Regeneration thread

Dealing with the issues, the benefits and the details pertaining to the regeneration of buildings and locations.

Categories: General

Looking forward to a cracker of a night »

One of the region’s favourite annual Christmas events returns again this year. The St Teresa’s Christmas Cracker Concert will be held on Saturday 17th December at Meadow, Lingfield Point, and is set to go off with a bang!

Looking forward to the contents of 2011 Christmas Cracker

Principally sponsored by Darlington Operatic Society, and helmed by acclaimed musical director John Forsyth with the ‘St Teresa’ Sinfonia Choir & Orchestra, the Christmas Cracker will feature musical ensembles, schools, choral and operatic groups from across the region.

Among the acts gearing up to ‘sleigh’ audiences are the Darlington Choral Society, the Cleveland Philharmonic Choir Tees Valley Voices, the Tees Valley Youth Choir, the Locomotion and the Cockerton Ladies Choir. With so many talented performers, the concert is shaping up to be anything but a silent night!

Tickets cost £8.50 for adults and £6.00 for children,

and are available from St Teresa’s Hospice and its Darlington retail shops,

or by calling Supporter Services on 01325 254321.

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Categories: General

Preparing our world for winter – Life at Lingfield »

Winter is upon us at Lingfield Point albeit slower than anticipated with temperatures being above average for the time of year. This has meant that normal winter tasks are delayed as gardeners attempts to stay on top of the grass cutting as well as struggling against a barrage of falling leaves.

We're hard at work around our leavy neighbourhood - Lingfield Point

What is required in horticultural terms is a couple of good frosts – not just the wind – to bring down the rest of the leaves and to shock the lawns into their dormant state. Grass will not grow once the temperature drops below 3 degrees.

So what do the green fingered get up to over the winter months?

There is a misconception that gardeners collect food and bedding and hibernate like large squirrels through the winter season. This is not true, particularly of our very own Colin at Lingfield Point.

Of course when there is snow on the ground or our Park is a frozen vista, there are limits to what the discerning gardener can do outside. However we still need to make sure all equipment and tools are fit for the following season.  We have a regime of servicing and maintenance to follow as a gardener without a working lawn mower in the summer is about as useful as a chocolate kettle.

In addition outdoor tasks – when conditions allow – include continued leaf collection, edging of lawns, hard pruning of many shrubs that may not have received a good prune for  years, collecting materials for composting, general tidying of shrub beds and other areas and not forgetting the crucial bark mulching of shrub beds.

The winter also allows us time to plan and produce innovations for the following season. This could include planting projects and improvement works. With the plant world dormant, there are excellent opportunities for replacing or enhancing old areas of landscaping which will then come to life in the spring.

So remember if you see Colin in the winter, give him a wave or smile – he’s hard at work creating Spring 2012! 

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Categories: General

Fruits of our labour »

There’s a great deal happening at Gro zone on the east side of Lingfield Point.

Darlington Friends of the Earth and friends have been working hard this summer, improving gro zone and developing a new allotment garden for us all to enjoy. The new growing spaces are now ready and we look forward to watching a beautiful garden flourish over the next year.

Come and join us digging for victory

Kendra and Darlington Friends of the Earth has had a number of successful grant applications and have used it to create some very special raised beds and some rabbit proof perimeter fencing (Farmer McGregor would have been proud!).

Kendra writes that allotment gardening has never been so easy as it is here, she has provided spaces that people can simply start growing produce in without lots of effort.

Friends of the Earth Darlington have transformed our little piece of land, thanks to the helping hands of the National Friends of the Earth Grant Schemes and the generosity of John Wades Group, Todds and Jewsons of Darlington.  650 wildlife friendly hedging trees have been planted thanks to the Wildlife Trust’s MOREwoods Scheme helping to create a barrier against the biting wind of nature and provide more local food for our hungry bees and wildlife.

