We have been appointed business case development partner to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) Mass Transit Network, which aims to connect communities across the region with a quick and reliable service that is integrated with cycling, walking, bus and rail.
The new public transport system forms part of the WYCA Mass Transit Vision 2040 and its Connectivity Infrastructure Plan. Both of these detail emerging plans for a new integrated public transport system, and the areas it could serve, as part of a wider programme of transport investment over the next 20 years.
The global professional services business, with support from the specialist management consultancy, Anturas, will deliver Lot 3 (Client Side Management) of the Mass Transit Network’s Group Professional Services Framework. This will support WYCA (and the five District Partners) in the development of all future business case work associated with mass transit.
Within the Lot, we bring expertise in the following areas: programme management and assistance, business case management, design and engineering management, consultation and engagement resource, highways management, commercial and operational support, planning and regeneration and consents processes.
Clare Wood, Director, said: “Through its Mass Transit Network, West Yorkshire Combined Authority is demonstrating the kind of ambitious, joined-up thinking that’s needed for the future of the region. By driving connectivity this plan will enable lower-carbon travel will contribute to net-zero targets and address long-standing regional inequalities.
Having delivered similar schemes around the world, most notably light rail services to Manchester and Edinburgh, as well as Sydney, we are looking forward to bringing our expertise, alongside Anturas, to this development. This is a vital project for the region and we are committed to ensuring it delivers a greener, more inclusive and more productive Yorkshire.
Cath Leech, Managing Director for Anturas, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Turner & Townsend to help shape this exciting programme of work for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
“Having worked closely with Turner & Townsend across a range of mass transit schemes in the UK and Ireland, we are looking forward to sharing our combined knowledge and experience to bring significant benefits to the travelling public in the region.”
We have been appointed to provide risk management and cost engineering/estimating services to the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), supporting their research into fusion energy and related technologies, with the aim of positioning the UK as a leader in sustainable nuclear energy.
Our appointment covers Lot 4 and Lot 6 of the UKAEA’s project delivery services framework, running for four years from 2022 to 2026 with the option to extend for a further 12 months.
The framework is aimed at improving social and economic inequality in addition to providing a fast and flexible approach to recruitment. This will help UKAEA in its mission to make fusion energy a safe, sustainable, low-carbon energy supply of the future.
Fusion copies the processes that power the sun and stars where atoms are fused to release energy, with the potential to become a near-limitless source of energy.
Recent breakthroughs in research – including several from UKAEA – mean that nuclear fusion could soon become a commercial reality, if the remaining engineering and technological barriers can be overcome.
This would completely reshape the global energy market, creating new supply chains and increasing demand for novel construction materials and machinery. The UK is at the forefront of this emerging industry and is well-positioned to reap the benefits.
The announcement on the UKAEA framework builds on our track record of forming programme delivery strategies and overseeing performance for complex projects that are vital to our clean energy transition.
We are actively assisting a wide range of clients in this area, with notable recent wins including continuing to support Magnox with its existing decommissioning programme and its future missions, and project managing the installation of carbon capture, utilisation, and storage technology at Viridor’s Energy from Waste facility in Runcorn.
David Whysall, UK Managing Director for Infrastructure, said: “The world urgently needs new clean energy solutions to reach our net-zero targets, but increasingly this also has to be balanced with considerations of energy security and resilience.
As part of our brand-new hospitality launch, we took a closer look at our impressive new experiences next season.
Last month we announced the details of our fantastic new hospitality offering coming to Easter Road.
Come the start of the 2022/23 league season there will be four new hospitality suites open to Hibernian FC supporters in the West Stand.
CLICK HERE to check out our full range of hospitality offerings!
Nearing almost 150 years since the Club was formed, the new experiences represent our famous capital city routes.
Our rich history will continue to grow and our place in this City will only get greater. This is Our City, it’s where we belong.
With 4 new areas offering all levels of hospitality from our new sports bar to fine dining, East Road is the perfect hospitality experience for everyone!
