Coronavirus business update: Latest news across the North West

Workspace provider Bruntwood Works has launched a new initiative to help businesses unlock growth opportunities as it expands the range of services it provides to customers across its communities.

‘Spark by Bruntwood Works’ has been designed in partnership with small business support network, Enterprise Nation, to provide management teams of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the support needed to develop new ideas, take the next step on their growth journeys and navigate the challenges created by coronavirus.

It will also inspire further collaboration among businesses within the Bruntwood Works community and encourage knowledge-sharing among the company’s network of 55,000 customers and 2,000 member businesses across Liverpool, Manchester, Cheshire, Birmingham and Leeds.

Through the Spark programme, businesses will have access to tailored guidance on a broad range of topics, from finance, HR and legal issues to advice on sales, marketing and digital strategies.

This advice will be provided free of charge through one-to-one online sessions, with the view to expanding the programme to include face-to-face sessions once social distancing measures are relaxed.

Ciara Keeling, chief executive of Bruntwood Works, said: “Over the last few months businesses of all sizes have been turned upside down as a result of coronavirus.

“Many have been forced to change their ways of working and pivot their business models overnight – lockdown has had huge ramifications across every sector of the economy and we have been working hard to ensure that all of our customers have access to the support they need throughout the crisis.

“Through our partnership with Enterprise Nation we will be able to provide a programme of support that can tangibly help companies within the Bruntwood Works network take hold of new opportunities for growth, as well as respond to some of the challenges they now face.”

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, added: “It’s fantastic to see Bruntwood Works acting so quickly to develop a super-targeted support programme for firms within its network.

“As we move out of lockdown and slowly start getting back to work safely, initiatives like this will be incredibly important to share knowledge and ideas, as well as deliver specific advice and motivation when it’s very much needed.”

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Cheshire East Council is set to introduce a range of measures to protect people and support local businesses ready for the Government’s high street lockdown restrictions being lifted.

The temporary measures will be in place by June 15, and have been informed by local ward members and town and parish councils.

The measures will be under constant review, once implemented, and may be further tailored to meet local circumstances. They are in response to the Government’s approach to reopen the high streets, as part of the COVID-19 recovery phase.

Sixteen towns and larger villages across Cheshire East will see temporary measures installed in and around the high streets, including:

● Social distancing awareness signs at bus and rail stations and at bus stops;
● Signs and pavement markings, to raise awareness of the need to social distance;
● Localised temporary road closures in town centres where there is expected to be high footfall and extra space is needed for pedestrians and socially distanced queueing at shops;
● Increased pedestrian or cycle access in some town centres, through adjustments to traffic restrictions;
● Temporary closure of a small number of town centre car parks, where access to these compromises the space available for social distancing; and
● Temporary suspension of some parking spaces and laybys, where these can provide extra space for widening footpaths to help pedestrians respect social distancing rules.

The 16 towns and villages are: Audlem, Alderley Edge, Alsager, Bollington, Congleton, Crewe, Disley, Handforth, Holmes Chapel, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Middlewich, Nantwich, Poynton, Sandbach and Wilmslow.

Macclesfield town centre

While the council cannot guarantee that the public adheres to guidance on social distancing, it is keen to help both residents and business communities come out of lockdown safely, ensuring that public health is protected.

Cllr Laura Crane, Cheshire East cabinet member for highways, said: “As we begin to move beyond lockdown, we must consider how best to open up our high streets. Our priority here is to protect people and our local businesses.

“Alongside any measures, we will be supporting businesses with additional information and guidance, while encouraging high street users to adhere to the Government’s social distancing restrictions

“The Government is providing funding to local authorities and has issued guidance on how we can help people maintain safe social distancing in busy public areas, which we are following.

“Some of our measures support walking and cycling in our town centres – which many people have enjoyed much more of during the lockdown – and this also is good for our environment and people’s health and wellbeing. Further temporary and experimental measures are being considered to support walking and cycling and will be implemented once we have put in the arrangements for our high streets.”

She added: “While these temporary arrangements may disrupt the travel patterns of some residents and visitors, they are necessary to protect everyone, especially those who will be using the shops when the Government allows them to open – which at this point is intended to be 15 June.”

Essential access for servicing businesses and residential properties will be maintained throughout the closures.

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Biorelate, a Manchester-based AI start-up, is offering all researchers free use of Galactic, its cloud-based web tool, to support biomedical research while lab access is restricted around the world.

Systematically analysing the data available on targets, drugs and disease mechanisms from data repositories and academic papers takes researchers more than a year on average. The cognitive computing platform behind Galactic (Galactic-AITM) can speed up the research process by collecting and curating more than 30 million biomedical research text sources.

With up to 80% of biomedical data thought to be unstructured, the platform helps researchers to generate a clearer view of the current state of research and gain invaluable insights.

Dr Daniel Jamieson, chief executive and founder of Biorelate, said: “As so many scientists focus on COVID-19, a serious risk is that research into other diseases grinds to a halt. Our platform auto-curates knowledge, helping researchers across all disease areas make better use of all the existing and emerging scientific data locked away in text.

Dr Daniel Jameson

“We very much hope that with the release of Galactic, a browser-ready search engine to our platform, researchers will be able to take advantage of potential insights into focal points of research, such as drug targets and indications, at a time when they are more limited to desk-based activities.”

Kevin Cox, chairman of Biorelate, added: “We believe that Galactic has an important role to play in helping those involved in drug discovery to continue their research and ensure we get new therapies to patients without delay. We’re pleased to be offering free access to the Galactic web app at a time when researchers are in desperate need of this kind of resource and support.

“We have had very positive feedback from early adopters, who are using the tool to find causally-related data and perform systematic and pragmatic reviews.”