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DANCE MUSIC CHARITY ANNOUNCED AS UK FESTIVAL AWARDS PARTNER

Dance music charity Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (LNADJ) has been announced as partner of the most prestigious festival awards event in the UK, alongside ticket distributor Ticketmaster and social media giant TikTok.

Held on 6th December 2022 at Manchester’s Freight Island, the UK Festival Awards is the only fully festival focussed awards that gives fans the opportunity to vote for their favourite events and it’s back for its 17th edition.

The event presents the ideal opportunity for festival organisers and suppliers to get together and reflect on the past season whilst looking forward to the next. The awards themselves will be decided by either fan votes, an expert panel, or a combination of both in categories including Best Major Festival, Outstanding Contribution and, for one year only, the Perfect Pivot Award for the festival business that applied its skills to alternative activity during the Covid closure.

As the chosen charity partner, LNADJ will have a video package to promote its work and provide the chance for further festival organisers to donate or become involved with the foundation. LNADJ will also sponsor an award on the night to promote the partnership, which founder Jonny Lee will present.

The charity will use the partnership to grow its brand reputation and create relationships for its Festival Partnership Programme. Recently, over £16,000 was raised to build wells across Africa and India from the Secret Garden Party 2022, a collaboration that saw £1 added to the cost of tickets. All proceeds will support LNADJ’s future campaigns such as the ‘Have A Drink On Us’ and ‘Get Equipped,’ an initiative to collect surplus DJ and production equipment.

The charity will also have a representative on the panel to choose award winners, using their extensive experience within the music scene as guidance on championing people’s hard work in the music and events industry.

As well as the award ceremony, LNADJ is also hosting the afterparty, the acts will be announced soon.

Jonny Lee, Founder of LNADJ commented: “We are delighted to be the charity partner of the UK Festival Awards and be part of an exciting evening celebrating the incredible achievements and hard work of people within the music industry. It promises to be a fantastic night recognising the large-scale events put on that take a huge amount of time, energy and passion. We can’t wait to be involved and spread the news of our fundraising efforts that help change the lives of young people.”

Mayor of Greater Manchester said: “Everyone in Greater Manchester knows the massive global impact this place has had on music and culture, so it’s fitting to see the UK Festival Awards coming to the true home of 24-hour party people.

“After what’s been an exceptionally tough time for festivals and the hospitality industry, it’s really important that we get behind the sector and recognise the many people – from organisers, to caterers, to volunteers – who deliver everything from boutique independent events to some of the biggest shows on earth. We can’t wait to welcome all of this year’s nominees to Manchester and celebrate their achievements with them.”

For further information about the UK Festival Awards 2022, visit: https://www.festivalawards.com/

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life is a registered charity in England & Wales no 1142478.

OCU GROUP WELCOMES SERIES OF SENIOR HIRES TO SUPPORT GROWTH DRIVE

OCU Group, the parent company of multi-utility specialists O’Connor Utilities and Instalcom, has strengthened its senior leadership team with a series of recent hires to support its ongoing growth ambitions.

The hires come after the appointment earlier this year of Michael Hughes as Group CEO and the announcement in August that it had been acquired by Triton Partners, one of Europe’s leading investment firms.

Stockport-based OCU is a specialist operating within regulated and non-regulated infrastructure markets, including in energy, rail, water and telecoms. It is a key partner to many of the UK’s leading power and telecoms providers on complex and significant infrastructure projects.

The leadership appointments include:

  • David Snowball joined in August as Chief Financial Officer.  In a 20-year career, David has previously held senior finance positions at EG Group and EMR along with roles at KPMG and Accenture
  • Pinder Kang as Chief Strategy Officer. Pinder joins from energy giant SSE, where he was Director of Strategy and Business Development. He was also previously head of project development at Balfour Beatty
  • Matthew Edwards has been appointed as Head of M&A. His role will include identifying and evaluating strategic acquisition targets to support OCU’s future growth. He was previously a Director at PwC in Manchester
  • Mark Thornberry joins as Finance Director. Mark has previously held senior finance positions at high-profile businesses including EG Group, Matalan and financial services firm Together

Alongside these appointments, Clare-Louse Lipinski has joined OCU Group as Group Head of Safety, Health, Environment and Quality and Liam O’Sullivan has been appointed Power Operations Director at Instalcom.