 

Raised beds are great way of learning the art of gardening - without the hard work

Thanks to the teams of apprentices from Urban Blitz of Nordic Pioneer, Friends of the Earth Darlington have now been able to create 3 types of plots but  we’re also looking at renovating the much loved on site greenhouse – providing a great spot for people to meet and see whats growing and ready to harvest at lunch time or after work. We are looking to renovate the disused cold frames which will help bring on our little seedlings during the early months of Spring.

Plans for next year including the creation of a community garden ‘A Garden’- a community vegetable garden,  and a flower garden supporting our lovely little bees in ‘Garden Bee’ !

Darlington Friends of the Earth, are  now offering plots on this new  allotment garden and hope that with the generosity of growers, the flourishing of seeds and produce, the greenhouse and A Garden will become the engine plant room for DIG (Darlington Its Growing). A local food growing initiative .

    If you want to be involved in the development of our Gro Zone or wish to access one of our new raised beds, feel free to contact Kendra Ullyart; Coordinator Darlington FoE,  07804 905 808

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Categories: General

A story of great business success »

NEW office space at Lingfield Point is being snapped up at an unprecedented speed – and flying in the face of current expectations in the property sector.

YARN ROOMS - now fully let - with only 3 suites left in YARN - Lingfield Point's latest office success

The final suite has already been let within YARN rooms – part of YARN – just weeks after the new business space was unveiled. And while it is good news for Lingfield Point, it’s also great news for the business environment in the Darlington area – showing there is a very healthy business dynamic and great entrepreneurial spirit.

Companies moving to Lingfield Point include those that are expanding, relocating because of service offer or because of the skills available in Darlington. Home-based businesses have been attracted by the supportive structure and flexibility also on offer.

YARN is a flexible business space and new lettings are from 160sqft to 2980 sq ft  and customers  moving in include First Software Solutions, , Avec Training Partnership, VoiceAbility, Capital Accounts, ROVIN Energy, LighterLife, Mintronics and Para-sols.  Four Seasons Health Care continue to expand their base at Lingfield Point.

Eddie Humphries, of Lingfield Point, said: “When YARN was finished we were delighted with the results – it is an extremely attractive and creatively designed space and people have been very enthusiastic about working from here.

“We are offering people the flexibility they need along with great communal facilities such as Canteen by Alexander MacMurray and Little Lingfields Nursery with support services from the concierge service to hosting business improvement workshops. Taken along with the unique environment, we are clearly making an offer that’s difficult to refuse.

Some of the many companies moving into Lingfield Point's latest office space - YARN *

* Left to right: Susan Hampton, LighterLife; Amy Knight & Liam Knight, Rovin Energy; Cathi Harrison & Jo Campbell , Para-sols – Paraplanning Solutions; Mark Williamson, The Huntercombe Group; Anne Foster, Office Manager, Four Seasons Health Care; Eddie Humphries, Estate Manager, Lingfield Point and Karen Whitehouse – Head of Finance, N.Ireland/Wales & Scotland/N.East England Care Home Divisions, Four Seasons Health Care

For more information of office space now available at Lingfield Point, feel free to pick up the phone and dial 01325 486486 and we’d be happy to give you a quick tour.

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Categories: General

Wayne Hemingway speaks his mind! »

Wayne Hemingway in the affordable apartments he designed for key workers in Manchester. Photo: Don McPhee.

Owners of Lingfield Point,  Marchday, are  big fans of the Fashion Trendsetter turned Community Guru Wayne Hemingway. We’re really impressed by the special qualities Wayne’s company Hemingwaydesign brought to the Taylor Wimpey scheme, Staiths Southbank in Gateshead.

Space for people to get together.

The scheme reminded us of much of the good stuff we saw in Malmo, Sweden earlier this year where the design of the space for community interaction between the buildings is given equal importance to the design of the buildings themselves.

We share many values in relation to creating communities, regeneration and design and read with interest Wayne’s recent comments about successful communities in The Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/2011/sep/27/people-decent-housing-successful-communities?INTCMP=SRCH

We’re excited about creating the first new homes at Lingfield Point next year and making real the sustainable mixed community around our existing business community. We hope Mr Hemingway would approve of our plans!

