South West

Leading South West recruitment and training agency Acorn, has been awarded a place as a Crown Commercial Service (CCS) supplier on the non-medical, non-clinical, temporary staffing framework for the National Health Service (NHS).

The new two-year agreement will be rolled out across all its branches and specialist divisions throughout the UK, and will cover all non-medical roles within a number of sectors, including finance and accounting, IT, office administration, purchasing, technical and facilities management, HR and quality management.

The staffing framework agreement...

The specialist police force for the rail network released crime figures for its Western sub-division* today (Wednesday, 19 August) alongside its national annual report, which showed crime had fallen across Britain’s railways for the eleventh consecutive year.

Superintendent Matt Allingham, Western sub-divisional commander, said: “Our job is to make sure all rail passengers can get to their destination safely, securely and on time. These figures show that the railways in the South West remain a low crime environment, despite increasing passenger numbers and major infrastructure...

South West men and women are being urged to leave a lasting gift for future generations by including a donation to Cancer Research UK in their Will.

The charity has launched a new awareness campaign highlighting the power of legacy giving in helping to save lives.

Gifts left to Cancer Research UK in Wills fund over a third of the charity’s pioneering work, helping to turn discoveries made in the lab into better treatments for patients in the South West and across the UK.

With 87 people diagnosed with cancer every day in the region*, the awareness drive aims to help...

Golfers from across the South West will make their way to Staddon Heights Golf Club in Plymouth early next month in their quest to qualify for the final of a national competition.

The annual Licensed Trade Charity Golf Tournament sees teams of four golfers taking each other on in a series of regional qualifiers. The Devon heat, taking place on Friday 4th September, allows golfers of any standard to play at one of the South West’s premier golf courses and puts them within 18 holes of representing the county at the Sky-sponsored Grand Final in North Berwick in October.

Local...

A delay of up to four months for agri-environment scheme payments to farmers in England will put added pressure on farm businesses at a time when thousands are facing low farmgate prices.

Natural England has told the NFU that payments will start being made to farmers in October but the majority of transactions will take place in November and December. This autumn farmers in England are owed £200 million for environmental measures they have carried out.

NFU Vice President Guy Smith said: “I am extremely frustrated to learn that the first payments under the agri-environment...

SouthWestfd, a team of consultant finance directors, are helping to nurture financial growth in Cornwall. Two companies that have experienced that growth are Mackerel Sky Events and Radix Communications.

Claire Eason Bassett, Managing Director of Mackerel Sky, a Creative Events Agency, heads a team of 12 with 3 offices spread across the south of England. Mackerel Sky started out with a traditional management structure and a small team of 5.

Back then Claire felt isolated as a director, she felt there was no one she could delegate to or turn to for advice. She added ‘I was...

Following the government’s announcement that pension relief is to be reduced from April next year, ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) is reminding everyone that any unused relief from the past three years is still open to them.

Pension relief – the amount that can be paid into a pension fund in any single year tax free – is currently £40,000, but from April 2016 that will fall to £30,000 for everyone and even lower if you pay 45% income tax. However, what some people may not realise is that unused contributions from the last three years can be carried forward...

The UK’s farming unions are calling for the four UK farming ministers to hold a joint meeting with them to find solutions to the serious problems facing farmers.

The dairy, lamb and arable sectors in particular are seeing serious challenges. Official figures show that the number of dairy farmers in England and Wales has gone down constantly over the time. Since January 2015, 236 farmers have left the dairy sector and the trend look set to continue.

The NFU also estimates that only around 10 per cent of dairy farmers are on contracts that track farmers’ cost of production....

Stagecoach has confirmed the network of services it will be running from 6th September 2015, following its takeover of the Plymouth & South Devon operations of First Devon & Cornwall from the same date.

The network will see new route numbers for some services, as well as delivering a number of benefits to passengers including:

• More reliable timetables
• Earlier morning and later evening journeys in some areas
• The introduction of new cross-city links
• An improved fleet of buses, including eight one-year old vehicles which go into
...

Rail passengers are set to benefit from better and faster journeys after the government gave the go-ahead for a brand new fleet of trains running between London and Cornwall.

The deal will allow First Great Western to buy 29 new long-distance trains to serve the South West from 2018.

The state-of-the-art trains will have up to 24% more seats compared to the majority of the trains serving the route today, creating more than 1,000 additional peak-time seats into and out of Paddington every day.

The privately funded £360 million fleet, which will be manufactured by...