Michael Hughes, Chief Executive Officer of OCU Group, said: “It’s an exciting time to be at OCU Group and I’m really pleased with the quality of the senior appointments we’ve made. The partnership with Triton, along with the investment it provides, has given the business fresh impetus. This is reflected in our rapid growth and the complex and crucial projects we’re working on up and down the country.

“We now look ahead with great confidence. Our specialisms continue to be highly prized by our clients across multiple sectors, meaning OCU will be playing a key role on the projects that shape the UK economy for years to come.”

Last month OCU announced it had become a significant shareholder in Leeds-based fibre-optic specialist InICT in a move that strengthens its capabilities and exposure to the fast-growing superfast broadband market.

Meanwhile, in August, OCU Group business Instalcom acquired Opals, a specialist in telecoms infrastructure services based in Peterborough.

BARINGS SECURES RSM UK FOR LANDMARK, MANCHESTER

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Leading Audit, Tax and Consulting Firm Moves Manchester Office

Barings Real Estate, one of the world’s largest diversified real estate investment managers, has agreed a 15 year lease on the 14,000 sq ft 9th floor at its Landmark office development in St Peter’s Square, Manchester, with leading audit, tax and consulting firm, RSM UK.

After an extensive search, RSM UK is relocating some 300 staff from Spinningfields into the award-winning Landmark building to create a sustainable, hybrid-working environment and support the firm’s next stage of regional growth.

RSM UK has 3,660 partners and staff in 32 offices throughout the UK. RSM UK is a member firm of RSM International – the sixth largest network of audit, tax and consulting firms globally. The network spans more than 120 countries, employing over 51,000 staff globally.

RSM now join fellow global occupiers HSBC UK, Allianz Insurance, Grant Thornton, JLL and social enterprise, Change Please, within the building which is also home to the Hana by Industrious Flex centre.

The 180,000 sq ft award-winning Landmark development offers 14 floors of BREEAM Excellent and Wired Score Platinum certified office space with a focus on sustainability, well-being, customer experience and technological infrastructure. Barings has safeguarded the needs of existing and future occupiers at Landmark by providing forward-thinking facilities and operating systems including contactless technologies enabling touch-free movement within the building, a dedicated cycle storage and maintenance hub, high-quality showers and changing facilities, electric car charging spaces and Amazon lockers.

RSM’s new office at Landmark will deliver 14,000 sq ft of design-led, collaborative working space with huge amounts of natural light and benefitting from all of the building’s sustainable and technological features.

Ian Mayhew, Managing Director, UK Real Estate Asset Management at Barings, said: “RSM UK is a welcome addition to our global tenant roster at Landmark. We are confident that our best-in-class building will help enable all our occupiers to meet their own corporate ESG commitments whilst creating exceptional working environments for their valued employees.”

Kevin Duffy, RSM UK’s regional managing partner in the North West, said: “We are delighted to be moving our Manchester team to Landmark in St. Peter’s Square. This is a major milestone in our journey to grow our business in the North West. The development’s focus on sustainability and technology also accommodates our approach to hybrid working, allowing us to create a flexible, collaborative and exciting environment for our staff.”

Barings was advised by CBRE and Colliers and JLL. RSM was advised by JLL.

How to Transform Your Impact as a Manager and Leader: The Answer Is A Question

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Currently managers are learning to come to terms with something called “the great realignment” a phrase coined by Dominic Ashley-Timms. 

Right now the workplace is seeing something it has never seen before – the current workplace is made up of employees from 5 distinct generational cohorts and millions of ‘accidental managers’ are facing novel management challenges that are yet to be properly examined.

Enter, The Answer Is a Question (TSO, October, 2022).

In the face of current world events changing the way in which we work, Dominic and Laura’s perfectly timed book is the ideal response. 

But this book isn’t another post-pandemic management guide contemplating the nuances of remote work. 

