Author: Dom Stevens

Summer Blooms at Vicar Lane!

15th July 2019

Vicar Lane Shopping Centre, Chesterfield is set to transform the popular town centre shopping area with a number of stunning floral installations, right across the summer, in celebration of ‘Chesterfield in Bloom’.

From July to September visitors are invited to pose for a selfie with the centre’s fabulous floral phone box – perfect for adding that floral touch to anyone’s Instagram feed.

There will also be a flower cart and the chance to meet the centre’s grassy animals around the centre – all Instagram worthy in their own rights.

Customers are invited to share their photos of the installations with the centre, via social media.

If summer isn’t the time to enjoy a few flowers in your life then we don’t know when is?

Shaun Brown, Centre Manager, Vicar Lane said, “Chesterfield in Bloom is such a fabulous initiative – a real community effort to make the town more attractive to locals and visitors alike. We’re thrilled to support this with our summer floral theme and hope that everyone enjoys admiring our installations and the photo opportunities that they offer!”

Posted in About Chesterfield, Business

Pronto Industrial Paints to sponsor Wellbeing Challenge for the second year running

11th July 2019

Following the success of last year’s sponsorship, Pronto Paints is pleased to be announced the latest official partner of the 2019 Redbrik Chesterfield Half Marathon, set to take place in October this year.
They will be returning as the sponsor of the Redbrik Chesterfield Half Marathon Wellbeing Challenge. In 2018, the Wellbeing Challenge saw more than 15 teams enter as a group into the 13.1-mile Redbrik Chesterfield Half Marathon, the Peak FM Five Mile Run and 1km Blachford Fun Run.

This year, they are calling on businesses, community groups, schools and families to engage with the Pronto Paints Wellbeing Challenge to promote a healthy lifestyle.

David Beckford, Managing Director at Pronto Industrial Paints added: “we all know that health and wellbeing is important, both inside and outside working environment.

“We’re passionate about health and wellbeing at Pronto Paints and always promote physical activity to our employees, who encourage each other to be more physically active.
“The Redbrik Chesterfield Half Marathon Wellbeing Challenge, and the idea behind it, fits with our company ethos which is why we’re delighted to have returned as a partner of the 2019 event following a fantastic first outing in 2018.”

John Timms, Redbrik Chesterfield Half Marathon Event Director, said: “We’re really pleased to have Pronto Paints back on board for the 2019 Half Marathon.

“The Wellbeing Challenge was a great success last year and we’re looking forward to it growing it this time out. It’s a superb event to enter providing a bit of healthy competition between friends, family and colleagues.”

For more details or to enter the Wellbeing Challenge contact the Redbrik Half Marathon team via the events official website to declare entry into the Pronto Paints Wellbeing Challenge and receive a discount code for all team member to use.

The discount is available across all three races on the day including the Redbrik Half Marathon, Peak FM Five Mile Run and Blachford Fun Run.

Find out more about the Chesterfield Half Marathon

Posted in About Chesterfield, Business, Leisure, Summer, Visiting

Perez looks forward to race at British Grand Prix

11th July 2019

Chesterfield’s 19 year old race ace Seb Perez is looking forward to his guest drive at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in the Mobil 1 Porsche Supercup this weekend (13-14 July )

The excitement mounts for the current Porsche Carrera Cup GB Pro category driver who will be one of three Brits in the prestige International Championship that follows the FIA Formula One World Championship around the globe and will be racing alongside his Amigos team mate Nottinghamshire’s George Gamble and also leader in the British Championship and 2018 Porsche Junior Champion Dan Harper.

All three drivers should make a strong team effort in the race as all currently are well placed in the GB Championship, Perez is sixth and Gamble 3rd in the Pro Category and Harper leads

They will also race alongside World Porsche Super cup drivers and former World Track Cyclist now turned racing driver Sir Chris Hoy.

All three cars will be run by JTR racing, using their Amigos Carrera Cup spec cars converted to Supercup spec for the weekend. The cars will be different to drive, they will be lighter and quicker and will be limited to the sets of tyres they can use as guests to the Championship.

It’s not just about racing the car you need to know what it will do and how, Perez explained “technically the car is different, it has run straight through exhausts that make more noise and the car to the back is 35kg’s lighter that causes over steer and traction, qualifying will be interesting with fewer tyres to use and a few subtle differences to our usual GB Cup cars”

The GB Team of all 3 drivers were amongst around 27 cars that tested at Silverstone in June for the event, that saw Perez on a good pace and topping speeds of over 237kph.

