How big?

I will warn you now this blog is going to be considered totally non PC by many people – but the subject just makes me mad!

ambulance of the future?

Apparently the East Midlands Ambulance Service is to spend about £800,000 on ambulances – nothing wrong there, we all need ambulances. No it is the specifics that are causing my bile to rise. They are having to buy ones capable of dealing with obese patients.

It’s current fleet of 270 ambulances only includes a few capable of handling patients up to 80 stone! And it is buying 80 of the ‘super size’ vehicles with larger stretchers, ramps, hoists and specialist chairs. The new ambulances, which are currently being built, will be able to take patients weighing up to 50 stone (318kg).

Now I am willing to accept that we are all getting bigger, this is a result of better living standards over the past few decades. And there needs to be provision for transporting ‘larger’ patients – that goes without saying. But 50 stone is the equivalent of my entire family (and a bit)!

But there is a bigger picture here – if obesity is getting to be such a common problem that we need all of our ambulances to be capable of carrying ‘larger’ patients shouldn’t we be using the money to educate people on how to eat healthily so that the problem reduces (and the weight).

An example of shutting the gate after the horse has bolted?

 

Obviously I don’t condone this – but it is funny!

Once in a while we get a classic headline – this is one that appeared last week;

Nottingham tree branch ‘armed’ robber hunted by police

The new weapon of choice....

You have to agree that this headline from the BBC is a classic! I am not sure what it says about Nottingham criminal classes – the national press would have us all believe that Nottingham is the gun crime capital of the UK – which it isn’t – perhaps this supports that claim as there can’t be many illegal firearms around if robbers are resorting to tree branches now!

The story from the BBC website reads as follows;

A man armed with a tree branch who threatened staff at two Nottingham supermarkets is being hunted by police.

The offender first wielded a branch at the Sainsbury’s store in Arnold Lane, Gedling, on 14 January and made off with cash and cigarettes.

The same man is believed to have struck at the Co-operative store in Gedling Road on Wednesday but left empty-handed, Nottinghamshire Police said.

The suspect is described as white, of slim build and in his early 20s.

He was wearing a Nike hooded top, black track suit bottoms with white stripes down the side, black trainers and a scarf covering his face, police said.

No-one was injured in either robbery.

On the basis that no one was hurt I feel comfortable about this blog – sorry if it offends anyone!

 

Low energy lighting – a second chance?

these can save you lots.......

The low energy light bulb (or compact fluorescent to be more accurate) has been given pretty rough treatment by the public since it became available a few years ago. Yes, it is fair to say that the early versions were fairly poor in terms of warm up times, so the early poor press was probably deserved. They are however much better now and provide good levels of instant light. They are also one of the cheapest and easiest ways to reduce energy use in the home and make a much bigger impact on energy-saving than most people realise – I highlighted this in an earlier blog.

Unfortunately the press (the Daily Mail in particular) have done such an effective hatchet job on them that they will probably never make the level of contribution that they should in the domestic market. However there is now a ‘young pretender’ on the block – LED lighting. In reality it has been around for some time and we have become used to great little torches and the like using this technology. But now it is beginning to break into the domestic and commercial market as costs start to fall – and its energy usage is equally low.

And now to help move this forward the European Commission has launched a green paper and public consultation on the future of LED-based lighting. Part of the reason behind this is that the European Union completes its phasing out of traditional light bulb sales in September 2012, and in the next few years about eight billion incandescent lamps in European homes, offices and streets will need to be replaced by more energy-efficient lighting solutions (unless Daily Mail readers get their way!).

These include LED and organic LED (or OLED) lighting technologies, also known as solid state lighting (SSL). It is predicted that faster LED deployment will help reduce energy use from lighting by 20 per cent by 2020, but there are market challenges;

• High purchase prices – compared to traditional sources
• Lack of familiarity among potential users – a real ‘catch 22′
• A lack of common standards

The key questions from the consultation include;

What would help to overcome existing barriers and accelerate LED deployment in Europe?
How can it be ensured that LED products on the European market are good quality, safe and meet consumer expectations?
How can co-operation be reinforced between the lighting sector and architects, lighting designers, electrical installers and the construction and building sectors?
How can the EU best support entrepreneurship and competitiveness in the lighting sector?

The consultation runs until 29 February 2012 and can be found  here.