The Answer is a Question is the distillation of hard-won insights into actionable, measurable steps for any manager who wants more from themselves and their colleagues.

Available from TSO, a publisher with thousands of titles under their belt, The Answer Is a Question draws on more than 60 years of collective experience at the very top tier of global businesses, working with some of the world’s best-known organisations, Laura and Dominic set out the fundamentals of their model for rehumanising management and helping all of us become ‘better people people’.

Sharing details of their ground-breaking and now, academically proven* Operational Coaching™ programme STAR® Manager, The Answer Is a Question empowers all of us to become better leaders, better managers and better colleagues, all by discovering how to ask better questions.

By accessing what the authors call our ‘hidden superpower’, readers who commit to asking better questions, guided by the illuminating case studies and personal testimonies included in the book, can expect to:

. Recoup a day a week of time 

. Reduce stress, in work and out

. Concentrate on higher value tasks

. Develop an infectious habit for asking powerful questions

. Foster creativity and problem-solving in colleagues

. Rehumanise their management approach

The Answer is a Question challenges readers to rethink their perspective on how they manage others by illustrating with actionable steps:

How to identify a coachable moment in (almost) any work scenario

How to go further than ‘active listening’ and learn to listen at an intuitive level

How to improve key relationships quickly

How to easily supercharge confidence in others

How to move beyond to-do lists and discover the joy in managing others

Dominic and Laura are available for interviews now.

REVIEW COPIES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

Cheshire drivers are the tenth speediest in England and Wales, new study finds

  • Lincolnshire has the highest number of speeding offences in England and Wales each year, with 5.43 offences per 1,000 residents
  • South Wales and North Yorkshire rank second and third respectively
  • Cheshire drivers are ranked tenth as the speediest drivers in England with an average of 4157 annual speeding offences
  • An average of 159,662 speeding offences are made each year across England and Wales. 

Lincolnshire is the police force area in England and Wales with the highest number of speeding offences per capita, according to research from Forbes Advisor, the price comparison and financial guidance website.

The study analysed the latest police force data from 2010 to 2020 on speeding offences for each region in England and Wales to establish where the speediest drivers commit their offences.

The data found that Lincolnshire has the highest number of speeding offences with 5.43 per 1,000 each year. Over the years examined, on average, there were 4,164 offences committed each year in Lincolnshire, although in 2020 there was a decade high 6,734 drivers caught breaking the speed limit.

South Wales ranked second with 5.23 offences per 1,000 residents, and a total of 7,030 offences across a population of 1.34 million. The year with the highest number of offences recorded was in 2018, with 8,894, which was more than three times higher than 2010 when only 2,603 drivers were charged with speeding in the region.

In third place is North Yorkshire, with an average of 3,774 speed limit offences per year from a population of 831,600, at an average of 4.54 speeding offences per 1,000.

North Wales ranks fourth with 4.34 speeding offences per 1,000 residents. This comes as a result of 3,054 average speeding offences in the area per year across a population of 703,400.

Dyfed-Powys in Wales rounds out the top five, with an average of 4.33 speeding offences being made per 1,000 residents.

Staffordshire ranks sixth with 4.23 speeding offences being made per 1,000 residents. This comes from a population of 1,139,800 and an average of 4,816 speeding offences being made each year in the area.

In seventh is West Yorkshire with an average of 4.18 speeding offences being made per 1,000 residents. When broken down, this comes as a result of a total population count of 2,345,200 and 9,792 average speeding offences each year.

Lancashire and Bedfordshire take the eighth and ninth spots respectively. Lancashire has 4.017 (4.02) speeding offences being made each year per 1,000 residents whilst Bedfordshire has ever so slightly less at 4.016 (4.02) per 1,000 residents.

Cheshire rounds out the top ten with 3.89 speeding offences being made per 1,000 residents. This comes down to an average of 4,157 offences being made each year in Cheshire on average across a population of 1,069,600.

