Norse subsidiary GYB Services has been tasked with clearing the vast amount of debris left by the recent tidal surge and storms along the shoreline from Scratby to Great Yarmouth.
Local BBC Radio Norfolk were keen to find out more about the operation.
Talking on the station, GYB Services’ Building & Engineering Manager, George Jarvis, told said, “The debris consists of damaged marram grass that has entangled general rubbish, demolition debris from the properties that were lost due to the cliffs giving way at Hemsby and all manner of items that have been in the sea for some time. Telegraph poles, trees and metal tanks are just some examples of what we have had to remove.”
“GYB Services has provided man power to litter pick the grass for debris including glass bottles, wires and hazards to the public. To remove the bulk of the debris to land fill we have contracted local company Sutton Services to supply the plant.”
“I was asked ‘why not Burn the rubbish’,” Jarvis said, “and indeed we had the approval of the Environmental Agency to do this and it was our original plan. However, due to weather conditions and the nature of the debris it just wouldn’t be possible.”
GYBS have provided ten man teams to the project, and Jarvis said that the project is estimated to take over four weeks to complete as they move around 350cubic meters of debris a day.
Norse subsidiary, Devon Norse, has been awarded the contract for the cleaning of five NHS sites in South Devon.
The sites, all in the Torbay area, including two office buildings, two community resource centres and a carers centre.
Steve Jones , Cleaning Operations Manager at Devon Norse said that the contract, which covers internal building cleaning, is a further example of the company’s continuing success in the South-West .
The contract is worth around £40k a year and takes the annual value of Devon Norse’s NHS contracts to over £400k.
The case for more women in leadership roles could not be stronger. Evidence shows that the more gender diverse a company is at director level, the bigger the impact on bottom line. Yet, sadly, in the UK employers still have a lot to do to get more female senior professionals on board.
Vince Cable has started 2014 by getting behind the movement – he’s encouraging the country’s top companies to press on with female recruitment at board level – the link between this and economic recovery is clear to see.
The momentum is building and we at Pure don’t want employers in the East of England to miss out on the benefits. So we’re offering some advice to anyone who wants to ramp up senior female recruitment.
Getting more women into senior roles can be amazingly motivating – not only does it mean they get the opportunity to achieve great things, but younger female employees are inspired to commit to their own careers. Where there’s passion and drive, there’s also loyalty and high standards. This can only be good for business!
But how can your organisation get women into the senior executive positions? We can help with a few valuable pointers…
1. Set up a mentoring programme Asking senior female staff to mentor younger women in your organisation can create huge benefits. Not only does it unlock talent among junior employees, but it can also boost their confidence if they are intimidated by the journey to the top. Advice and a sympathetic ear matched with a professional attitude can be a powerful force in creating our future female business leaders.
2. Get buy-in at senior level Sadly many smart women tend to leave work when they’re at they’re professionally at their most valuable, so it’s essential to get senior-level buy-in to adapt your company’s culture so it accommodates and drives them on, rather than limits their options. Top-level staff must help give women the tools and space to work their way up — so they can expand their experience.
3. Encourage support networks away from work There’s no doubt that even in 2014, staying at work after having children for many women is very tough. Those who choose to return to work find it a constant juggling act. A woman’s family and partner can help out – whether it’s being flexible with childcare or being positive about her career, it’s all fantastic support.
4. Work with the right recruitment consultants If you’re recruiting senior executives in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk or Suffolk, make sure your recruitment agency totally understands your mission. They can help you find more female job seekers – especially in industries known for being mostly made up of men such as technology, science and finance. So ask your recruitment firm for a balanced short list of male and female candidates. We are being asked for this by an increasing number of our clients!
5. Understand the reasons If you don’t know why women leave the workplace or fail to climb the ladder at your organisation, you can’t build a solid action plan. Do they struggle attending important meetings if their child needs to be picked up from school at the same time? Do they lack confidence in getting their ideas heard among more extrovert colleagues? Or are they put off going for promotions if director jobs are mainly occupied by men? Dig out the root causes and find positive solutions.
This is just a taster of the kind of advice Pure has to offer! Look out for more information on our website about our Women in Leadership Programme in partnership with People and Performance which is designed to develop your talented, aspiring women leaders and equip them to evolve your culture and work with you to remove the workplace barriers to gender equality.