 

Landlords can help tenants save energy

The traditional Landlord and tenant relationship is normally seen as a ‘them and us’ style relationship. Often there is little beneficial communication between the two sides, and invariably the only contact is around quarter days when rent is due!

However one of the UK’s largest real estate investment trusts (REIT) British Land have recently been trialling automated meter reading systems in some of their multi tenanted buildings with a view to sharing the findings with the tenants. In tandem with energy-saving initiatives, the REIT has introduced a six monthly energy consumption report for its occupiers. This shows each occupier’s use of energy and compares it to the same period in the previous year together with their performance against others in the same building.

Monitoring and good management are key factors in energy savings and the evidence shows what can be achieved with relatively low levels of capital investment, particularly in additional metering. The key finding has been that active and expert management of the building counts. British Land is in effect funding its own version of the government’s green deal, forward funding green capital investment and recovering the outlay at no additional cost to occupiers through guaranteed savings in energy, which are given by the supplier. This enables the landlord to recoup investment costs through an increased service charge on the back of reduced costs for occupiers.

So by helping tenants see what they are using in energy terms the landlord saves them money, makes them more comfortable and reduces his own costs. While at the same time he makes the building more attractive for potential tenants – simple but highly effective!

 

Supermarkets and small towns.

I am a small town lad and proud of it – we live in a society today that unfortunately believes that ‘bigger is better’. However the ‘small town upbringing’ that I had is, I think, good for providing a better understanding of what really makes our country tick and perhaps make me a little more understanding about the differences between city and county.

a hill top town

My home town is Malmesbury in Wiltshire – described as a hill-top town, it is rather pretty as it is surrounded on three sides by rivers. It has a Norman Abbey (or what is left of it) at its heart and was also the capital of England once (no really!) and has a King buried in the Abbey (Athelstan). It was also the site of the first manned flight (by Elmer the monk).

So, a lot of history and not a huge amount of room for the town to grow, although it has over the last 30 years more than doubled in size. Unfortunately that now makes it of interest to the large supermarket operators and it is now subject to two planning applications – one from Sainsbury’s and one from Waitrose.

Now, I have commented on this blog numerous times before about my view on the negative effect that the supermarket has had on our town centres (and our way of life). Mostly by way they cause the loss of the traditional traders – butchers, bakers etc, and this is my concern in respect of Malmesbury. The town, which has a population of around 5000, still has two bakers, two good butchers and green grocers and delis and similar. It has a real community feel to the High Street and surrounding area, my dread is that the supermarkets will kill this dead.

As usual both supermarket operators are offering ‘the world’ to the town by pushing all the positives to get the planning they desire – link buses to the store etc. My personal hope is that neither application succeeds, but realistically one of the applications will undoubtably be passed, if so I hope it won’t be Sainsbury’s, as their site is too far out of the town. History tells me that they will perhaps also “change the ground rules” once they have the permission!

Waitrose have a site closer to the town centre (within walking distance) and will in my view be a kinder bed fellow for the local businesses if they are forced to have one. Time will tell, but I really hope my home town doesn’t become yet another victim of the supermarket tidal wave! Whatever happens there are interesting times ahead for Malmesbury.

 

Crazy coffin’s – literally!

the workshop

One of the things I love about my job is that I get out of the office and meet some really interesting people who often do some amazing things in their businesses. Some while ago I come across a client who does something ‘extraordinary’ in his business, now a coffin maker is not the one you would expect to be coming up with something so ‘off the wall’. But Vic Fearn & Co who I have acted for longer than I care to remember have an amazing side line to their business.

You may have seen it on the BBC news this week – it is one of Nottingham’s more individual exports – crazy coffins! They will literally make you a coffin in any form – ranging from waste skips, aeroplanes, viking long ships – in fact the list is endless!

I have been lucky enough during my time acting for them to see many of the coffins they have made for clients and they really are works of art. They are currently exhibiting some on the South Bank in London at the Royal Festival Hall, you can find the details here.

If you are in London and have a few minutes spare go and have a look – you won’t be disappointed!

 

Is it just me – or is this getting boring now?

The end of 2011 will be remembered for many things, but perhaps one of the higher profile ‘events’ was the ‘occupy’ demonstrations in various cities of the world. The occupations were generally in the financial districts of big cities and of course our own capital city was not imune to the problem.

100 days achieving.......... nothing!

When I was down in London in the last quarter of 2011 I passed the camp outside St Pauls and if I am honest thought even at that point that they had made their thoughts known so perhaps the demonstration had run its course? There was also the issue of the large number of 9-5 protestors which had rather ‘taken the edge’ off the whole thing as well!