 

The areas in England and Wales with the most speeding offences 
 

Police force area 

 

Average number of annual speeding offences

 

Number of speeding offences per 1,000 residents

 

Lincolnshire 

 

4,164

 

5.43

 

South Wales 

 

7,030

 

5.23

 

North Yorkshire 

 

3,774

 

4.54

 

North Wales 

 

3,054

 

4.34

 

Dyfed-Powys 

 

2,266

 

4.33

 

Staffordshire 

 

4,816

 

4.23

 

West Yorkshire 

 

9,792

 

4.18

 

Lancashire 

 

6,088

 

4.02

 

Bedfordshire 

 

2,740

 

4.02

 

Cheshire 

 

4,157

 

3.89

Source: Forbes Advisor UK

At the other end of the scale, Durham has the fewest speeding offences committed on average each year, with just 0.95 per 1,000 people. The North East county also has the fewest total number of people being charged with speeding offences with just 609 on average each year.

Derbyshire has the second lowest number of speeding transgressions committed by drivers, at 1.24, with an annual average of 1,318 offences from a population of 1,064,000.

Wiltshire drivers receive an average of 921 speeding tickets each year, which equates to 1.27 offences per 1,000, the third lowest on the list.

Despite London having the greatest number of speeding offences overall at 13.973, the city has the sixth lowest rate (1.55/1,000) due to the greater number of drivers who live in the capital.

Commenting on the findings, Kevin Pratt from Forbes Advisor said: “Speeding is dangerous. Roads have speed limits for a reason, and they are limits, not targets. All drivers should stay within the limits to reduce the likelihood of injury-causing and fatal accidents.

“Get caught speeding and, if convicted, you’ll get points on your licence, and these will likely stick for four years. Rack up a total of 12 or more and you could be banned from driving. On top of that, you’ll need to declare your points when applying for or renewing your car insurance, with an increase of around 5% on the cards because you’re now perceived to be a riskier prospect.

“Lincolnshire is a rural county with plenty of long straight A-roads that might tempt drivers to put their foot down. But while there are few of us who can honestly say we’ve never bust a speed limit, the less we do it, the better.”

The study was conducted by Forbes Advisor, whose editorial team boasts decades of experience in the personal finance space. It is passionate about helping consumers make financial decisions and choose financial products that are right for their life and goals.

The team brings rich industry knowledge to Forbes Advisor’s coverage of consumer credit, banking, investing, insurance, loans, mortgages property. Its priority is ensuring its coverage, reviews and guidance is backed by research, expertise and strict methodologies.

ITS DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR SEVEN BRO7HERS BRAND NEW DUO

SEVEN BRO7HERS BREWING CO is launching two dreamy craft brews – a sweet and sour beer duo for the autumn.

Tingling with fruity flavour, the ‘Sour Dreams’ offers a blackberry sour tang whereas ‘Sweet Dreams’ is a DIPA packing a punch at 9% ABV.

Upcycling the left over ‘sweer and sugary wort’ from the DIPA the sour is made using the same mash – two beers one brew.

Head brewer Jack Dixon of SEVEN BROTHERS, described the brew. He said: “The concept is using the same mash for two different beers, instead of sending sweet sugary delicious wort down the drain we make a whole new beer.

“After we’ve mashed the high alcohol, sweet grains we shower the grains with hot water which rinses the sugars, because the grain bill on the beer is so big and sugary we are able to sparge (rinse) the grains twice to make two different beers.”

Jack added: “You could say the two beers are brothers!”

The Sweet Dreams is a citrus beer with floral undertones. Sour Dreams, 4.0% ABV is a fruity blackberry and mango sour that will send your taste buds wild. This tart beer is sessionable with a fruity edge.

The duo is the latest in the brother’s line of special craft beers and both cans are available in 440ml cans. Sour Dreams is £4.50 and Sweet Dreams £4.75 per can on the web shop.

The brewery was founded in 2014 by McAvoy brothers, Guy, Keith, Luke, Daniel, Nathan, Kit, and Greg, inspired by their dad’s home-brewing in their cellar at home.

Fraudster who illegally claimed £10,000 Covid grant sentenced

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The director of an IT consultancy firm who lied to obtain a £10,000 Covid-19 Small Business Rates Grant (SBRG) has been sentenced in court.

