Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 25
The Aycliffe Business Park Steering Group
has organised a 2nd birthday party for the
Aycliffe Business Park Community.
BIRTHDAY EVENT
PLANNED AS EXCITING
PLANS ARE REVEALED
The Aycliffe Business Park Community (ABPC) will celebrate its second birthday
during a special event at the end of January.
It’s been two years since the Steering
Group officially launched ABPC at the Xcel
Centre, with around 100 firms from Aycliffe
Business Park attending.
Since then the group has hosted regular
news and networking meetings as well as
useful business practice seminars at various
sites across the park.
And in September last year, it organised
the hugely-successful Make Your Mark
awards event, when Tekmar Energy was
crowned Company of the Year during a
glittering ceremony attended by Sedgefield
MP Phil Wilson and Business Durham
Managing Director Simon Goon.
Talks are now under way to formalise the
Steering Group, which will create a more
sustainable entity.
And the group has organised a special
birthday celebration, which will be held at
Ebac’s Nortfrost site on Heighington Lane, on
Thursday 29th January, starting at 8.15am.
Chair of the group Kerina Clark, Managing
Director of the Xcel Centre, said: “It
promises to be another well-attended event
with lots of new faces and some fun long the
way.
“We’ve organised a special Aycliffe
Business Park quiz, which will include a
fun picture round featuring well-known
personalities on the business park, while
there will also be a short video presentation
to round up what’s been another really
positive year for Aycliffe Business Park.
“It would be lovely to see a big turn-out for
it so we can not only celebrate what’s been
achieved, but also keep everyone up-to-date
on some of our exciting future plans.
”
The Steering Group, currently an informal
association which currently relies on
volunteers and help from Business Durham,
says a recognised body will have more
opportunities to access funding to pay for
projects.
It would then potentially be able to employ
staff or pay local firms to carry out work and
build on what’s already been achieved in its
first two years.
Kerina added: “It’s been an interesting
couple of years. We feel like we have a really
good foundation now, but we feel we need to
build on that.
“So we’re in talks and taking advice
about formalising the steering group and
formalising the community group on the
business park.
“We feel we need to be some kind of
formal entity. What it means for the future is
we can look at joint procurement, insurances,
joint purchasing and also access funding to
do projects on the park.
“At the moment we can’t do that as an
informal group, but we really feel to be able
to go to the next level and be sustainable
for the future we think that’s what the park
needs and, from what we’ve heard, it’s what
businesses want as well.
”
The Steering Group – which currently
consis