Member News

East Norfolk Sixth Form College recently hosted an Industry Consultation Event in conjunction with Norfolk Chamber of Commerce and the East of England Energy Group (EEEGR). Key employers from the area worked with the College to further develop the Engineering provision to be offered from September 2014.

Introducing BTEC Level 3 Engineering into the curriculum at EN supports the College’s desire to provide outstanding experiences for its students. Dr Catherine Richards, Deputy Principal outlined the benefits of this new curriculum offer ‘Giving young people the choice to study BTEC Engineering together with A levels in subjects such as Maths, Physics, 3D Design and Geology will help to support local industry. Partnership working with employers has helped us to identify the most suitable units to be studied for direct entry to work, apprenticeships or university. We are very proud of the innovative work that we are doing in this area to prepare our young people for careers in this skills shortage area.’ East Norfolk Sixth Form College has an excellent record of success and its work with employers was recognised by Ofsted when good links with employers were recognised and creativity in the curriculum was positively received by Inspectors. Any local employers wishing to find out more about the introduction of BTEC Engineering are asked to contact Dr Catherine Richards for more information by emailing crichards@eastnorfolk.ac.uk

HIGHER CLAIMS COSTS = HIGHER PREMIUMS!

This is why KTIB are encouraging their clients to report motor accidents immediately online.

The quicker our claims unit know about an accident the more chance insurers have to control the costs and keep clients premiums down.

Click on the linkto see our exciting new short film on how to help reduce the cost of motor claims!

We are winding down for Christmas this week as the corporate activity slows down, the staff have all worked extra hard since the middle of November with the rush of coach groups staying to come and see the Thursford Christmas Show and for a City Shopping Break, our Dinner Dances and Staff Parties started on 22nd November and have been going on most evenings since and our Christmas menu for lunch and dinner in the Restaurant has been proving very popular too!

This has all cooled down for a few days so the stff are having a wll earned rest today and tomorrow ready for the weekend’s events and then we have the big Christmas Break – lots of guests all staying for 4 nights to share their Christmas with us here at the Brook along with many local residents fro around the Norwich area joining us for our fabulous four course Christmas Day lunch – this is also now fully booked which is fantastic news!!

With it being slower on the corporate front though we have bedrooms available which means we can share our last minute availability with you at some fantastic rates…

If you are out celebrating this week why not make the most of it and stay overnight here at the Best Western Brook Hotel? We can offer you a room Wed, Thurs, Fri or Sun for just £50 for 2 people sharing and if you want, we will also throw in a free breakfast the next day for you! (Saturday night will be £65)

We also have spaces available on our last 2 Christmas Dinner Dance Events and can offer these places for just £10 instead of £19.50! If you are interested in booking a room or a table for one of the Dinner Dance eventssimply call us on 01603 741161

The Government has announced that the first same sex weddings in England and Wales will be able to take place from Saturday 29 March 2014, several months earlier than originally anticipated.

The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 received Royal Assent in July, but it was anticipated that the first same-sex marriages would not take place until summer 2014. Couples wishing to be among the first to marry will need to give formal notice of their intention by 13 March 2014.

The Government is also hopeful that couples who want to convert their civil partnerships into marriages and married people who want to change their legal gender while remaining married would be able to do so before the end of the 2014. Same sex couples who married abroad under foreign law are currently treated as civil partners in England and Wales, but they will instead be recognised as being married from March 2014.

Emma Alfieri from Steeles Law’s family team commented that it was positive news for many couples up and down the country and encouraging that the change will take effect earlier than anticipated.

For further information please contact the family team.

Here is theDecember Newsletter from Emkay Plastics

EXTRA DATES ADDED FOR CHRISTMAS DINNER DANCES THIS YEAR… Due to the popularity of our dinner dances this year and we are now fully booked for next weekend’s events we have added to more options for you! Join us on Monday 23rd December or Tuesday 24th December for a Classic Christmas Dinner Dance Event here at the Best Western Brook Hotel Norwich – Delicious 3 Course Evening Meal will be served on arrival followed by an evening of entertainment with our resident DJ playing all your favourite songs to take you through to midnight – Just £19.50 per person!

Scottish airline Loganair has announced it will commence two news services between Edinburgh Airport, Norwich and Cardiff as it marks its fifth year anniversary with franchise partner, Flybe.

From the end March 2014, when Flybe withdraws from the Norwich route, Loganair will increase the frequency of its services between Norwich and Scotland’s capital, basing a second Dornier 328 aircraft at Norwich International Airport and taking on six locally based staff.

The carrier will start a double daily weekday service in April, adding a third rotation after the Easter holidays to provide a convenient business schedule. As an extra boost to passengers, a Sunday service will also be added, with Sunday frequency increasing to two flights during the peak summer season.

For the Cardiff connection the airline will be commencing a triple week-day flight and a twice daily rotation each Sunday. This marks their first step into the Welsh aviation market.

Loganair’s announcement comes on the five year anniversary of its franchise agreement with Flybe, Europe’s largest independent regional airline. The relationship was the first of its kind when taking to the skies at the start of the winter flying programme in 2008.

Over the past five years, a total of 2,567,110 passengers have flown over 710-million passenger kilometres* (710,813,590 passenger km or 441,679, 086 passenger miles) on 139,147 flights operated by Loganair under the Flybe brand; and over 6% of these passengers have taken advantage of the convenient connecting flights between Loganair and Flybe’s regional network. Loganair currently flies 25 routes under the Flybe brand including Norwich to Manchester and Guernsey.

