Peter Blair, the QC from Bath who helped bring tax-avoiding celebrities such as Gary Barlow to book, has been appointed by the Queen as a circuit judge. Mr Blair, pictured, the head of Bristol’s Guildhall Chambers for the past eight years, will try civil and criminal cases at Swindon law courts from October 1....
By Adam Powell, director of skills, West of England LEP What will your business look like three years from now? Do your existing staff have the right mix of skills to help your business flourish? Do you have the right recruitment and workforce development strategy in place? If you find any of these questions...
Chippenham’s Borough Parade shopping mall, which has brought retailers such as Waitrose and Argos to the town, has been sold for £16.3m. The 82,000 sq ft retail centre has been bought by London-based property investment firm Development Securities from joint owners Clearbell Capital and Tristan Capital Partners. Borough Parade, which is anchored by Waitrose...
Bath’s County Hotel is to get a £1m refurbishment as it looks to build on its new-found reputation as a haven for food lovers. The 20-bedroom luxury hotel’s owner, entrepreneur Barry Hurley, brought Bath-born celebrity chef Martin Blunos, pictured, back to his home city earlier this year when it opened Blunos Fish Restaurant at...
Chippenham Motor Company is to accelerate its expansion plans after acquiring the freehold of its headquarters on the town’s Bumpers Farm industrial estate. The firm, established in 1996, bought the 29,000 sq ft building for what it described as a “significant seven figure sum”. Funding was provided by Barclays. Chippenham Motor Company supplies thousands...
Bath-based landscape architecture firm Grant Associates is expanding its presence in Singapore to meet growing demand for its services across Asia and Australia. The firm, which is involved in Singapore’s dramatic £500m Gardens by the Bay project, has recruited four more staff to the office adding international expertise and experience to the existing team led...
The parent company of luxury hotel group The Hotel Collection, which owns Bath’s Combe Grove Manor Hotel, has gone into administration. UK Group of Hotels, which operates 21 hotels across the UK, called in administrators Duff & Phelps to help re-finance the business. The move followed the end of the firm’s banking facilities in...
The West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has appointed Barbara Davies as its new chief executive. The LEP’s former head of place and infrastructure, Barbara Davies, pictured, has been acting as interim director since former chief executive Paul Wilson quit six weeks ago. Barbara has worked at the LEP, which is tasked with...
Bristol Airport has announced a £8.6m extension of its terminal – the first major expansion of the building since it opened in 14 years ago. The scheme forms the latest stage of a large-scale, phased development at the airport which will lift capacity from 6m to 10m passengers a year. Bosses also hope it...
Bristol & Bath Science Park, with its state-of-the-art innovation centre, has again been used as the setting for a film promoting advanced technology. The Science Park, based between the two cities at Emersons Green and backed by the University of Bath, stars in a promotional film for the new Samsung Galaxy S5, which tells...
