Aycliffe Today Business | Page 3

Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 3 INCLUDED IN THE JANUARYFEBRUARY 2016 ISSUE OF AYCLIFFE TODAY BUSINESS… WELCOME /04 NEWS Lox of Love gets national top 10 status... FOREWORD By Tom Dower /05 NEWS Holiways site plans recommended for approval... Welcome to the first edition of Aycliffe Today Business of 2016 – and a Happy New Year to you all. This is the 20th issue of this magazine and, although I’m relatively new to Aycliffe Business Park, I know how well received the publication is and how many of us look forward to reading the next instalment. In our busy lives it’s a great way of finding out about our neighbours. There’s a lot of news and features packed into this edition – I hope you enjoy it. For us at UTC South Durham, 2016 will mark a very important year. Work started last September on the building, adjacent to Hitachi’s new factory, and we are on course to open in September this year. For those who aren’t aware, UTC South Durham will be an engineering and advanced manufacturing Centre of Excellence, taking in students at both year 10 and 12 (sixth form), and will eventually accommodate up to 600 young people. Students will study academic subjects (GCSEs and A-levels) and technical qualifications (everyone studies Engineering). Most importantly, we need to give them experience in businesses so that they can understand the exciting opportunities in industry and learn the workplace skills which employers need. Our relationships with local businesses are, of course, very important to us, and I’ve already had Plus, a column from Fleet Recruitment’s Neil O’Connor the pleasure of meeting many here on Aycliffe Business Park. /06 NEWS I want to get to know as many as possible, so I was naturally very delighted to be asked to join the judging panel for Aycliffe Business Park’s Make Your Mark business awards competition, which will be held at the Xcel Centre on 10th February. Make Your Mark is a brilliant platform for local companies of all shapes and sizes to enter a competition which will raise their profile. I believe passionately about promoting local businesses, especially for young people who are looking for meaningful careers and can be inspired by the opportunities open to them. Anti-EU campaign launched on Aycliffe Business Park... /08-09 COMMERCIAL EXPERT Finance firm expands to new office space following sales boom... /11 RAISCO Aycliffe construction firm wins turnkey project to build new Lidl store... It’s also a great opportunity for us all to get together, not only as a celebration, but also to network and get to know each other more in a social environment. You can read more about t