In brief: Region’s PR industry boost; Hotel gets facelift
YORKSHIRE’S PR industry showed its strength last night when more than 400 professionals gathered at an awards ceremony in Leeds.
Held at the Queens Hotel, Leeds, the 2008 CIPR Pride Awards saw accolades going to firms including Brahm, Lucre, MCG and Yorkshire Water.
The Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy was awarded to MCG PR, based in Leeds. The coveted award recognises work for clients, collaboration as a team, ethos, and staff development.
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A £1.5m extension to York’s award-winning Monkbar Hotel has been given the go-ahead.
Work on the new four- storey, 12,500sq ft extension and refurbishment at the city centre hotel, designed by DWA Architects of York, is due to get under way in the New Year.
By the time the project is finished in 12 months there will be three new ground-floor conference rooms, plus 25 additional en-suite rooms across three upper floors, bringing the total rooms to 129.
June Nelsey, the general manager, believes the project should add 15 staff to the total of 70 people working for the Best Western Hotel, which was recently bought for £13m by hotel entrepreneur Rishi Sachdev, of London.
He has already invested £250,000 in upgrading the 99-bedroom hotel.
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A COMPANY in Shepley has helped its parent group land a regional award.
Leeds-based Arena Group, which includes electronic document management firm Mitral Systems in Shepley, was named winner of the Excellence in Customer Service Award in the Yorkshire and Humber region of the Chamber Awards 2008.
It was presented to Martin Wright, of Arena’s IT division, by Gary Lumby, president of Leeds Chamber of Commerce.
Arena, formed in 1991, is one of the north’s leading suppliers of photocopiers, IT support and electronic document management. Mitral was formed more than 20 years ago and serves customers across a variety of sectors.
Arena won the award for its “strong vision and strategy”.
Arena Group now goes through to national judging and the chance to win the top prize of £50,000. The national winners of Chamber Awards 2008 will be announced at a gala dinner on November 27 at the Natural History Museum in London.
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A GOLCAR museum has been given a £1,000 funding boost thanks to Barclays bank.
The Colne Valley Museum is housed in a terrace of Grade II listed weavers’ cottages at Cliffe Ash.
The £1,000 grant from Barclays will go towards restoring the final cottage in the terrace to complete the museum, which is run independently by volunteers.
Roger Fielding, acting chairman of the museum, said: “We are very grateful to Barclays for their support.
“The purchase of the adjacent cottage and shop has long been a dream of our members and will help secure the future of the museum and allow us to expand.”
