North West business briefs: Eccles Rec; Merseyrail; LUMS; OCU Group; Mobysoft; LCRCA
A state of the art gym where mobile phones control equipment and provide workout feedback has opened in a Salford park.
The £65,000 outdoor gym is the first of its kind in Greater Manchester and includes equipment suitable for wheelchair users. The equipment, which includes a cross trainer and stationary bike, pull down bars, an arm cycle, step up and workout points, sits on top of a rubber safety surface at Eccles Recreation Ground, known as Eccles Rec, off Oxford Street. It replaces a previous gym on the site.
Funding for the project came from the Government’s Levelling Up parks fund and will also pay for tree planting to create more shade and habitats for wildlife in the park.
Cllr Barbara Bentham, lead member for environment, neighbourhoods, sport and leisure, said: “The old gym was popular and the local community was keen for it to remain on the same site in the park.
“This equipment will help people who can’t afford gym fees to keep fit which is so important for both physical and mental health. It’s designed to be used just as it is or people can link their smartphones to it to change the resistance of the equipment, tailor the speed or get feedback on their workout. I hope it encourages more people to give it a try and reap the benefits of moving more.”
The tree planting, which will take place in winter, will see 42 new trees added to the park to create a double tree lined avenue. Among the trees which will be included are American sweetgums with colourful autumn foliage which attracts butterflies and moths and provides seeds for birds and squirrels.
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Steve Rotheram and new train
Liverpool Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has announced that the first of the Liverpool City Region’s new publicly-owned battery powered trains will begin final testing on the network this week.
The fleet is now ready to enter final tests and driver training between Kirkby and the town’s new £80m station at Headbolt Lane, due to open later this year, which will be the second new station opened by Mayor Rotheram since his election. Once testing is complete, the trains, which deliver an 80% reduction in energy consumption, will be the first battery-powered trains of their type in the country to operate in passenger service, cementing the city region’s place at the forefront of pioneering rail technology and innovation.
Steve Rotheram said: “This is not only a massive milestone for our area, but for the entire country, as our new publicly-owned, battery-powered trains enter final testing.
“Our trains will be the first of their kind in the country, fitted with pioneering battery technology that will help us to significantly reduce our carbon footprint and pave the way for a cleaner, greener, and better connected London-style transport network. This is the gold standard of public transport – and it’s the very least that our residents deserve.”
The battery technology, which enables the trains to run without the need for a third rail, will initially be fitted on seven of the city region’s state-of-the-art class 777 trains. The technology could enable the Merseyrail network to extend across all six city region boroughs to places like Rainhill in St Helens, and Widnes in Halton, including possible links to places such as Wrexham, Warrington and Runcorn.
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Lancaster University Management School
Academics from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) have been awarded a £1.8m grant to accelerate the take up of digital technology amongst UK law and accountancy firms.
The major research project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Innovate UK, will be known as Technology in Professional Service (TiPS). It will build on an earlier study which enabled Lancaster researchers to understand the barriers preventing professional services firms from adopting digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI).
The accelerator is part of a programme called Next Generation Professional and Financial Services, funded by Innovate UK and ESRC. The programme aims to help professional service sectors, including accounting and law, and the financial service sectors, including insurance, lending, advisory and payment services, develop and use digital technologies.
The £1.8m grant will allow the research team to put this previous learning into action, providing practical, tailored support to help medium-sized and smaller firms become more productive, develop new services, and to use technology to make services accessible to under-represented individuals and organisations. The research will also provide more general insights into how various forms of innovation adoption can best be accelerated.
The LUMS team will be led by Prof Martin Spring and includes Professors James Faulconbridge and Katy Mason. They will join forces with Prof Tim Vorley, Dr Tzameret Rubin, Dr Francisco Trincado Munoz and Hilary Smyth-Allen from Oxford Brookes University and Derek Southall from Hyperscale Group. Prof Spring said: “With this grant, we will be able to translate our earlier findings into tangible support, to help firms overcome adoption obstacles and harness new technology to help their staff and enhance the services they provide. And the project is especially timely due to the recent interest in technologies such as ChatGPT, which has stimulated awareness of the potential for technologies to be used in knowledge-based work such as law and accountancy.”
