4 | Aycliffe Today Business
BUSINESS BITES
MANUFACTURING TASK FORCE
A task force dedicated to maximising
the strength of Durham’s manufacturing
sector is forging ahead.
County Durham’s Manufacturing Task
Force says it’s is “ready to launch
the next phase in its work” following
the opening of Hitachi’s £82m train
assembling factory on Aycliffe Business
Park.
The task force was set up to advise on
an industrial strategy for the county to
help inform how Durham County Council
should allocate funds to ensure the best
economic impact.
Cllr. Neil Foster, DCC’s cabinet member
for economic regeneration and chair of
the task force, said: “We now need the
help of companies to give us information
so we can provide them with the best
help and support.”
WORK STARTS ON £10M UTC
Construction has officially started on the
North East’s first University Technical
College in Newton Aycliffe.
The £10m UTC South Durham,
an engineering and advanced
manufacturing Centre of Excellence, will
open in September 2016.
The original plans for the UTC were
exclusively revealed on www.
aycliffetoday.co.uk in September 2013
after a meeting of the Aycliffe Business
Park Community.
The Government approved the Aycliffe
UTC bid in August 2014 and in July this
year Durham County councillors voted
unanimously in favour of the application.
See page 6 for our exclusive column
and video with UTC principal Tom
Dower.
HALL’S HOUSING DEAL
A building firm that helped lay the
foundations for Hitachi’s £82m train
building venture is now digging in to
deliver a housing scheme.
Hall Construction Services has been
appointed main contractor on the £3.5m
Backworth Park project, in Shiremoor,
North Tyneside.
The company, based in Rushyford,
near Newton Aycliffe, will oversee the
building of new roads, sewers and
pumping stations for developers.
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Comcast founder and ‘Business
Whisperer’ to headline awards event
The founder of Teesside cable firm Comcast will be the keynote speaker at
this year’s Make Your Mark business awards event in Newton Aycliffe.
Yarm-based entrepreneur Peter Wilcock
founded cable TV giant Comcast in the 1990s
before selling it to NTL, which later merged
with Virgin Media.
Mr Wilcock, who published his book
The Business Whisperer in 2014, now
runs Carpeo, a call centre, and marketing
company Growth Machine, as well as being a
conference speaker.
He will be the guest speaker at Aycliffe
Business Park’s Make Your Mark, a
glamorous black-tie awards event to
celebrate local business achievements, at the
Xcel Centre on Thursday 26th November.
Kerina Clark, chair of the Aycliffe Business
Park Community Steering Group which is
organising the event, said: “We’re delighted
to have secured a high-profile business
personality for this year’s Mark Your Mark
event.
“Peter is a hugely successful
businessman, with not least the Comcast
company he formed and then sold to NTL,
but he also has many other business success
stories to share with us, so we think he’ll
prove to be an inspiring keynote speaker for
this event.”
Mr Wilcock was born in Leeds and worked
in sales for firms such as Unilever, Seagrams,
In-Wear and Initial before ambitiously setting
up his own cable TV firm.
“Comcast showed me that fate really
exists,” writes Mr Wilcock on his website.
“Finally, a square peg in a square hole
allowed all the instinct and natural skills to
come flooding out. And how we changed the
world.
“Paradigms shifted for fun. No-one wanted
the internet but we gave it to t