After the test session Perez said “We had a really good test in preparation for the Grand Prix weekend with a lot to take in and learn a few little tricks that I can take back to the Carrera Cup GB that will help quite a bit.” I’m hoping for a top ten finish or better but it is a very competitive championship and would be nice for a rookie podium as a first time out in the Supercup.”

Perez will race in front of around 110,000 people and it is televised live on Sky Sports F1 and other channels Worldwide.

Perez said ” Performing in front of a crowd of around 110,000 people on Grand Prix day is pretty special and being on the Formula One package is another thing all together, I think we shall do all right and to be one of only three British drivers to be out there is great and also to have two current championship GB Cup contenders George and Dan will be very special”

He added “I’m really looking forward to having a good weekend.”

Seb Perez left Oulton Park in Cheshire two weeks ago after the seventh and eighth rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB with two top-ten finishes despite having a tough weekend in his Amigos Redline Racing machine.

Coming away from Croft last time out with a third-place podium hopes were high for another strong result after a two-week break for the Championship.

The warm and humid conditions made things challenging for the Amigos driver as he lined up tenth on the grid in the Pro class for race one. Seb had a clean start off the line and did well to stay out of trouble during the opening laps.

At the halfway point the 19-year-old had made good progress. Despite the Cheshire circuit being a difficult track to overtake on, Seb passed three cars before zeroing in on Dan Vaughan ahead.

Closing the three-and-a-half second gap to the cars ahead, he became part of a six-car fight which continued until the last lap, where the teenager made up one more position, finishing eighth overall.

A good start off the line for race two helped Seb to hold onto eighth place. As the race went on however, he began to struggle with his pace and eventually crossed the line ninth in class, a good recovery in a tough contest. He currently lies 6th in the championship

After this weekend Perez has a busy has a Porsche summer break for 5 weeks before a demanding schedule in front of him over the next few of months. with the usual Porsche Carrera Cup GB commitments taking in Thruxton and Brands Hatch until the end of October including two further trips to Silverstone where the series supports the FIA World Endurance Championship at the end of August and back again a month later in September supporting the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship..

The International renown Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup Championship is the pinnacle of the numerous national and international Porsche one-make series currently running around the World, and has been for more than 25 years.

Posted in About Chesterfield

Strut Your Mutt at Vicar Lane’s Doggy Day!

11th July 2019

Vicar Lane Shopping Centre, Chesterfield is excited to announce plans for a day completely dedicated to the furry four-legged friends in our lives, from 11am – 4pm on Saturday 20^th July.

On the day, Vicar Lane is inviting customers to come along with their canine friends, to enjoy a variety of activities, plus free treats (for the good girls and boys).

During ‘Yappy Hour’ our furry friends will be able to enjoy free dog treats and bottomless water from the drinking stations, while their humans will be able to enjoy a free mocktail* (*while stocks last).

There will also be the opportunity for customers to ‘strut their mutt’ around the centre’s mini agility course, which includes a series of play jumps, seesaws, tunnels and slaloms. There will be a rosette for star performers and dog treats in abundance for all!

The centre’s pawfect event assistants will be on hand to ensure that all four and two-legged guests have a wag-tastic time!

Shaun Brown, Centre Manager, Vicar Lane said, “We’re so excited to welcome our four-legged friends and their families to Vicar Lane for one great day of doggy fun! We’re sure the day will create some fantastic laughs and camera-worthy moments for everyone to enjoy!”

Posted in About Chesterfield, Leisure, Summer, Visiting

CT achieves platinum status in Veeam Cloud & Service Provider Program

11th July 2019

CT has achieved Platinum status in the Veeam® Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) Program, the highest level for a service provider, indicating its experience and expertise in delivering Veeam-powered Cloud Data Management™ services.

CT has evolved significantly with Veeam over the past 12 months, making the transition from a Gold VCSP partner to Platinum. CT uses Veeam software in its Managed Cloud Platform to enhance its availability services to customers. Availability, data protection and data retention are critical in offering the hybrid cloud services that organisations require.

Chris Barr, Technical Director at CT said: “We’ve been highly focused on helping customers achieve what they need from cloud services, namely cost benefits, operational efficiency and agility of virtualising their IT infrastructure. This recognition represents truly exceptional value in the world of security, protection and disaster recovery in cloud computing and provides our clients with assurance of our proficiency in this technology and that we are the ideal partner to provide such solutions”.

