Monthly Archives: July 2010

Jul 21 2010

The end of the road for emda?

I was asked by the Nottingham Evening Post this week if I had a view on the news that emda is to die a lingering death by the new Coalition Government. I have blogged about this before – I do have a view…

The story I gave was:

It’s the end for the east midlands development agency. So, does that spell power or pain for the East Midlands?

Set up over a decade ago by the last government, emda is one of nine regional developments agencies established to work with local businesses to help development, employment, business efficiency and skills.

The figures given by emda say that there is £9 of economic output for every £1 it spends. And in 2008-09 2,630 jobs were created.

Tim Garratt, Director at Innes England, said: “I had first-hand experience with emda’s input into the Castle College Automotive and Engineering Training Centre at Highfields.

“Part of the building is let to Toyota with the other half occupied by Castle College. It is a world-class facility for automotive training.

“Although funded in part by the former Learning & Skills Council and a major contribution from the city, the majority of the build and fit-out was funded by emda. The funding was critical but much more important was their ability to be the central part of a large team – they added their corporate weight and influence. I doubt we would have attracted Toyota without them.”

There is a similar story next door at No.1 Nottingham Science Park, managed by Innes England.

“One of the most important lettings this year, in inward investment terms, is to The Changan Motor Company. Bryan Jackson of emda has to be credited with brokering this move to Nottingham.”

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills expects that RDAs will close by March 2012. The end of emda sees the start of ‘local enterprise partnerships’, comprising of councillors and local business schemes.

“It’s a case of ‘watch this space’ to see what impact a replacement LEP will have on the region. Attracting investment to ‘Greater Nottingham’ is important but I don’t think that anyone would argue that emda has always demonstrated the ability to see across the piste of the region and make sure that requirements are placed where they are best suited.

“It’s widely recognised that there needs to be belt-tightening in the current austere environment of public finance. But we have to be wary about completely strangling the flow of investment.

“The loss of emda is not just about the loss of a ‘building’ and the employees. It is potentially a massive loss of knowledge, built up over a decade. That knowledge is priceless in a competitive market.

“The region needs new investment – it is the lifeblood of the economy. As the saying goes ‘it is better to travel than to arrive’.

“We have no idea yet as to how the new LEP boards will operate, but they need to be wary of becoming parochial. They will also need the skills and experience to know how global investment works. I hope that key staff at emda will be employed so that we don’t lose the valuable intelligence.

“If every cloud does have a silver lining then it may be that this is a fresh start. Every business needs to refresh itself from time to time; but was it ‘broke’ in the first place?”

Tim Garratt is director of asset management for commercial property company Innes England.

I would be interested in other peoples view….

Jul 20 2010

Do they know it’s Christmas – part 2

Oh no. Last year I blogged (moaned) about Christmas starting at the end of October.

Guess what – Selfridges are starting the countdown on 2nd August this year – 145 days before the actual holiday. I think even the BBC were bemused.

You have to be kidding right? I have checked my diary and it is not 1st April.

There should be a law against this. It is simply unacceptable. Most people will have only just gone on their summer holidays!

I thought the Birmingham Selfridges was great when I did go in April – I just wondered why they bothered taking the Christmas stuff down?

After my dose of hating Sainsbury’s last week, I am getting close to hating Selfridges too…

And if Starbucks even think about starting to play Noddy and his merry men – I won’t be held responsible for my actions. It is likely to be messy though.

Jul 19 2010

Great service… at European Golf

I have been enjoying my golf this year, although my handicap seems resolutely stuck at 17.

Me on the Old Course at St Andrews - alas without clubs!

I have played ‘twilight golf’ for the last few weeks – at a variety of courses in Nottingham. At least this way it doesn’t eat too much into my working day; and squash is very hot in the summer…

Watching the Open does make you realise the difference between us hackers and the pro’s – I have a huge amount of admiration for their ability to send that little ball so far and straight. Sometimes I can achieve one of these! The Pro’s do make it look very easy – which it most definitely isn’t.

I have always been able to hit an Iron reasonably well, but have a little gremlin in my head which tells me I can’t hit a driver!

