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The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 7
Aycliffe inventor lights the way for safer crossing patrols
A talented inventor from Newton Aycliffe has developed the first upgrade to the school crossing patrol sign in five decades and believes lives could be saved as a result.
Newtonian Andrew Turner, who has an office at the North East Technology Park( NETPark) in Sedgefield, County Durham, is to meet with distributors about his illuminated lollipop design after winning the backing of a major road safety charity.
The prototype, which uses edge lit plastic and has an eight-hour battery life, was produced thanks to support from Thorn Lighting, in Spennymoor.
Andrew, with business partner Matthew Thoburn, was prompted to create his newlook lollipop stick after witnessing a near accident in Darlington one drizzly, winter morning.
“ It made me think that the modern driver needs something more visible to stand out because of the number of distractions such
Left to right: Caroline Taukulis, strategic account manager of Business Durham with inventor Andrew Turner, Gavin Brydon of Thorn and Cllr Neil Foster.
as the abundance of brake lights and modern technology on the roads,” he said.
“ The only thing which has changed over the decades is the school crossing patrol person’ s uniform – they’ ve become more highly visible but the stick hasn’ t.”
The prototype gained significant interest from local authorities at a recent road safety conference, where it also won the approval of Road Safety GB.
Andrew was introduced to Thorn Lighting by Caroline Taukulis, strategic account manager of Business Durham, the economic development company for County Durham working on behalf of Durham County Council.
“ Thorn has been an excellent support for Andrew, from providing the manufacturing expertise of its highly skilled team to specific machinery to produce such a fantastic prototype. Their commitment to supporting local inventors is great to see,” she said.
Newtonian Alex wins national Women of the Future award
A Newtonian who has worked her way up to a senior management position with supermarket giant Asda has been recognised for her achievements in business.
Alex Newbould won the business category of the national Women of the Future( WOF) awards in London.
The ceremony, now in its 11th year, celebrates the best of upcoming female British talent.
Twelve women were recognised at the 2016 event, including awards for arts and culture, entrepreneurship, media, science, technology and sport.
And former Woodham Academy student Alex, who is now Asda’ s head of pricing strategy, was singled out in the business category.
The 27-year-old told Aycliffe Today:“ I was just shocked when they read my name out, I really didn’ t expect it.
“ During the presentation, and watching the kind of women I was up against, and what they’ ve achieved, I was just happy to be shortlisted – but to win it was amazing.”
BUSINESS BRIEFS
TEKMAR WINS BELGIAN CONTRACT
Newton Aycliffe-based Tekmar Energy has been awarded a contract with Prysmian PowerLink to supply 84 of its patented Teklink cable protection system( CPS) on the prestigious Rentel offshore wind farm project in Belgium.
It comes after Prysmian PowerLink awarded Tekmar a similar contract for supply of CPS for the Wikinger Offshore Windfarm project which is currently part way through a successful installation campaign in the German Baltic sea.
Rentel will be the 46th offshore wind farm project Tekmar has supplied, taking the total number of supplied cable protection systems to well over 5,200 units.
The supply for the contract will be carried out at Tekmar’ s state-of-the-art production facility on Aycliffe Business Park, which is expected to be completed early in 2017.
AGENCY SCOOPS AWARD
The South Durham Enterprise Agency was awarded the Community Stakeholder of the Year award at the National Enterprise Network’ s national conference, held in London.
Awarded for SDEA’ s local community engagement and the promotion of enterprise and economic development with a number of local organisations and communities, including local Area Action Partnerships, the Auckland Castle Trust, Town and County Councils and many others the Agency scooped the award in amongst strong national opposition.
NEW SALES MANAGER FOR EBAC
UK manufacturer Ebac has bolstered its market-leading water cooler division with the appointment of an experienced International Sales Manager.
Isabelle Querling has joined the Newton Aycliffe-headquartered company and will be based in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Isabelle possesses 12 years’ experience within the European water cooler industry, with a strong background in business-to-business sales.
She will look to grow Ebac’ s presence within Europe and promote the North East company’ s market-leading watercoolers to new markets.
DURHAMWORKS SUCCESS
More than 2,000 young people have now signed up to a £ 17m project designed to develop their skills, increase opportunities and help them into work.
The DurhamWorks programme is aiming to improve the prospects of County Durham’ s 16 to 24-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training.
And just six months into the more than two year project it is well on course to put almost 6,000 people on the path to employment by summer 2018.