultations, creating new direct-to-consumer subscription models, or making a wholesale move to online-only trading. If ever there was a time for a business to be communicating with its consumers it is now, not least because-even with restrictions easing-television viewing has skyrocketed, and is likely to remain at elevated levels for some time to come. 

JMS Group produced its campaign while the production team worked remotely out of its Hethersett headquarters. A cloud-based production workflow had already been in daily operation for several years allowing both client projects and production of the campaign to continue uninterrupted offsite during lockdown. The dispatch of completed commercials to broadcasters is also via a file-based cloud delivery system. JMS Group’s addressable campaign went live in Sky households on 1st July.

Use Sky to reach your customers, right now. Discuss television advertising with JMS Group on 01603 811855.

Tom Vaughan-Mountford, JMS Group

MHA Larking Gowen’s Corporate Finance Experts James Lay and Jack Minns are launching a new webinar series which will help those who are getting ready to sell their business. 

 – Tuesday 28 July, 12pm – 1pm

We are pleased to say that further to our last update in April 2020, we have adapted some of our core processes and our team have adapted to working in the ‘new normal’, to continue to provide all of our regular services during the usual working hours. Our previous investments in recruiting and training the right people, combined with developing robust IT systems, have enabled ASAMS to demonstrate a good level of resilience during the pandemic.

“All of our staff have worked hard to adapt to the changes to ensure that our company can continue to give great service to our customers” said Thomas Whiskin, Director, ASAMS.

In addition to completing a full risk assessment, maintaining social distancing and providing our staff with additional PPE, we have made four main changes:

1. We have modified our workflow processes including reducing paper use, using screens to create areas allowing isolation of technicians during testing and increasing cleaning. Reducing paper use has enabled us to produce high quality, secure digital reports and therefore provide an even better service to our customers.

2. Minimising visits to site while allowing the calibration of equipment has been maintained by reorganising the workspace and enabling any visitors on site to work in a Covid-secure environment.

3. As part of minimising visits to the laboratory, we are now facilitating remote witnessing using streaming from webcams within the test lab rather than have people visit ASAMS premises. With witnesses currently working remotely from home this has enabled them to complete the process easily, accurately, efficiently and safely.

4. Drop off points for test samples arriving at the laboratory have been established outside so that contactless deliveries can be made with clear signage (above).

“The adaptations have been fast and effective, showing the company cares about its personnel and puts their safety first.” said Ziggy, ASAMS team member.

Customer feedback from the last few weeks has been positive too. “I have been using ASAMS mechanical and metallurgical testing services for some years now and would thoroughly recommend this company. Our industry is the oil & gas sector which requires quality work to be carried out with quick turnover which ASAMS fully support with a “can do” attitude. The company has fantastic customer support and in-house expertise, and are always readily available to discuss and advise on technical matters. Customer relationships are paramount at ASAMS and I genuinely feel like a valued customer to them.” said a welding engineer at a large Aberdeenshire based fabricator.

Looking to the Future Planning ahead, we intend to maintain our streamlined workflow processes and digital reports as we continue to provide the full range of metal testing services for the oil, gas and renewables sectors.

Recognising that we all need to learn from each other to help us get through this difficult situation, please get in touch if there is anything that we can do to help you create your Covid-secure environment.

Following Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s speech today outlining the government’s plans for a significant investment in the UK’s infrastructure, Lloyd Felton, CEO of Essex based rural broadband provider County Broadband which is building new networks in Norfolk, commented:

“We welcome today’s announcement of a multi-billion pound investment in the UK’s infrastructure to turbo charge economic growth, but note that there was no firm commitment to re-fuelling the pledge towards providing full-fibre connectivity to the whole of the UK by 2025.

“The COVID-19 lockdown has transformed almost every aspect of modern life and, creating an unexpected mass trial of working from home, video calling family and friends, virtual education for our children, online consultations and the move away from traditional TV to online streaming…

“The golden thread running through this is broadband and whilst the UK’s digital infrastructure has, by in large, been holding steady, the creaking at the seams is becoming noticeably louder. For too long we have relied on outdated copper cables to deliver this essential utility and the UK continues to lag behind our European neighbours.

“We must turbocharge the rollout of future-ready full-fibre broadband so businesses have the digital capacity for growth and households can keep connected to the ever-growing number of devices and services in the home. Nowhere is this more important than in rural parts of the country which have historically been left behind.

“We are continuing to drive forward the rollout of our Hyperfast full-fibre service to ‘often-forgotten’ rural communities across Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire following a multi-million private investment. A collaborative approach of private and public investment will mean the UK can stand tall in the digital sphere and compete on an international scale. Any failure to do so will ripple through generations to come. We must not delay.”