 

In August 2020 Manchester City Council’s Business Rates Team were made aware of potential irregularities regarding a SBRG claimed on behalf of Spry IT Consultancy Services Limited, of Cariocca Business Park.

Funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, these grants were intended for qualifying businesses who were eligible for small business rates relief, trading at the premises the claim was made for and who had been forced to close during lockdown restrictions.

A grant of £10,000 was subsequently made to the company.

It was discovered that the company’s director Rizwan Majeed, 35, of Lecester Road Manchester, fraudulently applied for this grant as at the time of the application – April 24, 2020 – the business was no longer trading at Cariocca Park. It had vacated the premises on February 29, 2020.

At an initial hearing held at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on April 21, 2022 both defendants failed to attend. At a second hearing, held on July 28, guilty pleas were entered by both the company and by Majeed on the charge of fraud by false representation.

Sentenced at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on October 6, 2022, Majeed was ordered to pay a £1,600 fine, costs of £300 and a victim surcharge of £190.

The defendant had already repaid the fraudulently obtained £10,000.

The company was ordered to pay a fine of £3,300, costs of £300 and a victim surcharge of £190.

Councillor Rabnawaz Akbar, Executive Member for Finance for Manchester City Council said: “The Covid-19 business grant programme was brought in during an exceptionally difficult period in Manchester’s history. Business owners faced huge uncertainty and many, sadly, were forced to close due to the devastating impact of lockdowns.

“For the vast majority of applicants these grants were a lifeline but, in this case, it was an opportunity to get rich quick.

“I am grateful for the diligence shown by our business rates and legal team in tracking down this fraudulent claim and successfully securing a prosecution.”

Central Manchester Based Fitness Coach Launches New Book, ‘Booty Building’

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Manchester resident Luke Boss, a qualified fitness coach, has drawn on personal experience of following poor diet plans and poorly conceived exercise regimes, to publish a fitness, diet & nutrition book, aimed at women and men wanting to shape their gluteus muscles to achieve the perfect ‘butt’.

‘Booty Building’ offers expert advice, a 38-session training & exercise programme and recipes, Luke’s book is designed to target, build and tone your bum whilst allowing your legs to stay toned with definition. It works to tone your abs, with effective abdominal exercises.

Author Luke’s personal journey led him to developing the guide and writing his book. After holidaying LA, he became very body conscious, eating low calorie junk food, whilst sometimes doing 500 crunches per day. Luke lost 3 stone, however was constantly told he looked painfully thin and had a ‘flat butt’. Luke subsequently retained as a personal trainer and following this developed his own programme.

Luke who lives in Castlefield, Manchester explains:- “The bum is the cutest and most beautiful part of the body in both males and females… when I am in the gym, I see the same ladies doing cardio and guys just training their upper body and ignoring their potentially lovely booties.

“It has been on my bucket list for a while to write my own book. My aim is for you to be confident enough to develop your own training and diet plan that will make a difference. You will also learn what it takes to get your desired bum-cheeks.

“As a qualified personal trainer, I have seen how people over the world have been following the trends set by celebrities, and much of the advice is aimed at women’s glutes and therefore men miss out. I wanted to change this with an inclusive guide designed for men as well as women.”

Luke is a qualified Personal Trainer, Spin Instructor and GP Referral Instructor.

‘Booty Building can be purchased from Amazon, RRP £14.99.

Attending a Dedicated Sixth Form College

Independent Sixth Form Colleges, such as Abbey College Manchester, are a popular choice for students looking for a more mature, independent learning environment and there are many advantages that this environment offers to students aiming to gain entry to a top university. Chris Randell, Principal at Abbey College Manchester explains…

Independent colleges follow the same guidelines and regulations as any independent school and are members of the same organisations, Boarding Schools Association, Independent School Association, Independent Schools Inspectorate. Independent Colleges offer the same national standards of care as a traditional school. Here we explore the advantages of attending a sixth form college, such as Abbey College Manchester.