But over the last few weeks I have been trying to hit the ball more consistently and at the weekend decided I had to try a new driver. I went to my golf shop of choice – European Golf in Arnold Nottingham. I have bought nearly all of my kit from them as I find the service friendly and not pushy. They also have an amazing computer bay for trying out clubs.

So I wandered in and tried out a number of clubs – expecting to pay around £180 for a driver. I hit two reasonably – both were £185. But the guy who served me wasn’t happy, I was putting too much back-spin on the ball and he though a different shaft could help. He produced another club which I hit most consistently around 275 yards – but was £229! Then the good news – it was in the sale at £99.

Deal done!

My point is that he could have sold me a club for £185 or £229, but I ended up paying £99.

I walk away a very happy customer – this is not the first time I have experienced this level of service with them, so I tell all my mates – and my blog readers now!

The service is diametrically opposite that of American Golf – who 15 years ago I found to be rude, arrogant and unhelpful. I have never stepped in the shop again! Nor will I do.

Jul 18 2010

A magazine in 48 hours?

Issue Zero of 48 hours magazine was published in May 2010. On June 27th it stopped being sold – 48 days after being published.

These are not a particularly surprising statements – except that the magazine was assembled in just 48 hours! The whole thing was photographed, illustrated, designed, and edited in just two days. They received 1500 submissions!

Sadly I couldn’t get a copy! I even tried to get the electronic copy for my ipad.

In the last week I cancelled one of my magazine subscriptions (to Cycling Weekly). I subscribed for a year and took their offer of a quite valuable tool kit at the start. But I grew a little bored, and I think this is the problem with a regular magazine – especially a weekly one. I still subscribe to Professional Photographer. But the other magazines I read tend to be on an ad-hoc basis – depending on my mood…

What I like about this new magazine concept is the mix of new and old media that it showcases — mixing self-publishers to the rapid fire approach of bloggers. The finished article is of a somewhat chaotic but interesting mix of articles, photographs and layouts. It has some structure but this is loose and has an immediacy which I think is brilliant. The chaos contains some real gems – like the futuristic interview with Lady Gaga.

This sort of fast moving collaboration might be the key to the future? It satisfies our short attention span? But it also has that physical presence which a computer screen can’t give you.

I need to make sure I get the next copy – and maybe even contribute… that would be fun!

Jul 17 2010

Squeeze an ipad!

One of my favourite live bands of all time have embraced the ipad technology! I saw them at the Isle of Wight and am seeing them back in Nottingham later in the year.

Squeeze - at the Isle of Wight 2010

They are embracing the technology on the one hand (are they the first to play live with an ipad?) – but are still belting out this great song after all those years. Would I be sounding old by suggesting they don’t write stuff like this anymore? Or ‘up the junction”, or ‘cool for cats’… I could go on!

I first saw Squeeze in 1979 – and have seen them numerous times since. In my opinion Glen Tillbrook and Chris Difford deserve to be up with Lennon & McCartney in terms of song-writing. I can listen to them any time – and do. I think they are probably the most played in my car, by some stretch!

Thanks to my colleague, Simon Dare, who sent me this link. Play it loud!

Jul 16 2010

I hate Sainsbury’s….

Last night I had a comment left on my blog by Paul Johnson – you can see it here.

Fancy a Starbucks love? Well not here ...

It seems that Sainsbury’s have decided to put their own Cafe into my ‘local’ store INSTEAD OF STARBUCKS. As far as I am concerned this is Sacrilege.

Have you been in their cafes? They are awful. Like upmarket transport cafes.

I was worried earlier in the year when Starbucks tricked me into thinking they were closing – It was an April fool, not a funny one. This isn’t funny either.

I was suspicious earlier this year when Starbucks were rolling out their free wi-fi for ‘cardholding’ customers. Apparently we couldn’t have this at Castle Marina because wi-fi interferes with the tills? Oh please!

It seems to me that we need a call to action here.

Is shall be objecting to their application – which you can find here. Feel free to object too!