Today, (21st June 2022) eight Edinburgh Festival Fringe producing venues are coming together for the first time to launch an updated show ticketing and reviews platform, edfest.com – providing audiences with a central hub for easy booking, information and reviews of ‘the best curated shows on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’; comprising Assembly, Dance Base, Gilded Balloon, Just the Tonic, Pleasance, Summerhall, Underbelly and ZOO.
With tickets on sale from today, edfest.com provides a centralised booking and reviews hub providing access to 1,159 shows across comedy, dance, theatre, and music at 140 venues, featuring performers from 32 different countries.
Some notable performers and shows in the 2022 edfest.com line up are:
Assembly: Choir of Man, Beats on Point, Friendsical, Love Loss & Chianti and Queenz
DanceBase: Ballet Ireland, Scottish Dance Theatre, Dan Daw Creative Projects
Gilded Balloon: Late’n Live, Maisie Adam, Leith Social, Henry Naylor, Jack Docherty
Just The Tonic: Jimeoin, Tom Stade, Aliya Kanani, Jack Gleadow, Anthony Deveto
Pleasance: Freedom Ballet of Ukraine, Sophie Duker, Ben Hart, Tim Vine, SK Shlomo
Summerhall: Learning to Fly, Life is Soft, Mama Love, Talisk, Efterkland
Underbelly: La Clique, Rhys Nicholson, Dragons & Mythical Beasts, Circa: Humans 2.0, Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch
ZOO: Night Dances, Runners, Rocky, Sad Book, Far Gone, Every word was once an animal
The new edfest.com website has been designed to give audiences a more bespoke experience, allowing them to search and find shows they will love. Companies and venues will update information on a regular basis and the public will be encouraged to review shows and share with their friends. The new experience gives ticket buyers a more rounded view of what’s on offer, replacing what word of mouth and poster clippings have done in the past.
Speaking on behalf of the eight edfest.com venues, Jim Hollington, CEO of Dance Base, comments; “The last two years have been incredibly hard for everyone in the arts and entertainment sector. It’s therefore critical that this year’s Edinburgh Fringe is a success, to protect the future of our own organisations, of the performing artists who make the Fringe, and of our contribution to the city of Edinburgh overall.
“As producing venues, we invest a huge amount of time, energy and money curating and producing some of the best entertainment in the world and bringing that to Edinburgh. Whilst the pandemic created numerous challenges, it did allow us to stop and think about how we could collaborate and do things better. Across the eight edfest.com venues we share a similar vision and so it made sense for us to pool our sales and marketing resources to drive efficiencies across our own operations and ultimately make things easier for customers. Our box offices will also all be linked and audiences will be able to buy for multiple venues.
Crucially this year we are going on sale earlier than usual to increase the sales window for bookings and generate much needed revenue.
“Putting the last two years behind us we would like to encourage everyone from Fringe loyalists who turn up every year, to Edinburgh locals and first timers to visit edfest.com, book some spectacular shows and once again enjoy the best possible Edinburgh Fringe experience this August. We can’t wait to get going!”
Queen Margaret University (QMU), Edinburgh has teamed up with the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) to offer postgraduate students the chance to graduate with an industry accredited qualification. The move will help upskill graduates, equipping them with the latest industry marketing skills and knowledge, and helping them stand out from the crowd and become highly desirable to future employers.
From September 2022, all students enrolled on QMU’s International Marketing, Strategic Communication and Public Relations, and Digital Campaigning and Content Creation postgraduate degree programmes will be eligible for DMI accreditation on completion of their degree and have access to a wealth of DMI resources throughout their studies.
All QMU students registered on DMI accredited courses will be given a membership account to access up-to-date industry information to assist them with their studies and help them keep on top of the latest digital marketing trends. They will also study the core module ‘Digital Communications’, which the DMI has specifically considered the content of and confirmed that it provides students with the up-to-date knowledge needed to work in this exciting and ever-changing field. Upon completion of their degree, graduates from all three programmes will obtain CDMA (Certified Digital Marketing Associate) accreditation from the DMI.
