What news of the Phoenix Village development?
With the General Election over Raikes went in search of progress on a project with the potential to transform the centre of Gloucester and bring one of the city's many historic buildings back to life.
Dear Readers,
Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Raikes Journal.
We had a couple of stories ready to feature as today’s big read, but ended up running with a look at where Gloucester is with the proposed Phoenix Village Project.
This is the proposal to transform the former Fleece Hotel off Westgate Street and the crumbling car park to its rear into a business village - but one focused on delivering training, skills, support and hope for young people.
It’s an idea that captivated the city council enough for it to agree to work to find potential funding sources to enable it all happen, but after all the early publicity the inevitable quiet descended as as we ran up to the general election.
It’s one of a couple of high-profile projects in the council’s in-tray.
We hope you enjoy.
Have a great week.
Please send us your stories/ideas about companies/people/issues you think we should write about. Email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk or telephone 07956 926061.
Your briefing notes…
🍺 🥇 If you are partial to a beer and haven’t tried it yet, it seems you could do a whole lot worse than Deya Brewing Company’s Steady Rolling Man. The 5.2 per cent vegan-friendly pale ale by the Cheltenham brewer has been voted number 1 in a list of best beers in the country by We Are Beer. The organisation, which stages live events to showcase beer around the country, also celebrates all things beer and it has just released what it considers to be its top 50 list. You can see the whole list right here.
🧀 If names like Brie, Camembert, Parmigiano, feta, and manchego have you salivating you probably share Futura Foods’ passion for European cheeses - a Gloucestershire firm with a £100 million turnover. This is one of our latest articles featured in our reports & Deals channel, in which we record the financial fortunes of the county’s biggest firms by turnover. In this case, turnover was stable. Profits were up. You can read our story here.
🌳 🌳 🌳 There is just one week left to apply for this brilliant oportunity with one of Gloucestershire’s much-loved charities - The Friends of Westonbirth Arboretum. It is seeking a new fundraising manager to work 35 hours a week and offering a salary in the region of £36,000 to £40,000. You can find out more here.
🏆 Randall & Payne’s quiz night at the end of last week attracted 21 teams from across the county and raised a cool £2,000 for two Teckels Animal Sanctuaries and Young Gloucestershire. The event was a joint effort by the Shurdington-based firm of accountants and Stroud and Gloucester-based WSP solicitors. Faye Hatcher, ex BBC Radio Gloucestershire now of Stroud Times, and Rob Case, from Randall & Payne, were quizmasters. The winning team was Shed 7.
Charity: Your chance to support Heart Heroes
We don’t think we’ve flagged this charity before, but even if we have - this is an oportunity it is trying to promote to businesses and we’re happy to help, giving it pride of place as our charity of the week. This is Heart Heroes, which provides social events and resources for children and families living with heart conditions. The Gloucester organisation is about to stage its first ever charity golf day on 9 August at Brickhampton Court Golf Complex and needs support. It’s looking for companies to sponsor a hole at £50 a time. As pay back your business will also receive shoutouts on social media, as well as the knowlege you have helped make the event - and the work of the charity - possible. To find out more email george@heartheroes.co.uk.
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What news of the Phoenix Village development?
It was a project that hit the headlines at the start of 2024 – a major scheme to create a special business village in the centre of Gloucester – and then silence. Until now.
We decided to ask Gloucester City Council if the proposed potentially transformative and long-awaited redevelopment was progressing any and to reflect a little on what it could all mean for Gloucester.
We are talking about the Phoenix Village Project, the innovative scheme to re-invent the former Fleece Hotel off Westgate Street and the crumbling multi-storey car park off land to the rear.
You can sense a little frustration in one of two social media posts of late by the man behind the proposed scheme, Marksteen Adamson, even though he expected nothing less than the regulation silence from the local authority through the General Election period.
The irony will not have escaped him that one of the first topics up for discussion by the new Government whose election has held things up is a reform of planning to allow such projects to move faster.
Not that plans themselves have been submitted yet, but the Fleece Hotel has been ‘ripe for redevelopment’ for the best part of a decade, this is not the first scheme proposed and still nothing.
The Phoenix Village proposal is to transform the 15th century Grade 1 Listed timber-framed former hotel and its assorted buildings into a new centre that uses businesses to help teach ‘enterprising skills’ aimed at helping young people marginalised from mainstream find routes into work.
Those businesses could range from jewellery making, to baking, hairdressing to fitness instructing and other food and catering enterprises - whatever will work, inspire and provide training.
“The project will unite talented people from arts, science, technology, and engineering backgrounds who are already running small businesses,” according to the impressive publicity on the scheme on the ASHA & Co website, the creative consultancy Adamson helped found.
He was previously global creative director of Interbrand and joint director of its worldwide steering committee, building and overseeing the creative teams in London, Amsterdam and New York.