Tots up £9k for Big C in 2013 and selects Nelson’s Journey as staff charity for 2014
Local insurance brokers and financial planners Alan Boswell Group (ABG) have raised a total of £9k for Big C, their 2013 staff nominated charity. Dress-down days and cakes sales as well as audacious sky dives, endurance cycle rides and an entertaining staff bike race in the Gas Hill Gasp have all contributed to the grand total.
Big C community fundraising manager, Diane Northway, said: “What a terrific sum! Alan Boswell Group’s staff got right behind us this year and did some incredible things, all in the name of charity. The Group has a long association with Big C, raising a staggering £47K in the last decade alone.”
Norfolk children’s charity, Nelson’s Journey, has been chosen for 2014. Their charitable pledge to ‘(bring) back smiles to bereaved children’ is something the 220 staff at Alan Boswell Group can’t wait to support during the year ahead.
Nelson’s Journey chief executive, Colin Lang MBE said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have been selected by such a pro-active business. We’re a local charity and gaining support from local firms is vital to our fundraising efforts. It means we can continue to support bereaved young people across Norfolk.”
Nelson’s Journey provides support for children and young people living in Norfolk who have experienced the death of a significant person in their life. The funds they raise are used to improve the emotional wellbeing of bereaved children by: increasing their confidence and self-belief, providing education about the causes of death and enabling families to talk openly about their bereavement.
Leathes Prior’s Traffic Lawyers, a unique legal service based in East Anglia for motorists and businesses across the UK, has been rebranded and re-launched with a fresh, new look. The website, www.trafficlawyers.co.uk, contains free, detailed advice on many of the most common legal issues encountered by motorists.
Traffic Lawyers was founded in 2004 in order to help motorists and the transport industry in the UK who have fallen foul of the myriad road traffic laws that are in place, and which are always changing.
Tim Cary, Head of Traffic Lawyers, has been featured on BBC’s Watchdog, has been consulted by the Guardian and the Daily Express and is widely regarded as a leading light when it comes to Transport law. The Legal 500 (an independent legal review) 2013 says as follows: At Leathes Prior, ‘outstanding’ regulatory lawyer Tim Cary is a nationally recognised expert on clamping. The firm has a nationwide presence for motoring offences through its ‘Traffic Lawyers’ brand.
The new website features details of fixed fees, potential defences and specific loopholes for UK traffic laws. There is also extensive information for businesses in the transport industry, for example on operator’s licences, regulatory requirements for taxi fleets and HGV fleets and industry specific offences and potential investigations.
Associate Solicitor, Dave Richards, and Trainee Solicitor, Tej Thakkar (due to qualify in April 2014), are both key parts of the new Traffic Lawyers service. Dave Richards himself has already been featured on BBC’s Watchdog, Look East and Radio Norfolk and Tej Thakkar has spent the majority of his training dedicated to regulatory and traffic cases and on qualification is keen to start building up to be the Team’s lead advocate.
Due to overwhelming demand for the Traffic Lawyers service, much of the routine advice which has been provided by the Team over the years is now set out for free on the new website. In this new era of open access to information, the firm feel that a monopoly on knowledge can no longer be maintained by solicitors and other legal advisors. Traffic Lawyers is aimed at motorists looking for expertise and experience in this area for advice and representation that they might be unable to get elsewhere.
A brief look ahead at some of the key employment law developments expected in 2014.
The start of another year brings a range of significant new employment law developments for employers to be aware of. The key changes expected in 2014 are as follows:
Amended TUPE Regulations come into force on 31 January 2014 (see our news item);
Various changes resulting from the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 take effect on 6 April 2014: o Mandatory pre-claim Acas conciliation introduced; o Employment judges given the discretion to impose financial penalties on employers who lose at a tribunal hearing; o Discrimination questionnaires abolished.
The right to request flexible working is due to be extended to all employees with at least 26 weeks’ service (not limited to those with caring responsibilities) on 6 April 2014 (NB latest indications are that this is likely to be delayed and will take effect later in the year);
Abolition of the current rules on Statutory Sick Pay record-keeping (6 April 2014) and the introduction of a new approach to sickness absence management is expected in spring 2014;
New Regulations expected during 2014 giving tribunals the power to order employers to carry out equal pay audits, if they are found to have discriminated in relation to contractual or non-contractual pay.