The DMI is an internationally recognised network of over 200,000 members working in every major city across the globe. QMU has chosen to partner with DMI to accredit these degrees as DMI accreditation is recognised by a Global Industry Advisory Council containing international organisations in Europe, North America and Asia.
DMI accreditation shows employers that a student’s learnt skills/knowledge are up-to-date with the latest practice in marketing and that they have undertaken a high-quality multi-disciplined degree.
Professor David Stevenson, Dean of the School of Arts, Social Sciences and Management at QMU, said: “All our postgraduate degrees combine theory with practice to ensure graduates are well prepared to develop successful careers in their chosen field. We are proud to have gained DMI accreditation as it not only recognises the industry-ready skills that students will develop on our programmes but also provides them with access to a host of additional resources and learning material through their DMI membership that will only enhance our graduates’ employability.”
Neil Hehir, Legal Director and specialist in infrastructure, energy and marine sectors at Pinsent Masons
Demand for offshore wind turbine installation vessels is forecast to become a significant issue over the next few years and may affect the pace of development of UK offshore wind farms.
Some analysts predict that by 2024 demand for wind turbine installation vessels may outpace supply and the situation is exacerbated by the trend towards larger and heavier wind power turbines. In turn, this has made some wind turbine installation vessels (some of which have only been built in recent years) obsolete.
Adapting existing turbine installation vessels is likely to be expensive, time consuming and in some cases impossible and as wind farm developers continue to favour larger turbines, a new generation of purpose-built vessels will be required in order to meet demand.
Market demand is likely to be for vessels with a larger deck area which can carry more turbines per trip – a feature which will significantly improve operating efficiency and reduce overall project costs.
In order to meet the requirements of the Paris Climate Agreement, the amount of offshore wind capacity (both from fixed and floating turbines) added each year needs to substantially increase by 2030, and consequently more wind turbine installation vessels will be required in a short timescale.
This presents a clear opportunity to vessel owners. However, new vessel construction projects are not without their challenges given the significant cost of these vessels and the lack of shipyards capable of constructing this type of vessel.
The increasing distance of offshore wind farms from shore is posing a challenge in connection with operations and maintenance vessels. Service Operation Vessels (SOVs) are becoming more common within the offshore wind industry in connection with the execution of operation and maintenance activities.
SOVs are required as an alternative to Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs), due to the distance of many offshore wind farms from the shore. Originally, some SOVs were oil and gas industry vessels but there is an increasing trend towards the construction of vessels specifically for deployment on offshore wind applications. SOVs offer clear advantages over CTVs – they can stay at sea for longer periods of time, can operate in poorer weather conditions, can cope with more significant wave heights and can carry more personnel on board.
Skilled and experienced personnel who are able to operate vessels efficiently and safely in very demanding environments are likely to be at a premium. Mere ownership of suitable vessels will not be enough to satisfy market appetite. Local content rules in relation to vessel crews which apply in some jurisdictions are a further issue which vessel owners need to navigate.
Demand is likely to be for vessels powered by lower carbon solutions. There is an increasing trend towards CTVs and SOVs being designed to utilise hybrid (electric and traditional fuel) technology, while hydrogen and ammonia may also be used more commonly as vessel fuels in the future.
Existing vessel owners will need to move quickly to benefit from the opportunities presented by offshore wind farms.
Sustainable natural wool brand The Tartan Blanket Co. is opening its first brick-and-mortar store this summer in Edinburgh.
The new shop will be based on Great Junction Street, Leith, and will be opening its doors for customers on Saturday 25th June 2022.
Founded by husband and wife team Fergus and Emma Macdonald, the store is a first for TBCo. after being an online-only brand since its inception in 2014.
Co-founder and CEO, Emma Macdonald, said: “We are so excited to finally open our first TBCo. shop in our Leith Studio home. It has always been a dream to bring the TBCo. brand to life and create a space which feels warm and inviting to our wonderful community of customers.
“Our business has grown significantly over the last two years as we focus on sharing warmth through sustainable wool and helping people look good, feel good and do good – a sentiment which has resonated with the public during and post-pandemic”.