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Categories: General

Spin us a YARN and win a ‘Golden Bobbin!’ »

Here at Lingfield Point, we’re keen on Twitter and we love a good yarn.

To combine the two and celebrate the launch of Lingfield Point’s latest space, YARN@Lingfield Point, we’re inviting budding wordsmiths to spin us a yarn on twitter.

All you have to do is write a ‘ripping yarn’ in 130 characters or less and add the hashtag #spinayarn to bring it up to the Twitter limit of 140.  You choose the subject but it needs to be short, razor sharp and to the point. The competition closes on November 11. The Marchday Literary Committee (John and Tim) will then sit to choose the winner and award the much coveted Golden Bobbin. The winner will be announced week commencing 5 December.

The Marchday Literary Committee meet for a good old yarn!

‘Yarn is aimed at small companies who want to punch above their weight and impress their customers. The space is some of the most memorable we’ve created. At Yarn, our customers may only pay for a small amount of space but benefit from the grandeur of all the fantastic communal facilities. We all love twitter and thought it would be fun to run the competition and put the Golden Bobbin up for grabs.’ said John.

Just a few weeks after the launch of YARN more than half of the space is already let. However, there are still spaces of between 250 and 945sqft available.

John tweets as @johnny_niblick, Tim as @timstephen and collectively Marchday tweets as @marchdaygroup. You can follow the goings on at Lingfield Point at @lingfieldpoint or the wonderful musings of @chairmaneddie.

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Categories: General

Strictly Silver – celebrating 25 years of St Teresa’s Hospice »

With over 45,000 sqft of open plan office space all one floor, Meadow plays host to many events, seminars and summits, but nothing quite prepared us for the glamour of St Teresa’s annual black tie ball – Strictly Silver on Saturday night.

Celebrating the Hospice’s 25th anniversary and hosted by Sherwoods, we joined forces with our main charitable partner St Teresa’s Hospice to provide the venue for this very exclusive event.  Over 350 people attended and were served a delicious 3 course meal, enjoyed music from  Graffiti Classics and the Dean Solomon Band who lit up the dance floor till the wee hours in the morning.  Meadow looked respendent in sparkling silver and a great time was had by all – providing valuable fund-raising opportunities for this much-loved, local charity .

We plan a whole host of events, seminars, and working lunches to get our neighbourhood buzzing with activity and this month is no different; whether its free sales training; PR or even specialist conferences dedicated to the development of care.  Our approach is one based on friendship and care whether you’re an individual or business and our relationship with St Teresa’s Hospice is a good example of this.

A full report with strictly stunning pics will appear here soon but in the meantime, we’re now looking forward to planning the festive christmas cracker concert with St Teresa’s Hospice – always a sell-out with stunning performances from a vareity of different choirs in the Tees Valley  – tickets available soon!

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Categories: General

Sunny outlook for our latest customer at Lingfield Point »

We’re pleased to welcome a whole host of new customers here at Lingfield Point including space one company’s drive to expand their business.

AEL Systems, which installs, maintains and designs electrical, fire safety and security products have now moved to Lingfield Point.

Eddie welcomes one of our latest customers - AEL

Lee Willis, 38 from Darlington, started the company in 2002 and says the move to Lingfield Point has given him the business space he needs to expand the company into solar energy. A field he has been keen to move in to for a while.

Lee said: “Lingfield Point is ideal for us. Not only is it cost effective but it meets the business needs.

“Before moving here we only had office space. Now we’ve got enough office space to run the business efficiently but also warehousing space to store our products, as well as train our team of electricians.”

AEL Systems has leased a space at Lingfield Point which combines 1,000sqft office suite and a 1,000sqft of warehousing. The combination of office and industrial space has meant that the company can expand.

Lee said: “We have invested in providing renewable energy systems to the domestic and commercial market. Now we are in the process of completing all the necessary training to achieve accreditation.

“The warehouse facility will be invaluable for this, meaning we can do our own in-house training.”

AEL Systems currently employs 15 members of staff, four office based and 11 field engineers and electricians. The growth into solar panel installation will see the company employ an additional four electricians.