Breakfast update briefing – date for your diary
For more information on these and other recent and forthcoming employment law developments, please join us at the next employment law breakfast briefing, which will be held on Tuesday 11 March 2014, at the Barnham Broom Hotel near Norwich.
Look out for further details and information about how to book your place, which will be available very soon.
Steeles Law has recruited a Solicitor and a Conveyancing Executive to its respected residential conveyancing team.
Beth Watson, who qualified as a solicitor in 2010, joins the firm having trained and worked within a large conveyancing team at a Norwich based firm.
Anneka Daley is currently training to become a Legal Executive, having completed her law degree and gained five years’ property experience at a solicitors firm in Suffolk.
Both Beth and Anneka have a wide range of experience in residential property matters, including acting for builders, property investors and developers, companies and private individuals.
Stephen Drake, CEO , commented: “We are pleased to report a marked increase in the number of residential conveyancing enquiries we are receiving, which spells excellent news for the local property market and our partners in the industry. In order to meet this demand, we have expanded our team in order to continue to provide an excellent level of service to clients looking to purchase or sell their property.”
Abellio Greater Anglia’s finance team has given East Anglia’s Children’s hospices (EACH) a helping hand by making a donation of over £2,300. The finance team has worked hard throughout the year, organising a series of activities to help fundraise for EACH.
The team took part in a wide variety of activities including; sponsored ‘dress down’ days, a raffle, an auction of football tickets, a bingo night, a ‘guess the number of sweets in the jar’ competition and also sold Hot Cross Buns to colleagues at Easter.
The grand total raised was £2,309.47. Melissa Collett, EACH fundraiser, recently visited Greater Anglia’s Colchester-based finance team to accept the donation. Crystal Wright Greater Anglia’s Financial Controller said: “Together the Greater Anglia Finance team has worked hard over the last year fundraising for EACH. It is a charity which is close to our hearts and does a great deal to help our local community.”
EACH is a children’s hospice charity providing care and support to life-threatened children and their families across Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire.
Melissa Collett, EACH fundraiser, said: “We’d like to thank everyone at Greater Anglia for their generous support. At EACH we rely upon voluntary donations for the majority of our income, so this donation is very welcome. The funds will help us to provide care and support to life-threatened children and their families across the region.”
For more information about East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices please visit www.each.org.uk
Becky Wilson of local recruitment consultancy firm, Pure Resourcing Solutions (Pure), has had an outstanding start to 2014 with a promotion to Managing Consultant in the Norwich team.
A graduate in Business Economics, Becky started her recruitment career in 2000, placing accountancy professionals. Specialising in the HR sector since 2005, she has developed an unrivalled knowledge of the industry in Norfolk. Becky joined the team at Pure in August 2010, bringing her expertise in placing HR professionals in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. She prides herself in building strong relationships with her clients and candidates, and has established an excellent network of contacts with high profile clients including May Gurney and Aviva.
Gill Buchanan, Director of Pure, says: “Becky is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable team member and prides herself in building strong relationships with Pure’s clients and candidates. Her promotion is thoroughly well deserved.”
To find out more about Pure contact Anna Hill, Marketing Manager on: 01223 209888 or Anna.Hill@prs.uk.com. For current vacancies with Pure and other employers go to www.prs.uk.com.
Caterham scoops ‘Business of the Year’ at MIA Business Excellence Awards
Caterham has been honoured as ‘Business of the Year’ at the annual MIA (Motorsport Industry Association) Business Excellence Awards, held in Birmingham on the evening of Thursday 9th January 2014.
As a brand, Caterham has continued to grow, expand and diversify across each of the business arms that make up the Caterham Group – Caterham Cars, Caterham Technology & Innovation (CTI), Caterham F1 Team, Caterham Composites and the recently-launched Caterham Bikes division.
Many of the high profile activities of the group have benefited from engineering and development work that has been led by CTI, the specialist engineering services division of the Caterham Group based in Hingham, Norfolk, which has been a member of the MIA since January 2013.
The MIA was created in April 1994, and in the nearly 20 year tenure of the Association it has helped to grow member businesses substantially, remaining a positive beacon for the motorsport industry by working with UK and EU parliaments to ensure the British motorsport industry has a solid, long term role within the Economy.
The Caterham Group is one of two recipients of the Business of the Year Award, triumphing in the category for larger businesses with a turnover of over £5m.
