What devolution means for the £1 blln Golden Valley Development
Hailed as a 'once in a lifetime building project', the Golden Valley Development has the power to crown Gloucestershire as the UK's cyber capital. Or is devolution about to get in the way of all that?
Dear reader,
Welcome to Friday’s edition of The Raikes Journal. It’s been another busy week.
Monday saw us follow last week’s devolution article, which focused on a row between certain of the county’s political movers and shakers (you can read that here), with a piece asking what the business community thought of it all so far (you can read that here).
And then yesterday we homed-in on what a high-profile move by tech firm Fasthosts into the centre of Gloucester means for the business, for the city council’s £107 million Forum development and the city’s regeneration aspirations.
It also gave us a chance to turn the spotlight on a tech firm going through a period of rapid growth and marking itself out as a company to watch. You can read the story here.
Today, we’re back with devolution - that process which is encouraging the county to reorganise how its local government works and probably to remove Gloucestershire’s six existing local authorities and replace them with…, well, that’s the big question.
Which leads us to another big question… what that might mean for another local authority development, this one described as a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity? We are talking about the Golden Valley Development, the much-championed tech park and housing scheme planned for land beside GCHQ. A project so big we’re told it’s vital if the county is to truly establish itself as the UK’s cyber capital.
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Your briefing notes…
🏗️ 👷 A familiar face to many in the county building industry, Kevin Harris has joined Gloucestershire College as an associate construction lead to support the management and green skills curriculum. Harris is also chief executive officer of Constructing Excellence South West. Andy Bates, chief financial officer at the college, said Harris brings a “wealth of experience” to the role. Amie Nutbrown, head of the construction school, will now oversee the college’s ‘construction management’ courses. Gary Henderson will continue to oversee the ‘construction trade’ curriculum - including multi-skills, plumbing, groundwork, electrical installation, carpentry and dry lining. The management courses enable local companies to train apprentices and upskill staff with skills in construction design, surveying, planning and the built environment, including green skills.
👩🏫👩🏫 Two associate professors have joined forces to share the role of Dean of Agricultural Science and Practice at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) - Dr Cassie Newland and Dr Karen Rial Lovera. The novel job share is a first for the university, which has not previously had a female Dean of agriculture, let alone two sharing the position. The appointment makes Rial Lovera the youngest dean ever as well. Both existing lecturers at the Cirencester-based university.
🥶🏗️ A Gloucestershire coldstore construction experts ISD Solutions has finished work on its largest ever project, the UK’s tallest high-bay freezer warehouse standing 47.5m high, 150 metres long and measuring 100 metres wide. The facility, built for Magnavale in Easton, near Grantham, Lincolnshire, is a 101,000-pallet coldstore. ISD is part of of Gloucester-based The P & M Group, which includes PLG Insulations, a division in Australia and Midlands-based installations specialists S Tysoe Installations. The group employs more than 190 staff and has a combined turnover of around £70m. Read the full press release in our PR Wire Channel.
💷💷💷 Hazlewoods accountants’ corporate finance team has revealed its part in the successful completion of mergers and acquisition (M&A) transactions worth more than £1.2 billion in 2024. The work encompassed various forms of business sales, including acquisitions and growth funding for company expansion, and totalled 134 deals across multiple sectors. Hazlewoods said the work represented “a significant year-on-year increase” for its team in both the volume and value of transactions, up 20 per cent compared to 2023. Twenty per cent of those deals related to South West companies, 80 per cent had a national or overseas buyer or seller. You can read the full press release in our PR Wire channel.
⚖️ Law firm, WSP Solicitors has opened a new Gloucester office. It is a move the firm, which also has offices in Stroud and 65 staff, says is part of a move to cement its position as “one of the leading legal service providers in the county” and reflects “growing local demand for its services”, which included specialist areas like out-of-court family law and mediation, child law, wills, probate, and corporate law. It sees WSP’s Gloucester operation move from London Road to Elmbridge East Business Park. Recently it welcomed new team members including corporate solicitor, Nafeesa Hussain and private client solicitor, Christina Kenton, as caseloads grew by 15 per cent. You can read the full press release in our PR Wire channel.
🎟️ We mentioned this before, but tickets for Gloucester History Festival’s Spring online event have gone on sale. This is a programme of speakers from the best of the festival archive, including Jeremy Bowen, Dan Snow and Mary Beard, all specially curated by the festival’s president, Professor Janina Ramirez. Snow is in conversation with Korean War veterans Brian Hamblett and the late Tommy Clough, who were both captured in the Battle of Imjin River. You can see the full programme for £30 or individual talks for £6 each. Find out more here.
* Please do think about supporting us. Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this community interest company too. We are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls often put on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable to deliver more original articles on our county.
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Four new partners underlines further growth for solicitors
One of the bonuses of having such incredible Founding Partners is you get to go big on their latest news. Here’s some about leading law firm Willans’ new appointments and growth.
Continued growth across its departments is the reason given for four new partners joining Cheltenham-based law firm Willans LLP. The appointments take the firm’s partner count to 22 and its headcount to 121 people, representing a 25 per cent increase over the past five years under the tenure of managing partner Bridget Redmond.
Claire Cox joins the litigation and dispute resolution team, headed up by senior partner, Paul Gordon. A specialist in inheritance and trusts disputes helping people unfairly left out of a will, Cox brings 15 years of experience to the team. She is also skilled at handling disputes between executors or trustees, issues with estate administration, breaches of trust and claims regarding will validity.
Simon Pathé has joined Willans’ employment law and business immigration team to work alongside head of department, Jenny Hawrot and senior partner Matthew Clayton. Pathé has worked for established law firms in Bristol and Cardiff and brings “extensive experience” in advising businesses on dispute management, equality and human rights, HR, restructuring and redundancy processes, and more.
And Peter Raybould’s recently joined the firm’s corporate and commercial team and John Fisher joining its agriculture and estates team in September 2024. Raybould has more than 15 years of experience in corporate law and advises businesses of all kinds on a full range of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, company reorganisations and shareholder agreements. He joins head of department Chris Wills and senior associate, solicitor Helen Howes.
Fisher has more than 30 years experience advising landowners with development and renewable projects, including both battery and large-scale solar schemes. He joins head of department Adam Hale to focus on strategic land and development, as well as advising on sales and purchases of rural properties and estates.
In December, Willans announced its official partnership with Gloucester Rugby Club for the next three seasons, as well as its sponsorship of Gloucester Rugby Business Club.
Sporting highlights this weekend…
Friday:
⚽ Cheltenham Town FC play Harrogate Town FC away at 7.45pm.
Saturday:
🏉 Gloucester-Hartpury play Ealing-based Trailfinders at 3.05pm at Kingsholm Stadium.
⚽ Gloucester City FC play non-league club Sholing FC, from Southampton, at 3pm at home at Meadow Park.
⚽ Forest Green Rovers FC play Rochdale at 3pm at home.
Sunday:
🏉 Gloucester Rugby play French side Bayonne away at 1pm in the Challenge Cup.
What devolution means for the £1 blln Golden Valley Development
Hailed as a 'once in a lifetime building project', the Golden Valley Development has the power to crown Gloucestershire as the UK's cyber capital. Or is devolution about to get in the way of all that?
By Andrew Merrell
It’s billed as a one million square feet of commercial space for companies from the tech, cyber security, AI sectors and more - all 100 metres from GCHQ - plus 1,000 new homes. And it’s described as a £1 billion project.
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