Significant Opportunities for the Town
The Steering Group of Aycliffe Business Park Community (ABPC) has set out ambitious plans for the year ahead as it approaches its first birthday. A special event is being held at the Xcel Centre on the park, on Friday 31st January from 8am, to celebrate the group’s first anniversary.
As well as regular news and networking sessions, with revamped formats, the Steering Group is also planning a series of specialist best practice events, where firms will get a chance to take part in free seminars staged by local business leaders.The group has also been boosted with the addition of a new member – social media expert and managing director of Au Fait Marketing, Rachel Townsend Green.
Steering Group chairperson Kerina Clark, manager of the Xcel Centre, said: “I think it’s right to celebrate what has been achieved over the last year but we also need to look ahead to the coming year.
“As well as the regular events we’re also looking to organise a schedule of activities which will further enhance the links between businesses and schools.
“A lot of work has already gone into this – such as the acclaimed Apprenticeship Awareness Programme, which both Woodham Academy and Greenfield Community College took part in. Later in the year there will also be an opportunity for community and voluntary groups to talk to businesses and explore areas of mutual benefit.”
The Steering Group is also asking local businesses to engage in feedback and surveys to enable them to improve future programmes.
Vice-chair of the group Pamela Petty, managing director of Ebac, added: “We need to know what is working, and what is the attraction for attendees.
“Every company differs from one to another and their needs aren’t necessarily the same. Some will purely find the networking useful, some will find the best practice sessions more valuable and others just want to be part of the business community.
“We need to make more businesses on the park aware of what we are doing and get them involved. We’re seeing a lot of SMEs at events, but we also want the bigger companies to show their hand and see what we’re all about.”
The first birthday event will look at the opportunities for growth on the park and how businesses can get involved, rather than just letting it happen.
Kerina added: “The aim of the ABPC is to provide businesses with a platform to identify areas, ideas and avenues to improve their own future prospects.
“We should also see how we can help to facilitate businesses having a say in the future of the park itself.”
Business Durham managing director Simon Goon will talk to guests at the event about what he sees as the potential for growth and how to might respond to this.
Simon said that the opportunities for growth in Newton Aycliffe are “significant”, but says local firms have a huge part to play in building on the park’s recent success.
“We see Newton Aycliffe as a fantastic opportunity,” he said. “But we need we need explore how businesses can help shape the future changes, and help maximise the opportunities for growth.
“The Aycliffe Business Park Community has provided the platform for engaging with the business community, we can use this to start a discussion about the future.”
But Simon is warning it won’t happen overnight, and we must first understand what needs to be done to realise potential.
“The opportunities in Aycliffe are significant, but we first need to understand the present before we start to shape the future,” he said.
“There are potentially more than 100 hectares of land that could be developed for business in Aycliffe, but do we have the capacity for utilities? Do we have enough skilled people to service new enterprises? There are a lot of questions that need to be answered
“We have to develop a longer term strategy to deliver growth in a planned way. We have to think logically and formulate our ideas so when the opportunity to expand comes, we’re ready, and we’ll be asking the local business community if they want to be part of that process.”
To find out more about the birthday event on 31st January, and to book, go to www.aycliffebusinesspark.co.uk
Steering group (left to right): Pamela Petty, John Finley, Kerina Clark, Dave Spensley and Rachel Townsend-Green.