The statement about Starbucks is buried in the ‘statement of community involvement document’. As Paul spotted the statement was

“Sainsbury’s has balanced the need to improve the store and offer cooked food in its own restaurant against feedback in
support of the Starbucks concession. The proposed Sainsbury’s restaurant will offer a wider choice of hot and cold drinks and food.
The number of requests to retain Starbucks were even with comments in support of introducing a Sainsbury’s restaurant.”

So the number of requests to retain were the same as a request for a Sainsbury’s own cafe but they have decided that this even vote is a vote against Starbucks?

I shall be writing to the Managing Director Justin King. You can email him too if you like – his email address is justin.king@sainsbury.co.uk. I am sure he would love to hear from us fans of Starbucks.

And then it is time I stopped buying my lunch there! I shall encourage all of my staff to similarly boycott the store and go to Boots at Riverside instead.

I shall also stop buying petrol there. This alone will hit store takings – two weeks ago I went there four days in a row…

I then need to find a new store for Starbucks… This is a priority.

This news has ruined my week! I now hate Sainsbury’s.

UPDATE 21 JULY 2010

I have heard from Darcy – MD of Satrbucks (via Twitter) that things may not be quite as bad as we hoped.

Jul 15 2010

Car Insurance for young people – run by Alton Towers?

My youngest son is 17 and is learning to drive.

quite expensive to insure I guess...

Although the cost of lessons hasn’t gone up significantly over the years (£20 per hour), the Insurance Premiums surely have.

There is a suggestion that:

* 1 in 5 drivers are involved in a crash during their first year on the road
* male drivers aged under 21 are 10 times more likely to have a car accident than male drivers aged 35 or over
* young drivers have a higher proportion of crashes at night than older drivers
* 1 in 8 British drivers are under 25, but a quarter of drivers who die in traffic collisions are in this age group
* In 2007, 40% of passengers killed or seriously injured – meaning lost limbs, paralysis, brain injury and other life-changing injuries – were in a car driven by a young driver

Quotes for my son added to our second car policy ranged from around £1,900 to over £9,000 (on a car worth around £3,500…). The £9,000 was ‘ASDA price!’

But then there was a quote from Quinn Direct – and Irish Company for £961.

As my late father always told me, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is…”

And how true.

Firstly, the Irish Financial Regulator has appointed an Administrator of the business and their website says: “…the Financial Regulator has separately directed Quinn Insurance Limited to cease writing new business in the UK. Existing UK policyholders will not be affected by this decision as existing policies will remain valid. Customers can make claims in the normal way.”. Interesting that Confused.com show them as the best value! Their own web site does say that they have re-entered the market, but the Financial Regulator in Ireland makes no mention of this?

Secondly, if you change my sons status from being a ‘learner’ to holding a Full Uk Licence, the premium increases a little … to £3,700! The argument goes that they are not a high risk whilst you are driving with them…

For a few minutes I thought that Alton Towers had entered the Car Insurance market!

Then there was a flash of brilliance from my wife – Provisional Marmalade – £250 for three months! And a stand-alone policy. Brilliant! She found this through Martin Lewis’ web site.

Jul 14 2010

Water Water everywhere – but not in Vegas soon?

I was watching Piers Morgan on his travels last night – and he was in Sin City. I enjoyed the program last week when he visited Shanghai – and it gave me a hint of what to expect on my forthcoming trip!

But last night what grabbed my attention was the small water problem they have in Nevada. It seems that over 90% of the water in Las Vegas comes from the Hoover Dam (the electricity produced also powers home for 750,000 people in Los Angeles). But in 9 years the water behind the Dam has dropped by an estimated 120ft. It has been dropping by 1% each year.

As ever, it was the visual image of the white clean rocks at the side of Lake Mead like a bath ring which really pressed the message home. Patricia Mulroy, manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, appeared on the programme and suggested they could be at a catastrophic level in just 8 years. Catastrophic might mean closing down Las Vegas. Electricity in Los Angeles is at risk too.

Global warming in generic terms was blamed for the capacity of the Lake plummeting from 96% to around 39% – between late 2000 until June 2010.