Eddie Humphries, estate manager at Lingfield Point said: “We always work with our customers to ensure we can provide precisely what they need. This is the beauty of Lingfield Point. We have the variety of buildings, the vision and the scope to create bespoke business spaces.

“Lee has combined an office suite with warehousing to store products and train his team. We are thrilled that the move has enabled him to move in to a new area of the business and will always be on hand to help him out however we can. ”

For more information on how Lingfield Point can help with your office and warehousing needs, just call us on 01325 486486.

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Categories: General

Plans now on show for exciting new phase of development at Lingfield Point »

Marchday, owners of Lingfield Point, welcomed Taylor Wimpey and leading architects, John R Paley Associates to canteen where plans for the first phase of residential development have been unveiled.

Exciting new homes proposed at Lingfield Point

Plans for the development of 270 homes in the first phase of the exciting £100million masterplan have now gone on show at Lingfield Point.  This first phase of homes will form part of 1,200 homes, sports facilities, a school, health services and plenty of green space for the local community to enjoy.

John Orchard, director of Marchday, said “This is the first phase of making the masterplan happen and it’s really exciting.  We want the new homes to be family-friendly and to use the lessons learned from some of the best housing schemes in Europe. Most people agree that we’ve created some outstanding office buildings at Lingfield Point, now we intend to create some truly outstanding homes too.”

Andrew Paley, from the team of architects supporting Taylor Wimpey said that the development team had visited similar projects in places as far away as Malmo in Sweden for design and inspiration.  The team want space between the homes to be as important as the buildings and added “This is not just a housing estate – the neighbourhood deserves its own character and we looked across Europe to see how we could improve life at home and build it into the plans at Lingfield Point.

“Its not often that the developer is involved in a scheme where design is such a high priority; it’s very exciting to be part it” said Andrew.

We couldn’t agree more!

To see plans for the first phase of our new neighbourhood, pop into canteen at Lingfield Point where plans are on show until 3 August or log onto www.jrpassoc.co.uk to view and comment.

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Categories: General

Lingfield Point’s plans gain national recognition »

We’re really excited to be involved in one of the North East’s most ambitious business and residential developments – but did you know that its plans are so creative it’s now officially a work of art?

The eye-catching masterplan of Lingfield Point in Darlington, created by award winning architects FAT, has been selected for display at the Royal Academy’s prestigious Summer Exhibition.

Exciting housing plans - part of our £100million masterplan

The exhibition, which has taken place every year since 1769, is the world’s largest open contemporary art event and features paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures.

All artists of merit can submit a piece of work, but only the very best items get past the tough selection panel of judges. This year, more than 12,000 artworks were submitted for consideration.

Marchday – who own Lingfield Point – appointed award winning architects FAT in 2008 to turn the former industrial site covering 107 acres into an eco-friendly mixed use business and residential development.

John Orchard, Director of Marchday said: “It’s very exciting and an honour to have this very strong visual image of Lingfield Point displayed at such a prestigious exhibition, being viewed by art lovers from around the world. Art is a great passion of ours and influences everything we’re doing here at Lingfield Point.

“Our intention is to create a community built around the business space with eco-homes, a school, parkland, sports pitches, a health centre, shops and restaurants. In the drawing, our architects FAT have captured the spirit of what we’re working to achieve – to create a development that’s both unique and forward thinking.”

Sean Griffiths, Director of FAT commented: “We were asked by the exhibition’s curator to submit drawings from developments we’ve worked on. We like to think we take an unusual and different approach to creating masterplans of projects we’re involved with.

“This is a masterplan that’s quite interesting. There is life, something often short in masterplans. I think we have a very particular approach and in this image it reflects a side of Marchday that’s a little more flamboyant. We think it’s a very strong image, it is to do with style and has a nice quality for an architectural type of drawing.”

The image has also been featured as part of the BBC2 Culture Show’s coverage of this unique exhibition.  The Summer Exhibition runs until the 15th August at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly, London .

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