Phil Preston, Chief Operating Officer at Loganair, added: “We are delighted to take on the Edinburgh services providing the much needed frequency on the routes to support the local business communities.

“Through our partnership with Flybe, we’ve been able to develop services from Edinburgh, which will also open up connections onto our extensive Scottish network including Orkney and Shetland, will be well received by business and leisure passengers.”

The Agricultural Division of TekPro, which is possibly best known for its’ development and manufacture of the Samplex range of bulk samplers, is currently flying the flag for British manufacturing in Australia. Although TekPro has been receiving orders from around the globe for several years now, the recent introduction of the CS6000 has opened new doors to many larger storage facilities ‘Down Under’. Larger articulated vehicles required a new method for taking samples in a more cost effective and efficient manner.

The CS6000 rail systems, which have a sampling area of 14m -28m, allow a variety of vehicle sizes to be sampled with ease and confidence by the operative. The representative samples use air to blow them back to a control area, which allow operators to be in a clean and safe environment throughout the process.

TekPro are specialists in electro-mechanical engineering and are based in North Walsham, Norfolk. The Samplex range of samplers has been manufactured for 25 years in 2014 and the company prides itself on retaining customers from 1989 to today. TekPro enjoys a reputation for product quality, on-time delivery and competitive pricing. Substantial overseas orders have recently been placed which have enabled an increase in staff.

Visit our website at www.tekpro.com for more information.

Bernard Matthews, Britain’s No.1 turkey producer, is set to generate further growth in the cooked meats, fresh and frozen breaded poultry categories with the launch of a new marketing campaign that targets busy mums.

The new million pound campaign, which includes women’s magazines, national newspapers, outdoor, in-store and digital activity, started on the 7th October 2013 and will run nationwide.

Bernard Matthews remains one of the nation’s favourite food brands* and this new high impact creative gives the brand a strong visual identity, and aims to remind mums of the quality and versatility of Bernard Matthews products at meal times. It also features the new-look consumer branding, which was launched in August.

The new campaign will feature a range of illustrations making mum the hero, with the first execution featuring Bernard Matthews Turkey Breast Slices.

“Mum’s are continually telling us that the most satisfying thing at meal times is putting food down on the dinner table that their children will enjoy. We’re therefore committed to offering mums great value meal time products, that are tasty, easy and quick to serve and keep the whole family happy.” said Charlie Douglas, Brand Marketing Controller. “Our new ‘Champion of Mums’ creative highlights this with the line ‘Greatness without effort’ and shows mum as the hero at meal time. We’d encourage retailers to make the most of our biggest marketing investment in years.”

Bigfork have designed a new website for the A47 Alliance, a body made up of representatives from the business community and local authorities, which makes the case for improvements across the A47 from the A1 at Peterborough to Great Yarmouth.

Please register your support by visiting the new A47 Alliance website.

Bigfork – we make websites stand out t:01603 513080 www.bigfork.co.uk

A Norfolk IT Company is warning of cases of one of the deadliest threats to date for PCs and the data stored there in.

React Computer Partnership with a branch in Beccles are seeing an increasing number of virus attacks called Cryptolocker. Director Richard Pledger explains “It’s probably the worst we have seen for a good while.” “Cryptolocker basically encrypts your data and gives you a message saying you have something like 70 or 100 hours after which we will destroy the key and your data will be useless. And it’s serious. Once your PC is infected you have two options; remove the virus and go back to a good backup, or pay the money.”

Top security experts warn, if you don’t have a good backup and don’t pay the money there is no way of unencrypting the data. F-Secure – one of the world’s top Virus Protection companies so far has tried and failed to get around Cryptolocker the hackers have done such a good job. You may well wonder why has this latest deadly virus been created? Well earlier this year, researchers from Symantec who infiltrated the servers of one ransomware syndicate conservatively estimated that its operators were easily able to clear $5 million per year.

React have been monitoring reports which say if you pay up the hackers behind Cryptolocker will send the key, to unlock your data. However as Richard explains there’s no guarantee “We have seen some companies successfully receiving the key to unlock their data after of course paying a substantial ransom but the worry is that once they’ve infiltrated your networks with this virus there is no way of knowing what may happen in the future.”

So how does it infect files? Cryptolocker is often spread by the DHL type email which has been common recently arriving in your inbox with a zip file attachment, although React have seen some as a harmless-looking word document attachments.

How can I protect my PCs? Firstly you must make sure your antivirus software is up to date, and don’t open any attachments you are unsure of. Make a current back up and keep it up to date without a backup your only choice is to pay up or lose your data.

Richard concludes “Please do take notice, protect your PCs and spread the word amongst your own email contacts too – it’s the only sure way hackers can be defeated effectively, in the meantime please take this warning seriously and do stay safe.” For Cryptolocker updates go to www.reactcp.co.uk

We had our second Christmas Dinner Dance Event of the year on Saturday here at the BEST WESTERN Brook Hotel, Norwich and yet again, some really lovely feedback.

We are so proud!

Make sure you celebrate in style this year at a Brook Christmas Diner Dance – Tickets still available for 13th and 14th December andd we also have a couple of tables left for the Soul & Motown Event this Friday 6th December.

Call us today for more details on 01603 741161 –