Mike Tonks, Hosting Manager UK and Ireland, at Veeam stated, “As a Platinum VCSP, CT has closely aligned with Veeam’s business, playing a key role in identifying solution opportunities that help their customers’ hybrid-cloud requirements. CT also offer a managed service to allow customers to focus on their business needs while knowing that their workloads have the required uptime and availability required. Our Availability solutions, combined with CT service delivery and Veeam expertise, put CT as one of our top service providers in the UK.”

Posted in About Chesterfield, Business

National award for local golf course owner

9th July 2019

Fame Tate, the owner of Stanedge Golf Club and PGA Professional has picked up a National Award.

Fame won the “Oustanding Achievement” Award at The English Women’s Awards – North. Inspiring women were awarded at a glamorous event celebrating female successes. It took place in in Manchester’s Mercure Piccadilly Hotel on Monday July 1st 2019.

Fame was nominated in this category for her achievements over the past 6-8 months in taking a huge risk in acquiring Stanedge Golf Club and bringing it back from the edge of closure and extinction.

The Awards honoured the talent and hard work of female professionals and entrepreneurs across the region. It celebrated the achievements of women entrepreneurs, business women, professionals, civil servants, charity workers and others that make the North a great and more equal place to live and work.

CEO Irfan Younis said: “Congratulations to all winners and finalists at the second English Women’s Awards North 2019. We were delighted to host exceptional finalists who make such brilliant role models and are leading a new generation of women and girls to greater success and open doors. We look forward to growing this campaign and are excited to see it evolve over coming years.”

Fame took over Stanedge Golf Club in March 2019 and has totally transformed the place from a run down clubhouse and golf course to a thriving facility which now see over 50 players of all ages and gender coming to the club on Wednesday nights for the clubs 6@6 golf league.

Fame set out a vision to make Stanedge Golf Club an accessible, warm and welcoming place where people of all ages, gender and backgrounds can come enjoy having fun playing the golf course of socially in the Clubhouse.

Fame said “ The resurrection of Stanedge Golf Club has not been easy, it really has been a monumental effort by many people who put many unsociable hours into making the club a place people now want to visit and enjoy being at he club”

“Since we acquired the club in February we have attracted over 80 new members and many visitors in response to our various offers, with different groups getting involved in our coaching and learn to play offers.”

Fame started playing golf at the age of 10 at Tapton Park Golf Club on the pitch and putt course and joined Chesterfield Golf Club not long after. Fame soon developed into a talented young player playing for the Derbyshire Girls Team, the Derbyshire Ladies Team and then at the age of fourteen, playing off scratch, she was selected to represent England.

Fame went on to represent England for a total of nine years and represented Great Britain and Ireland in The Curtis Cup in 2002 and 2004 and in The Vagliano Trophy in 2001 and 2003.

Posted in About Chesterfield, Business, Leisure

‘Step Up’ Programme Comes to Vicar Lane

9th July 2019

Vicar Lane Shopping Centre, Chesterfield is working with Derbyshire Adult Community Education (DACES), who work on behalf of Derbyshire County Council, to run an education programme for young adults in Chesterfield.

‘Step Up’ is a programme aimed at young people who have completed year 11, being run in the Hunloke Adult Education Centre for 4 weeks this July. The programme is aimed at 16 year olds with no fixed destination for further education, such as college place or apprenticeship.

Vicar Lane is working with organisers on an ‘employer challenge’ within the programme, whereby the young people are set a task within a real-life employment environment. Participants are required to visit the centre to familiarise themselves with the task at hand, meet the team and gather as much information as possible, before going away to work on their ideas. They then have to present their proposed solution back to the employer at the end of the programme.

Vicar Lane has set this year’s participants the task of developing creative solutions for the utilisation of vacant units within the centre. An initial briefing was held at the centre on 4^th July, when the young people visited the centre, explored the empty units, began work on their initial ideas and met with existing retailers to gain insight into life at the centre.

Proposals will be reviewed and winning plans selected on 24^th July. Their plans will be compared to the centre’s own thoughts to see how they align.

Shaun Brown, Centre Manager, Vicar Lane said, “We’re thrilled to be working with Derbyshire Adult Community Education on this valuable initiative, supporting young people who are unsure of their next steps in education or employment. We can’t wait to see what solutions they come up with for our challenge.”

Dom Stevens, Destination Chesterfield Manager added, “It was great for the team at Destination Chesterfield to be able to support DACES to find a partner to deliver this project in Chesterfield. We thank Chesterfield Champion Vicar Lane for their support of this initiative.”