Graham Macdonald, CEO of the Caterham Group, accepted the award and said: “Both CTI and the rest of the Caterham Group are honoured to receive this award from a body whose members are some of the finest engineering minds in the world. This really is an accolade from peers, which makes holding this trophy all the more special and satisfying because they recognise the great work that is being done across the Group.”
The Caterham Group has had a whirlwind 2013, with expansion occurring internationally, the addition of Caterham Bikes, a Moto2GP team for 2014 and a number of new Caterham models.
Some of the highlights of the past 12 months include:
Marking Caterham’s 40th anniversary year, with the Seven 160 pulling the Seven back to its original philosophy of a simple, lightweight race car for the road.
Creation of the AeroSeven Concept
Launch of 3 new Caterham Seven models, the 485, 620R and 160
Continuing work on Caterham’s flagship new sportscar as a result of the 50-50 Joint Venture with Renault
Expansion into motorcycles – including announcement of entry into the 2014 Moto GP2 championship
Caterham’s debut in the Le Mans 24 Hours
Expansion into new export markets in Asia and South America
Taking motorsport design expertise into the Aerospace & Marine sectors
Macdonald continued: “This has been one of the most challenging but successful years in Caterham’s history. We’ve shown our first new road model in 18 years in the AeroSeven, and we’ve had such positive international reviews for the new Seven 485, 620R and 160 models – but we’re proud to be staying true to our roots.
“We look forward to the future, the joint venture with Renault and the launch of our exciting new flagship sportscar in 2016, which will be a proud moment for British engineering. We have exciting plans for an expanded range of Caterham road vehicles with accessible fun at their very heart, improved manufacturing facilities, the new Caterham Bikes and Moto2 GP arms of the Group and our on-going activities with the pinnacle of motorsport – Formula 1. Being the recipient of this award reminds us we are on the right track – that is where we are determined to stay.”
Please visit https://www.caterham.com for further information on all divisions of the Caterham Group
NORWICH, Tuesday 28th January 2014 – Airport reports record visitors to annual travel show Norwich International Airport’s travel show, which is now in its fifth year, achieved record visitor numbers this weekend with 2,000 people attending, all keen to find out as much as possible about the wide range of holidays and flights available from their local airport.
The airline and tour operator exhibitors commented that the Norwich International event is one of the busiest and most successful they attend across the UK and were all delighted with the response this year.
Andrew Bell, CEO, Norwich International Airport commented “This year’s show was undoubtedly the best we have put on in the five years the event has been running, with record visitor numbers and bookings made on the day up 62% on the previous year. The show is a fantastic opportunity for people in the Airport’s catchment area to meet airline and tour operator representatives and obtain first-hand knowledge and advice on the destinations they offer from our airport”
The success of last weekend’s travel show comes as an added boost for the airport following recent announcements of additional flights for holidaymakers in 2014 to Malta, along with the news that Thomson Holidays are basing an aircraft at Norwich International for the summer season for the very first time, Loganair basing a second aircraft from the end of March to provide an increase in Edinburgh flights to three times daily and the overall popularity of the KLM services to Amsterdam, which will see the frequency increase to four times daily throughout the summer months.
Independent consultancy, Risk & Policy Analysts (RPA) has become one of the first organisations in the region to be awarded a Living Wage Employer Accreditation. The company, which is based in Loddon, Norfolk, currently employs a team of 30, including some of the top economists, environmental scientists, chemists and ecologists in the area.
RPA Director, Meg Postle commented “We value each member of our team’s input into making RPA a success, and one of the most significant ways we can demonstrate this is by making sure that everyone is paid the Living Wage”.
The Living Wage is an hourly rate which is set independently and updated annually, based on the cost of living in the UK. An independent study of the business benefits gained found that employers recognised an enhanced standard of staff output, a reduction in absentee levels and a significant impact on recruitment and retention within their organisation as a result of implementing the Living Wage policy.
Rhys Moore, Director of the Living Wage Foundation said “The benefits the Living Wage brings to staff and business are clear. I welcome the leadership shown by RPA on this important issue”.
To find out more about becoming an accredited Living Wage Employer visit www.livingwage.org.uk
RPA provides expert advice to both public and private sector clients around the world, assisting decision makers with the development and implementation of sustainable policies. The Company’s main clients include the European Commission, European Chemicals Association, UK Government bodies (such as the Environment Agency, Natural England and Defra) and major EU industries.