Care focused around the needs of a sixth former
At Colleges, the pastoral system is designed with sixth form study in mind, so is in line with the needs of students aged 15 years plus. Colleges will have structures in place such as a House system, study support programmes and unrivalled UCAS support. Sixth Form Colleges are organised to retain the support systems and culture that enable teachers to intervene in a regular and timely way ensuring that students stay on track with their studies and achieve to their maximum. They are experts in understanding the needs of older teenagers and the issues they face.

Academic Focus, Wider Offering and Flexibility
Teachers are focused on teaching sixth form curriculum in their subject areas, so they are specialist and passionate about teaching at this level and have time to run clubs and extra-curricular activities aimed to stretch and support these students. This means teachers have more time to supervise and support students with wider reading around the exam curriculum.
Sixth form colleges can have greater academic flexibility with the timetable and subjects offered. Colleges often offer more subjects than traditional schools. This allows a greater combination of subjects to be studied together. Plus, Colleges are able to offer Foundation Programmes as well as GCSEs and A Level, allowing further choice and flexibility for students.

With the smaller number of year groups, Sixth Form Colleges are able to offer more clubs and activities aimed at older students to support and enhance their subject studies. This makes them more attractive candidates to top universities.

Preparation for University Life
Students have a greater element of supervised freedom than at a school, so preparing them for the independent lifestyle they will receive at university. At Abbey College Manchester, the wide international mix gives students a truly global outlook and establishes a lifelong international friendship network. This is also good preparation for the international environment at top universities and something that our Alumni do say helped them settle quickly into their university studies.

To learn more about Abbey College Manchester, visit www.abbeymanchester.co.uk

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY: SEVEN BRO7HERS ADDS FOUR SIS4ERS DISTILLERY TO ITS TRADE DISTRIBUTION

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SEVEN BRO7HERS BREWING CO is now an official distributor of FOUR SIS4ERS DISTILLERY’s spirits range for On-Trade customers.

The move promises to offer trade customers a wider selling portfolio and allows buyers to access a ‘one stop’ shop for crafty beer, gin and rum.

The addition to the SEVEN BRO7HERS selling portfolio will include the SIS4ERS Spiced Rum, the spirit makers ‘Signature Gin’ and six flavoured gins.

Keith McAvoy, CEO of SEVEN BRO7HERS said: “This month we are launching a seriously exciting collaboration with our SIS4ERS and becoming an official distributor of their whole spirits range to our On-Trade customers.

“We hope the collaboration will open their portfolio up to new customers and make our offering stronger for buyers. Now you really can #jointhefamily and serve the full family collection of amazing beers and spirits. Our sales team is ready for you!”

SEVEN BRO7HERS BREWING CO AND SIS4ERS were born and bred in the heart of Salford, the 11 siblings believe they are the biggest single family in the alcohol business in the world.

The pair up will allow both family businesses to monitor sales and look at how each brand and product complement each other on the on-trade market.

Lucy White, from FOUR SIS4ERS DISTILLERY, said: “We are very excited about our new distribution partnership with our very own brothers. They have established an extremely strong on-trade sales presence over the past eight years and now is the perfect time to add our range of spirits to their portfolio and strengthen their offering to their customers.

“There are many features about their beer range and our spirits that complement one another, let alone the family connection that we both share together. It makes perfect sense for their on-trade customer network to access the products produced by the same family – allow the family story to shine through.”

SEVEN BRO7HERS was founded in 2014 by McAvoy brothers, Guy, Keith, Luke, Daniel, Nathan, Kit, and Greg, inspired by their dad’s home-brewing in their cellar at home. The ‘McAvoy sisters’ Kerry Collins, Hayley Robinson, Kate Haslam, and Lucy White first launched SIS4ERS Distillery in 2018.

The brothers currently run successful beer houses in Middlewood Locks, Salford and Ancoats, in Manchester. They also operate a taproom bar in the brewery. In July 2020 they opened their partnership bar at Manchester Airports new T2 Departure Lounge and in May 2021 they opened their doors to a Beerhouse in the heart of MediaCityUK.

Today the spirit makers produce a range of delicious, flavoured gins and rum. The distillery, which is also an event space, hosts gin tours and tastings.