The City, meanwhile, just consumes inexorably. But the fact is that they only use 3% of the water from the Dam and of this only 2% is consumed on Sunset Strip. Evidently 90% goes to farms and ranches!

The Water Authority have a number of schemes to try and help – this includes paying homeowners to replace turf with gravel. But also a massive engineering project of trying to pipe in water from elsewhere. And there are classes to help you learn to reduce waste. They might need some of those bottles I blogged about yesterday!

This was an eye opener of a programme, but the stars on the show (Paris Hilton, Sylvester Stallone and the like) seemed oblivious.

Clearly something needs to be done, but it seems that they are racing against a ticking clock.

This doesn’t look like a good place to invest! House prices have dropped by 50% in a year. If they don’t sort the water issue the drop might be 100%….

Thanks to Mike Krawczynski for the image.

Jul 13 2010

Bottled water – the sustainable way?

As many will know I’m not exactly ‘green’. I do take an an interest in green buildings, but am concerned about the mis-information we get. I also have concerns about green bling – which has the capacity to undo some of the good technology.

We have an obsession it seems with bottled water – and this is probably one of the least sustainable modern phenomena. In 2007 we drank 2.1 billion litres of the stuff. That’s quite a lot – in context you could fill around 5,826,000 olympic swimming pools with it.

A story caught my eye over the weekend – in America a new product has been launched – the Bobble. It costs $9.95 (about £6.60). It basically takes the re-usable bottle a stage further – it incorporates a carbon filter to make ‘filtered’ water. The web site claims that the filter is good for 150 litres.

I think this is a great product in several ways. Firstly it does what is says on the tin – it is re-usable and thus sustainable. It is very cost effective. But better than this – it looks fantastic – and much better than the current crop of plastic bottles on the supermarket shelf (perhaps with the exception of the Paul Smith Evian bottle).

Once again, it’s a simple idea, done well – I look forward to getting hold of one in the UK.

Failing that I will have to pick one up in the USA on my next trip. I am worried though that flying to New York to pick one up at Bloomindales might not be altogether green?

Jul 12 2010

The Sheriff’s Commission – 12 months on

I attended the advisory panel meeting of the Sheriff’s Commission last Friday. It was held at Loxley House – a fitting location!

The Commission celebrated it’s birthday and it was time to look back on the year – and forwards into the future.

Firstly, there was a review of the things that have been achieved:

1. Without doubt the biggest achievement has been the recognition by the Council that Robin Hood has a massive role to play in the City. This was not the case when we set out…
2. As a result of this recognition, the City has reclaimed Robin Hood and we now proudly claim that this is the Home of Robin Hood. The logo above is a small but important part of this strategy.
3. The work done in the USA and elsewhere (looking at what makes a World Class Attraction) has been well received and sets the benchmark for the aspirations of the City. This is not nebulous, it is a real aspiration – it is acknowledged that if Nottingham is to ‘get this right’ it has to be done well.
4. The Robin Hood film captured the imagination of the Public and (hopefully) the sequel will keep Nottingham on the map. Spending on gifts with a Robin Hood theme were up 83% in the week of the film premiere. Nottingham hosted a Gala screening which attracted media attention from around the World.
5. The Robin Hood month in May was a huge success – visitor numbers at the Castle were up, spending in the shops was up.
6. A Robin Hood trail complete with new visuals will be in place in Nottingham shortly. (These have been done by my mate John Lyle and are really good)

But the real trick now is to move forward. The ideas are still coming forward about keeping the momentum going – in all sorts of areas. This includes long term aspirations for a Visitor Attraction, educational materials for schools, ongoing events (like the Robin Hood month) and the continuation of marketing and merchandising…

Graham Allen MP was present at the meeting and he spoke passionately about his aspirations for the City.

I have some disappointment that we are not further on, but it was said that “good things come to those who wait“. We have gained some momentum – we need to keep it going! I genuinely believe that we have won some hearts and minds and that we are in a better place than we were 12 months ago. There is much work to be done, but we have made a great start.