The shop will focus on providing an experiential space for its customers, and will offer a curated selection of The Tartan Blanket Co.’s sustainable blankets, scarves and accessories for customers to experience and shop first-hand.
Emma said: “The new shop is a moniker for how much we’ve grown since The Tartan Blanket Co. began trading. Our studio in Leith has been a base for our team to come together and build the brand; it has been our warehouse, our office , our photo studio and now soon to be our first store. We are proud to be becoming part of the retail community of Edinburgh, which will forever be our hometown and the home of TBCo.
“We’re excited to be a part of such a vibrant area of Edinburgh and we hope our store will help shine a light on Leith and everything it has to offer”.
Linzi Sykes, Product and Graphic Design Specialist, said: “As a member of the Design Team, it has been amazing to develop our new shop space.
“The shop is light and airy, combining custom-made ply furniture, social try-on areas and fun messaging to really involve customers in the TBCo. experience, tying our online presence to our retail space. We can’t wait to welcome our customers, giving them a sense of how it feels to be part of TBCo”.
The Great Junction Street Shop follows a successful warehouse expansion in 2021 which saw The Tartan Blanket Co. purchase a 32,000sq in Newbridge following a surge in revenue last year.
The Tartan Blanket Co. is a purpose-driven lifestyle brand committed to sharing warmth through sustainably-sourced woollen blankets, scarves and accessories. As part of their Positive Impact Pledge, 2% of all purchases are donated to environmental and humanitarian charities.
Maven Capital Partners (“Maven”), a leading UK property and private equity manager, has sold 111 Westerhill Road, Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow to a joint venture administered by M7, the specialist in Pan-European Real Estate, for £4.687million, generating a 2.54x return for investors.
The property comprises an industrial unit of 112,000 sq ft situated on Westerhill Business Park, Bishopbriggs, 6 miles to the north of Glasgow. The site extends across 2.94 hectares (7.3 acres), providing a large warehouse/manufacturing area as well as ancillary office space, and substantial car parking for 168 vehicles.
Constructed in 2000, the warehouse is fitted out to a high technical specification and currently serves at the headquarters to former Maven investee John McGavigan Limited. McGavigan, a global designer and manufacturer of engineered plastic components for the automotive industry, with clients including BMW, Ford, Daimler Benz and Volvo, was itself acquired by CCL Inc, a Toronto Stock Exchange listed global corporation earlier this year.
Andrew Whiteley, Partner at Maven, said: “We are delighted with the investment return we have achieved for our investors. 111 Westerhill Road has been a top performing asset within our portfolio, occupied by a tenant we had backed previously through our private equity division. Since we purchased the property four years ago it has generated an attractive rental yield and the recently agreed new ten-year lease with McGavigan provides excellent security for the new owners.”
Euan Burns from M7 commented, “the off-market opportunity proved compelling value in the current industrial investment environment, offering attractive fundamentals being let off a low base rent with annual indexation and acquired at a material discount to replacement cost.”
Ryden advised Maven and Burns Property Consultancy acted for M7.
Power Circle, a social enterprise that supports individuals, organisations, and communities to establish smart, local energy systems has secured £120,000 from the Catalyst Fund. The investment will allow Power Circle to grow its team and respond to the increasing demand for its consultancy services.
A smart local energy system brings together different energy assets and infrastructure in a local area and make them operate in a smarter way. These systems have the potential to bring cleaner, cheaper, and more efficient energy to communities.
With energy price hikes affecting private homeowners, tenants, social landlords and other organisations, and more people being pushed into fuel poverty, there is a strong case for the solutions offered by Power Circle, which increase reliance on locally produced green energy, rather than imported energy.
Power Circle’s founder, Jon Cape, has over twenty years’ experience with low carbon and renewables. He said: “Our solutions can offer a way for low-income households to reduce their energy bills and avoid increases in bills when shifting from gas to electric heating, which will be required to meet net zero targets”.