Posted in About Chesterfield, Apprentice Town, Business, Chesterfield Retail Awards, Development, Made in Chesterfield

Proact to stage Blades U23 matches

9th July 2019

The Proact Stadium will stage the majority of Sheffield United’s competitive U23 matches during the 2019/20 season.

The two clubs have agreed a deal for United’s oldest development age group to use the Proact, with games scheduled to be played on a Monday whenever possible. Matches will not be played the day before a Chesterfield home fixture.

Season ticket holders of both clubs will be admitted to the U23 games free of charge.

Spireites chief executive Graham Bean said: “We are looking forward to welcoming the players and staff from Sheffield United’s U23s to the Proact. This will hopefully be the start of a long and mutually beneficial relationship between the two clubs.

“I would like to thank the representatives of both clubs who have spent time on putting this agreement together.”

Blades boss Chris Wilder is expected to bring a full-strength first-team squad to the Proact for a pre-season friendly on Tuesday, July 23 (7.30pm).

A limited number of hospitality places remain for this fixture, priced at just £35 for adults and £20 for U16s. The reduced cost for SBK Spires Restaurant members is £25/15. To book, please visit www.chesterfield-fc.co.uk and click the ‘Tickets’ tab.

Posted in About Chesterfield

Region’s leading estate agency in top 3% nationally

8th July 2019

Redbrik has once again been ranked as one of the award-winning agencies – representing the top 3% of agencies in the country – following this year’s assessment for the Best Estate Agent Guide.

Last year Redbrik was named the number one estate agency in the region in the Best Estate Agent Guide 2019, which assessed the performance of 25,000 branches across the UK, at the EA Masters Awards. They will find out in November which award it will add to its growing list of industry accolades by the leading nationwide guide.

The ranking takes into account more than a million properties listed at any point in the last six months, plus more than 1.5 million transactions, 25 million leads, 1.5 billion property views and 50,000 mystery shops. Also, each branch then audited and scored against a unique set of performance and customer service data.

Estate agent branches which display a Best Estate Agent Guide rating are among the best in the country, with the marks providing an essential indication of the quality of each agent.

Redbrik director Mark Ross, who co-founded the business in 2013, said: “This is another incredible achievement for Redbrik. Since we founded the company just over six years ago, we have continually sought to improve and find better solutions for our customers.

“Awards and recognition from the Best Estate Agent Guide are as good as it gets in our industry.

“Recognition such as this cannot be bought; agencies are put through stringent examination that it is a real demonstration of the hard work which goes into continuously ensuring that our customers receive the best service.

“It’s such an exciting time for us as a business as we continue to grow and evolve. We are working with our amazing team, as well as adding the very best new talent, to keep improving and offer more and better quality service lines to our customers.”

Posted in About Chesterfield, Business

New jobs on the way as Superior Spas announces £1.6m expansion

8th July 2019

The UK’s largest independent distributor of high-quality hot tubs and swim spas, ‘Superior Spas’, located in Chesterfield, has successfully secured £1.6m funding to complete its planned expansion, which will see the family brand relocate to specialist 20,000 sq ft premises.

The announced expansion comes as a result of continuing growth and success, which has seen the family-run company quickly become the UK’s leading name in high-end spas. In addition to helping the brand to expand its European reach and capacity, ‘Superior Spas’ is excited to announce the move will also create 30 brand new jobs for the local community.

Currently based in Brimington’s Station Road, ‘Superior Spas’ will be moving to a state-of-the-art warehouse location, which will provide the brand with comprehensive showroom, offices and parking facilities at the former GKN Stokes site, on Sheepbridge Lane in Chesterfield.

Being a family-owned business built on a foundation of family values, ‘Superior Spas’ is committed to playing an active part in supporting the local community. Reflecting this commitment, the company is thrilled to be creating 30 new local jobs as a direct result of the expansion.

Superior Spas was able to obtain financial support for the ambitious expansion, securing £750k from NatWest with the support of Relationship Director, William Islip and also a £150k loan from University of Derby’s Invest to Grow programme.

Assisted by the Sheffield City Region Growth Hub Access to Finance team, Superior Spas has also secured a £249k grant from the Sheffield City Region Business Investment Fund.

Neil MacDonald, Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership Board Member, said: “The Sheffield City Region Business Investment Fund helps businesses across the region to unlock investment to secure growth and jobs. It’s great to see Superior Spas’ expansion, which is in turn creating 30 new jobs for the region and helping to grow our economy.”

