/ NEWS Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 5
Inaugural business event comes to Newton Aycliffe
More than 50 businesses will come together to offer advice to potential and existing companies looking to start-up or grow.
The inaugural Durham Business Information Exchange( DBIE), which is being organised by Business Durham, the economic development company for County Durham, will be held at the Xcel Centre on Aycliffe Business Park on Tuesday September 20( 9am-12noon).
There will also be earlier DBIE event at Durham County Cricket Club in Chester-le- Street on Friday September 16.
Exhibitors at DBIE will be clustered together in zones: finance, skills training and talent, sectors, start up, NETPark Net innovation and business park communities.
The event is open to people thinking about setting up a business or who have already started a business.
Existing businesses will find services that can support them to export, to take on apprenticeships, recruit, implement training, and funding, or can get specific assistance in the space, automotive, process, defence, digital, creative, and service sectors.
Sarah Slaven, Business Development Director for Business Durham, said:“ We work with many different businesses every day and become their trusted guide, helping them grow and thrive in County Durham.
“ It became clear to us that there was a need to bring the business support organisations together so businesses can see all at once the breadth and depth of advice and help available to them.
“ It can seem confusing and certainly the landscape can change frequently so this is a great opportunity for businesses to chat to a
“ Come down and get expert guidance from a range of specialist advisers who really understand the regional business landscape.”
variety of business support organisations on the same day.”
Lloyds Bank is sponsoring the Durham Business Information Exchanges as part of its Manufacturing Growth Programme.
Sonya Atkins, area director for SME Banking in Durham & Wearside for Lloyds, said:“ This inaugural event is a great opportunity for local businesses to come down and get expert guidance from a range of specialist advisers who really understand the regional business landscape.
“ Durham remains an exciting place to do business and through our support of this event and our network of specialist local relationship managers, we are confident we can continue to help firms in the region meet their individual growth objectives and make a real contribution to the area’ s bright economic outlook.”
Cllr Neil Foster, Durham County Council’ s Cabinet member for economic regeneration, added:“ The economy is one of our top priorities and we welcome every opportunity to help businesses in County Durham start up and grow.
“ I would encourage all businesses to come along and find out about new support programmes to help win more custom, and opportunities to explore networks to help sustain and grow your business.”
For the Newton Aycliffe event, visit www. businessdurham. co. uk / dbiesouth
For the Chester-le-Street event, visit www. businessdurham. co. uk / dbienorth
DO ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS?
‘ Anti-oral variation clauses’- they sound complex and many of your contracts may have them- but what do they mean?
Broadly speaking, these clauses aim to introduce certainty as to when and how a contract can be amended.
Such clauses seek to prevent the parties involved from making any subsequent changes to an agreement unless they have been mutually agreed in writing and signed.
However, their enforceability has been confusing until recently and it’ s something that our experts have been working with many clients on over the last few weeks.
What’ s changed?
Contracts often specify that no amendments can be made without compliance with specified requirements but recent Court of Appeal guidance has led to a new consideration of the effectiveness of anti-oral variation clauses. The courts have suggested that, even where a contract contains a requirement for amendments to be made in writing, it is still capable of oral amendment.
The justification for this is on the basis of freedom of contract i. e. the parties should be free insofar as is possible to reach agreements with one another as they wish. The only obligation is that it must be demonstrated that the parties waived all such requirements under the contract.
To find out more about how these changes can affect you and advice on how you can protect yourself, read my blog http:// blog. endeavourpartnership. com / anti-oral-variation-clauses
Jessica Lenham Employment Department Endeavour Partnership www. endeavourpartnership. com