In addition to the benefits to households, Power Circle provides a vehicle to enable a swift and just transition to the new net zero world required by Scotland’s world-leading climate change legislation, and for social landlords to meet increasingly stringent energy efficiency requirements without the major impact on capital budgets required from other options.
On securing the investment, Jon said: “I am delighted that Power Circle has received funding from Firstport’s Catalyst Fund. This finance will be of enormous help, enabling us to grow our team to respond to ever-increasing customer interest in our solutions. We work with all kinds of customer and are getting very strong interest from social landlords needing to find new solutions to the rise in fuel poverty caused by record energy prices increases.
I am particularly pleased with the structure of the Catalyst Fund where repayment is linked to business performance. This is the type of funding which the Scottish social enterprise sector really needs.”
The Catalyst Fund, delivered by agencies Firstport and Social Enterprise Scotland, offers loans starting at £50,000. It uses a revenue-based repayment model that provides social enterprises with flexible finance without compromising their social mission. Its innovative funding mechanism means that social entrepreneurs repay the investment via a share of their revenue as their businesses grow. The fund is made possible by a £15 million investment from the Scottish Government.
Daisy Ford-Downes, Head of Group Investment Programmes at Firstport, said: “With increasing pressure on cost of living and energy prices, as well as the urgency of decarbonising to reach Net Zero, Power Circle’s focus on low cost, low carbon energy is timely. We’re so pleased to be able to support them via the Catalyst Fund to reach more homes across Scotland, and excited to see the business grow.”
Shona Robison MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, said: “We are delighted to support investment in Power Circle, via the Catalyst Fund. The establishment of smart local energy systems is vital at a time of rising energy costs in energy bills, and this will help our social enterprises meet the challenges of the pandemic, achieve long-term sustainability and reach net zero targets.
“The Catalyst Loan Fund is just one example of our continued support for growing social enterprises which can give opportunities to all people in Scotland.”
The Catalyst Fund is open for Expressions of Interest. More information about the fund can be found on the Firstport website.
Neos Networks has chosen Commsworld to deliver new dark fibre connectivity that gives the company 100% direct access to the Pulsant data centre in South Gyle, Edinburgh.
Edinburgh-headquartered Commsworld built and completed the contract in just three weeks, providing a direct route to main data halls. This provides Neos Networks with complete resilience diversity, as well as a scaling advantage to any clients, boosting the smooth running of its operations throughout Scotland’s capital.
Commsworld delivers this through its management and control of the largest privately-funded optical core network in the country, built on over 2,000km of dark fibre, which gives it the capacity to provide the scalable bandwidth needed to provide a resilient, reliable service.
It allows Commsworld to maintain full control whilst keeping latency across the country as low as physically possible, providing the capability to connect to a very fast, high quality, robust network almost anywhere in the UK as well as the necessary bandwidth to deliver an efficient, reliable and stable connection.
The delivery provides Neos Networks – a fellow leading UK provider of business network infrastructure and connectivity ¬– with extra reach for its own end-to-end dark fibre network, and also marks a continuation of its relationship with Commsworld.
Previously, Neos Networks assisted Commsworld in providing scalable network solutions which have enabled Commsworld to deliver ultra-reliable and high-capacity internet connectivity to major sporting events and festivals in Scotland.
Steve Wood, Group Sales Director for Commsworld, said: “This contract delivery for Neos Networks further strengthens the relationship between the two companies, and shows that Commsworld now has the capability to deliver core connectivity to a Tier 1 telecoms operator such as Neos Networks, cementing our status in the carrier space.
“As Commsworld expands its fibre footprint, we see further opportunities, giving us the capability to sign long-term contracts to the benefit of both organisations. Neos Networks’ assistance in the provision of connectivity to the likes of the Open Championship was a fantastic example of the work that can be delivered when we work together.”
Sarah Mills, CRO of Neos Networks, said: “We have been working in partnership with Commsworld for a number of years and are pleased at how the relationship has developed over this time, and some of the fantastic projects we’ve delivered together. More recently, they’ve been crucial in helping us better connect Edinburgh via the Pulsant data centre, delivering the services in record time and with the resilience and diversity required.”