Andrew McDaid, a Partner from Mitchells Chartered Accountants who supported Superior Spas with the raising of finance, said: “Having maximised turnover from their current location, the next natural step was to secure funding for larger premises to enable Superior Spas to continue its growth strategy in Europe.

“We specialise in helping businesses grow, assisting firms of all sizes, to overcome big challenges. We are delighted to assist Superior Spas’ expansion into new premises and drive the company forward in an exciting period of growth.”

On completion the newly built warehouse will bring many benefits to the company including more efficient storage, which will dramatically reduce despatch timescales, a high-end showroom and larger offices allowing for the expansion of the workforce.

The Managing Director of ‘Superior Spas’, Robert Carlin, commented: “The move to our new premises will bring with it a range of benefits to both the company and the local community. The facility will dramatically improve our efficiency by reducing dispatch times, whilst also providing a high-end showroom and offices.

Mr Carlin continued: “With our UK and European business growing year on year, we’re happy to confirm that we’ll be needing another 30 employees to support our success. As a leader in our marketplace, we’d simply outgrown our old premises and needed more modern space to continue moving from strength to strength, both in the UK and abroad.”

Posted in About Chesterfield, Business, Development

Local Enterprise Partnership decision

5th July 2019

Chesterfield Borough Council has resolved to remain as a member of Derby Derbyshire Nottingham Nottinghamshire (D2N2) Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and to relinquish its membership of Sheffield City Region (SCR) LEP. The Council will, however, remain a non-constituent member of the Sheffield City Region Mayoral Combined Authority.

Councillor Tricia Gilby, Leader of Chesterfield Borough Council, said: “This is a decision that I neither take lightly nor is it a decision that I believe is necessary. But there is no option if we are to comply with the Government’s requirement for Chesterfield’s businesses and communities to in future be represented by a single LEP.”

“Chesterfield’s businesses and communities have benefitted greatly from the Council being a member of both D2N2 LEP and SCR LEP since 2013 with £60 million plus of external funds having been secured for investment in infrastructure, business growth, skills and employment support.”

“We would like this position to continue, however, Whitehall appears determined not to allow the geographies of two LEPs to overlap.”

At a meeting of full Council on 27 February this year, councillors received and considered a detailed report on the Government’s July 2018 review of LEPs.

Councillors noted in particular that councils were to be represented by one LEP from April 2020 contrasting with the position that has existed across many parts of England since 2013 where the businesses and communities of particular local authority areas have been represented by two or more LEPs. This has been the case in Chesterfield borough, where our businesses and communities have been represented by both D2N2 LEP and SCR LEP.

Councillors also noted the Secretary of State’s statement that there would be consequences for non-compliant LEPs. This would include withholding payment of additional capacity funds to support LEPs to develop their respective Local Industrial Strategies and reducing the value of post-Brexit funding allocations (UK Shared Prosperity Fund).

Councillor Tricia Gilby, Leader of Chesterfield Borough Council, continued: “I have a responsibility to act in the best interests of Chesterfield borough’s businesses and communities and indeed of all businesses and communities located within the D2N2 and SCR geographies in not limiting the ability of the two LEPs to realise the full value of their respective post-Brexit funding entitlements.”

“By taking this decision today, D2N2 LEP and SCR LEP will be able to finalise their respective proposals to the Government for geographies which best reflect real functional economic areas and remove overlaps.”

“Whilst our LEP membership will remain with D2N2, Chesterfield Borough Council will continue to maintain an active interest in SCR through its non-constituent membership of the Mayoral Combined Authority. This is viewed as essential to ensure the future alignment of D2N2’s and SCR’s key strategies on critical cross-boundary matters such as HS2 and strategic road networks.”

Elizabeth Fagan, Chair of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “We’re pleased that Chesterfield Borough Council has confirmed its decision to remain a member of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership area. The UK Government had requested that all local authorities, located where two Local Enterprise Partnerships’ areas overlap, must decide which LEP they wished to be a member of.”

“We very much recognise that the borough’s location means its communities look towards both Yorkshire and Derbyshire.”

“We will continue to work closely with our colleagues in the Sheffield City Region LEP, to provide the Chesterfield area with the best support for its economy.”

The Leader of the Council will provide a full account of the reasons behind the decisions now made at the next meeting of full Council, which takes place on 17 July.

Posted in About Chesterfield, Apprentice Town, Business, Celebrate Chesterfield, Destination Chesterfield, Development, Made in Chesterfield