Bill Wiggin, Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, performed a groundbreaking ceremony in Leominster on Friday (26 October 2007) to mark the beginning of construction work on a £16m Rural Regeneration Zone (RRZ) project, set to create 1,000 jobs across Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire.
The £1.5m Enterprise Centre in Leominster is the first to be built as part of the project, which will develop a strategic network of centres for entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the Zone. The Leominster centre will offer 9 offices and 13 workshops and, when fully operational, will provide homes for up to 22 businesses, which in turn will create 100 jobs.
The RRZ, through Advantage West Midlands, has joined forces with Evans Easyspace, a UK provider of new, flexible offices and workshops designed to suit SME requirements, to deliver the project which will meet the growing need for high quality premises for the indigenous business base.
Bill Wiggin, MP for Leominster, was delighted to be involved in the groundbreaking:
“Leominster is already a great place to live and the new Enterprise Centre will help it become an even better place to work.
“I am delighted at the investment being made for this wonderful town and its people. So many great things can be achieved by small private companies and ensuring that they have good facilitates at the beginning obviously helps to support our future entrepreneurs.”
Peter Pawsey, Chairman of the RRZ, added his support:
“This is a milestone day for the project and signals the start of the long-term vision that will provide high quality enterprise space for businesses seeking to operate in the Zone.
He continued: “This flexible workspace will help small companies and business people make the transition from home to office, which will ensure that firms have better access to knowledge and mutual support from the likes of Business Link West Midlands, the Learning and Skills Council and other public service partner organisations.”
Ian Frostwick, Evans Easyspace operations director, said: “Evans Easyspace is delighted to see work begin on the first Enterprise Centre in Leominster. The Evans Easyspace concept of providing high quality, small workspaces tailor made to suit growing businesses is already a proven success throughout the UK and, once complete, this new Evans Business Centre will bring the unique Evans Easyspace benefits to the business community here in Leominster. As an environmentally responsible company, this new centre will be designed to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’ for its environmental performance and the businesses who locate here can do so with confidence, knowing that they are working in an environmentally approved building.”
West Midlands based A & H Construction is the contractor managing the build and, during the construction phase, it is estimated that up to 30 people will be employed on site at any one time.
The centre will boast telephony and broadband and clients will have access to marketing tools and networking opportunities via Evans Easynet; the online business community for all Evans Business Centre clients across the UK.
For further information call 0800 039 3900 or visit www.evanseasyspace.com