The Sainsbury Centre is delighted to announce the reopening of its building tomorrow following a period of temporary closure during the Covid-19 pandemic. From Tuesday 7 July visitors are invited to explore astonishing new exhibitions and the inspiring Sainsbury Collection, with refreshments available from the Modern Life Café, whilst stringent safety measures ensure public health guidelines are being followed at all times.

This announcement comes after the UK government updated its advice on 23 June for leisure facilities and tourist attractions, confirming that people in England will be permitted to visit museums and galleries that have implemented the necessary social distancing and hygiene practises from Saturday 4 July. The Sainsbury Centre is pleased to be among the first university art gallery and museums in the country able to reopen this summer, enabling members of the public to once again enjoy art and improve their wellbeing during this challenging time.

From Tuesday 7 July visitors to the Sainsbury Centre can expect a welcoming and inspiring experience, facilitated by new safety systems and procedures. These include all exhibition tickets being pre-booked for specific time slots, in order to reduce the number of people in the galleries and ensure social distancing can be adhered to. Signage will guide visitors around the building on new one-way routes, helped by staff and volunteers wearing the appropriate masks/visors. Rigorous cleaning will be undertaken at regular intervals.

On offer are two exhibitions looking at hugely popular movements and styles. Art Deco by the Sea opened in February to rave reviews and has been extended until 20 September 2020. It celebrates the glamour and innovation of the British coastline in the 1920s and 30s and is accompanied by a pop-up shop stocked with books, postcards and jewellery.

Coinciding with the Sainsbury Centre reopening is the launch of Art Nouveau: The Nature of Dreams, running until 31 December 2020. This new exhibition charts the lesser-known English origins of the Art Nouveau movement, featuring dazzling ceramics, furniture, glass, jewellery, paintings, posters and prints, sculptures and textiles.

The Sainsbury Collection, on permanent display at the heart of the building, will be free to explore with food and drink available to takeaway from the Modern Life Café. The Sculpture Park, which has remained open throughout lockdown, continues to provide 350 acres of attractive parkland open to everyone to enjoy art, architecture and the natural environment.

Ghislaine Wood, Acting Director, says, “While our Sculpture Park has remained open throughout lockdown, we are pleased to announce the reopening of the Sainsbury Centre from Tuesday 7 July. The remarkable open-plan architecture of the Sainsbury Centre has helped us move towards reopening safely and implementing social distancing. We hope our visitors will now come enjoy the galleries and exciting exhibitions programme planned for the summer.”

As more sectors of the economy prepare to reopen, Great Yarmouth Borough Council has expanded its local business grants scheme and is reminding companies that guidance about safe operations and other support is still available.

The council has so far handed out around £30m in Government grants to eligible businesses. Grants are still available under both the Government’s original scheme as well as a newer local scheme supporting businesses which were not eligible for the other support but can prove they have suffered hardship due to Covid-19.

The local scheme is aimed at businesses with ongoing fixed property overheads, and businesses are encouraged to check online guidance to see if they could be eligible. Visit www.great-yarmouth.gov.uk/coronavirus-advice-businesses for the link to the application form, eligibility criteria and further business advice. In addition, the council’s business helpline 0808 196 2240 will still be available until July 13, when applications close.

Under the expanded local grants scheme, eligible businesses within the retail, hospitality or tourism sectors can now apply for up to £25,000 if they meet certain criteria. Grants of either £2,000, £5,000 and £10,000 are still available, with one grant award per business/property.

The amount available for charity properties has doubled to £10,000. In addition, home-based businesses can also now apply for a grant if they can demonstrate they have fixed home costs that are attributable to business costs.

Those prioritised for the scheme are small businesses in shared offices and regular market traders who do not have their own business rates assessments, bed and breakfasts which pay council tax instead of business rate and charity properties that are in receipt of charitable business rates relief.

New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership is also offering a number of grant opportunities for businesses in Norfolk and Suffolk. This includes capital grants of £25,000 to £50,000 to support short-term business resilience projects and longer-term recovery and diversification projects, covering up to 50 per cent of eligible costs, which could include premises, plant and machinery, commercial vehicles, or fixtures and fittings.  

The council continues to update its website with the latest guidance and support for businesses, including funding opportunities, application forms and eligibility criteria, plus advice on reopening and operating safely, along with a downloadable pack of useful materials including safety posters.

The council is planning to hold a free webinar on business grant opportunities. To register an interest, or to arrange to speak with the council’s business advisor Paul Gardner, email econdev@great-yarmouth.gov.uk For further business advice, plus guidance on the LEP’s grants, contact the Growth Hub on 0300 333 6536 or visit www.newanglia.co.uk/funding

Cllr Carl Smith, the council leader, and Cllr Trevor Wainwright, the Labour group leader, said: “The further reopening of the economy is very welcome although we know the coming months will continue to be challenging for businesses. We therefore want to ensure that as many local businesses as possible are aware of the opportunities and access the funding and support to which they might be entitled.