In one of his most recent posts the Cheltenham-based creative, author and photographer quotes the new Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities - reminding everyone the vision of the Phoenix scheme is bigger that just redeveloping a building.
“Bridget Phillipson, has given her first speech where she made this promise: ‘Keir Starmer, and every minister in our new government, will also be at the heart of our approach as we tackle the issues that you all know well, but that have had rather less attention in recent weeks during the election campaign; the support and outcomes for children with SEND and their families, the need to bring reform to children’s social care and to build opportunities for our most vulnerable children, the state of university finances, the challenges that we face within further education. We must be a department for every child, for every young person, for every learner in our country’.”
“Let’s hope they mean it and actually make the change that’s needed by also supporting the national rollout of our ready-made and fit for purpose Phoenix Village Project,” said Adamson.
While Gloucester now has ownership of that project, it was actually not the first local authority that he approached with the idea.
“When I started the project first I presented it to Cheltenham. They were not interested,” said Adamson.
“When I presented to Gloucester they seemed to realise straight away the potential.
“My impression was that the team in the city council is innovative and they will take a risk on something new, if they think it will work.”
The council’s all-powerful cabinet committee liked what it saw, and agreed to proceed with a ‘next stage’ at a meeting in February.
That ‘next stage’ was an agreement to help find funding for the project, help launch the scheme and eventually arrange for some kind of change of ownership.
But then the small matter of a General Election got in the way of things, and a change of political leadership at the local authority – from Conservative to Liberal Democrat – and the waiting goes on.
If it comes off, it will be a triumph on many levels – some part of that personal, not just as a project leader and face of Phoenix Village, but because of the journey you get the impression Adamson the man is on. Perhaps has always been on.
An unusual childhood saw him grow up on a mission post in Tanzania (he remains a committed Christian) where he went to a Swedish school, before moving to Denmark from aged 12 to 15 (his mother was Danish) and finally the UK. He has since also lived in America and Holland.
That early frontier-like existence and the travelling saw him learn four languages by the time he as a teenager. The latter no mean feat for someone who is also dyslexic and has also had to battle with managing ADHD and personal challenges along the way.
As his own children have grown he found himself becoming involved in mentoring, supporting one or two family friends to start with after conversations with parents, and realising how much he got out of it and the impact someone could have by just providing the right support.
It is easy to see how that experience might have shaped the vision for Phoenix Village, which is not just about reinventing an old building and providing training, but engaging - creating what people today call ‘meaningful pathways’ - delivering hope and cultivating aspirations.
What’s the latest news from the local authority?
This is what we were told when we asked last week.
“The latest position on the Fleece Hotel site is set out in the cabinet paper from March this year (Decision - Future Opportunities for the Fleece Gloucester City Council - Democracy).
“Resolution 1 (entering into a statement of intent) has happened, the other two resolutions are underway.
"Sorry, we can’t add anything further at this stage.”
And as for the time frame?
“Sorry, we’re unable to provide any timeframe at this stage.”
And just in case we missed the big play – have any plans been submitted at all we didn’t know about?
“No plans have been submitted yet so there is no date yet for this to be discussed by council.”
Which could easilly bring us back to the talk we started this article with, about reforming the system so projects can move along faster system. Let’s not go there.
So, nothing happening then?
Here’s Marksteen’s update after we went to press on this: “It’s exciting times behind the scenes with our Phonenix Village Project team.
“We’ve just secured a national digital tech partner to partner with us and run the United Innovations lab providing training, innovation and apprenticeships and furthering digital literacy (will announce who soon) and we are also in JV negotiations with a large social care provider who will deliver holistic wraparound support, training and services for our young people in Gloucester and wider Gloucestershire.
“Currently speaking with major funders and developers and looking to choose the best partner for the project before the end of this year.
“Things are moving at our end, and we’re working closely with all our partners to unblock and free up the pathways that our young people so desperately need.
“Thanks Andrew for your write up and support. Love what you do at the Raikes Journal.”
Diary Dates
📅 27th July 2024: Hartpury University and Hartpury College Rugby Celebration Dinner. Help celebrate 20 years of Hartpury RFC, 10 years of Gloucester Hartpury Rugby Ladies, and the remarkable triple 10-year anniversary of its treble achievement: RFC, BUCS, and AASE title victories. Find out more here.
📅 🏗 Okay, it’s some way off - but worth knowing abotu if it takes your fancy. This is Gloucestershire Young Planners, which will be be hosting a walking tour round Cheltenham town centre, exploring various existing and future developments including the Brewery Quarter, Cavendish House and the Quadrangle. The tour is followed by a networking lunch at Brewhouse and Kitchen. Guest speakers to be announced. Due to take place on 11 September at 10:30am. Find out more here.