The city of London finally acted in the first part of 2012 to evict the camp – good news if not a bit late – but it appears now that they have moved on into empty office buildings and an unused court building (although I expect the irony of that to be lost on them).

Isn’t it time for the protestors to move on? The point has been made (rather poorly in my view – what ever happened to swampy?). The cost of dealing with this type of occupation is huge at a time when money is tight. Not just for the state but also for landlords and agents who are responsible for these buildings. Ironically the only people to benefit from the occupations will be the professionals that the protestors hate – lawyers, surveyors and the like!

And moving closer to home – was it me or did the Nottingham camp move out over Christmas and then return? Can’t we even demonstrate or occupy something properly in the country anymore?

 

A good pitch is always a good pitch!

It is interesting to note that even in these difficult times nearly all of the Woolworth stores that fell empty with the collapse of the retailer at the start of the current financial problems are now nearly all re-occupied.

This does give some hope for our town centres. The Portas report has highlighted the plight of our nations town centres and has come up with some interesting (and some blindingly obvious) suggestions. It remains to be seen which recommendations the Government take up from the report, sadly they will probably be the cheapest to carry out and not necessarily the best ones! But at least it is a move in the right direction – although I am a strong believer in the fact that it is the supermarkets who have killed our town centres more than any other thing – more on that next week.

However, the old adage, “location, location, location” is as true today as it has ever been, and it is good to see that most of the ‘woollies’ which were always well positioned in most town centres have found new tenants. Yes, most will be pound shops or similar (no one else will take these large units) but at least it keeps some activity in the good areas of the towns.

As we hear about the problems of some of our larger retailers over the last few weeks (Peacocks etc) spare a thought for the small independent shop – it is time to support the small local trader more than ever, this is the only thing that will enable our suburban and small town centres to survive – you have been warned!

 

Kodak – the end of an era?

As a keen photographer since my teenage years i have used most types and brands of film – Ilford for black and white, Fuji for colour transparencies in my later years, but for a long time I used Kodak products – particularly their Kodachrome (before I discovered Fuji film).

It is therefore with great sadness that I heard that Kodak had filed for protection in the USA against bankruptcy. This is to protect it from its creditors and allow a restructuring of the company which they hope to complete by 2013. But if this succeeds it will be a shadow of its former self.

To be honest this was not a surprise – Kodak just haven’t reacted to the new photographic format of digital (despite having been closely involved in its early years – in fact they claim to have invented it). At one time over 75% of photos taken anywhere in the world were on a product from Kodak – amazing figures. But they have never had anything to offer in the more expensive regions of the camera market ( led by Nikon and Canon ), and now the ‘everyday camera’ tends to be a camera phone – life has moved on from the box brownie!

However whereas Fuji are now a major force in digital photography, Kodak have gone from world power to has been. hopefully the name will survive, it would be sad to see it disappear totally.

Having said that we now have a generation that have no idea how photos were produced ‘in the old days’.

 

iPad – a laptop replacement?

I have recently joined the iPad owning millions – due to a ‘significant’ birthday and a very generous wife (thanks Wendy!). I have been a fan of the iPhone ever since we got them at work and have been lusting after an iPad since they came out a couple of years ago.

Is the divide becoming blurred?

Well, now I have one and I have been giving it a bit of a ‘shake down’ to see what I can use it for at work to help ease my day. I have a laptop which runs Windows 7 which is my day-to-day machine, but I have always felt that the iPad could take some of the load – and be much quicker and portable! I am still working on this but will report on my thoughts shortly.

It appears however that I am not alone in this belief as we have been bringing a few iPads into the firm to try out in a variety of our departments. The general consensus appears to be that they are useful and being used more and more. This also appears to be a general trend across the world – recent research has found quite a high percentage of iPad use in the business environment already.

The role of the iPad in the enterprise was explored by IDG Connect in their “iPad for Business Survey 2012″. The survey found that 12 percent of workers indicated that the iPad has “completely replaced” their traditional laptop. Another 54 percent said the iPad has “partly” replaced their laptop, and instead complements it on the go.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents said that they ‘carry their laptop around less’ now that they own an iPad.

So it appears that the tablet that ‘no one would want’ according to much of the IT world is starting to take over! Yet another example of the genius that was the late Steve Jobs.