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Construction of service reservoir
Stockport-based utility contractor, OCU Group, has been appointed by Affinity Water onto its Water Retaining Structures (WRS) Framework for Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contracts to deliver new service reservoirs to increase storage capacity as identified within Affinity Water’s Strategic Supply 2040 Programme and improve water supply resilience to communities in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire as part of its Water Resource Management Plan (WRMP).
OCU will work under the WRS Framework for the design and build of new service reservoirs at a number of Affinity Water sites including Preston, Hitchin and Hertfordshire. The new reservoirs will increase storage capacity and ensure less water is taken from the region’s chalk aquifer – following Affinity Water’s strategy showed that water supply resilience in communities needed to improve.
The new service reservoir at Preston will provide an additional 20 million litres of storage at an estimated construction cost of £8.5m. It will also help to build the long-term resilience of the storage systems while mitigating against possible loss of supplies to customers in these areas.
OCU will be responsible for the design, planning, project management, construction and commissioning of multiple projects, with an expected start later in 2023 for completion by the end of 2024. The OCU subsidiary company OCU Services Limited will deliver the projects.
Vince Bowler, OCU Services Ltd managing director, said: “We look forward to working collaboratively with the Affinity Water team to construct and commission these reservoir projects in line with the MRC Framework and EPC Contracts. The appointment to both projects represents a significant step in OCU’s ambition to become a leader in the delivery of critical network infrastructure across the UK.”
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Mobysoft, the Manchester-based software as a service (SaaS) firm, has partnered with Beam, a social impact tech-for-good operation that matches homeless people with jobs and homes via its innovative technology-led platform.
The multi-faceted partnership will see Mobysoft supporting BEAM through an initial donation, and throughout the year to support their homeless beneficiaries into jobs and homes. One hundred per cent of donations will fund job training, travel costs, work tools, rental deposits and other items that present a barrier to Beam’s beneficiaries.
Furthermore, the two organisations will speak at joint events and co-author data-based reports on topics centred on homelessness, its causes, and how the social housing sector can positively impact the situation. Mobysoft chief executive, Paul Evans, said: “We are excited to partner with Beam, an innovative organisation that, much like Mobysoft, endeavours to enable positive outcomes for the social good.
“Our proprietary data analytics now comprises of the largest income dataset in social housing of circa two million tenants. The insights help prevent vulnerable tenants from falling into arrears and risking homelessness. Our tech-for-good ethos and the social values which underpin our products are closely aligned with those of Beam, who will directly benefit from the insight and trend analysis from the Mobysoft dataset.”
Alex Stephany, founder and CEO of Beam, said: “Solving homelessness requires a multi-stakeholder approach – including government, companies, landlords and civic society. We’re excited to welcome Mobysoft as a corporate partner and work collaboratively on innovative solutions to the homelessness crisis.”
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Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has pledged almost £4m to fix potholes and repair highways throughout the region.
The £3.7m has been secured to upgrade and repair key parts of the highway network which could also include bus lanes, cycle ways, foot paths and street lighting. Set to be agreed at this week’s combined authority meeting, the funding will help deliver road repair and resurfacing projects across all six boroughs of the city region – Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.
Liverpool City Region Mayor, Steve Rotheram, said: “Whether you’re on the bus to school, cycling to work or trying to cross the road with a pram, I understand the frustration that potholes cause to people trying to get about their daily life. Years of under-funding and cuts to vital local authority services have meant that many of our region’s roads are no longer fit for purpose – and it’s a problem that won’t go away on its own.
“That’s why we’re dedicating nearly £4m to make travel safer and more accessible for everyone – but this is just a down payment on my wider ambitions for our region’s public transport network. From our £500m fleet of publicly owned trains and hydrogen buses, to the £70m we’re investing in active travel infrastructure, we’re well on our way to building a London-style transport network that’s faster, cheaper, cleaner, more reliable and better connected.
“While I want our roads to be safer for everyone, my ultimate goal is to encourage more people to leave the car at home for short journeys. Because the more people we can attract to use public transport, the faster we can start to reduce congestion on our roads and improve the quality of air we all breathe, which is a massive win, not only for our residents’ health, but for our planet, too.”