“We have already handed out significant Government funding in grants, and we’re really pleased to be in a position to expand the local scheme to provide further support to eligible businesses impacted by Covid-19.

“Our website is a useful starting point for businesses to explore what help might be available and to find advice and guidance to meet their responsibilities around reopening and operating safely. 

“Council officers are continuing to check in with businesses in the borough’s busiest tourism and shopping areas, including this weekend, to address any issues or questions, signpost them to further support and offer support packs containing an advice leaflet with essential tips for safe operations, safety posters and floor stickers.”

Reliability and customer satisfaction are the foundations of our family run business, and one of our core values is our absolute focus on customer relationships. It’s important to us to know each and every one of our clients on a first name basis, offering a personal service with a smile, so we couldn’t be prouder to be Finalists in the 2020 H&V News Awards. We will be joining an outstanding group of finalists in the category of Best Small Company Achievement.

Whilst the awards event has been postponed until November 4th due to Covid 19, we look forward to celebrating with the other incredible finalists who have been shortlisted for awards. 

• Data Energy, Data Energy – Metering & Billing Agent
• Cosgroves and Drew Engineering Services
• Woodford Heating and Energy, A Selfless Act of Succession Planning
• Heatlink Services, Heatlink Services
• Greengauge Building Energy Consultants, Goldsmith Street, Norwich

We have officially launched a new arm to our IT services. Meet the new-look Source Code Studio – Experts in Websites, ECommerce, Apps & Software.

Introducing  Source Code Studio

Located in our Bury St Edmunds Green Duck headquarters, the welcoming of Source Code Studio into the Green Duck family sees creative website designers and expert app developers working alongside experienced IT engineers, software pioneers and security experts. 

This means we can offer our customers a single point of contact for all IT support through Green Duck IT, web, app and software development through Source Code Studio and cyber security services through Labsec.

What we offer

With over 60+ years of experience in website and app design and development, Source Code Studio are by no means new kids on the block.

At Source Code Studio the primary focus is to tailor the user experience through our design and development process to meet the goals of your industry and clients.

We believe we can deliver you a better digital product through our tried and tested approach gained from years of experience. Our aim is to create a tailored goal-driven user experience which is easy and enjoyable to use and converts for your business needs.

Our team know the questions to ask to understand exactly what your business wants to achieve and exactly what your customers want to experience.

To celebrate, we are offering all businesses a free downloadable UI UX Checklist including valuable insights and recommendations. This is certainly a guide not to be missed!

Download your FREE guide here https://sourcecodestudio.co.uk/ui-ux-ebook/

Sounds good? Call us on 01284 717279

With its initial training course now running virtually, TaxAssist Accountants is pleased to offer a cash back deal to new franchisees.

Due to social distancing measures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, TaxAssist Accountants is running a modified initial training course online, making use of technology to provide an engaging and interactive course that will still fully prepare franchisees for opening their practices.

Karl Sandall, Group Chief Executive Director said: “Our first virtual training course started on June 15th with two new franchisees, who having done their research and obtained their funding, are keen to get started on their journey with TaxAssist Accountants.

“Obviously these are unprecedented times, so we are pleased to be able to offer the £4,000 cash back on our franchise fee, in recognition of the change in setting for the training course. This offering will be available for as long as we choose to run the course virtually. We do, however, look forward to welcoming any new joiners back to the Support Centre for a face-to-face follow up as soon as it is safe to do so.”

Samantha Skyring, Senior Training and Communications Manager at the TaxAssist Accountants Support Centre, explained what new franchisees can expect from the course.

“We have had to completely overhaul the training course,” said Samantha. “which has been quite an undertaking, but vital, as we want to make sure we are able to stay engaged with each new franchisee and establish a good rapport as we would normally on our face-to-face course.

“This is important so our new franchisees get to know us all well and feel comfortable to ask us questions throughout the course. We will be using video calls, telephone, emails, instant chat features, live and recorded videos, as well as software such as Sway, Teams and Zoom to alternate our communication channels, as we introduce different members of the team and new topics. We obviously also want to make the course as enjoyable as possible, so we have designed it so that our delegates will not be sitting in front of their computer for hours on end.”

If you are interested in joining TaxAssist Accountants, monthly Virtual Discovery Days are being held, where you can spend a day with the team to find out more about the business opportunity and support on offer. Visit the TaxAssist Accountants website www.taxassistfranchise.co.uk for more information.