Unsworth Sugden Blog

Three days on and the media interest has kept on building for our client, Westleigh Developments. The PR team’s Dave Toyn lept into action yesterday afternoon when BBC East Midlands contacted us, eager to cover the Belgrave housing scheme story.

The Westleigh news feature aired this morning on BBC East Midlands breakfast show. You can take a look for yourselves by clicking the following link: bbc-tv1-east-midlands-300710-0628

The first phase of work has begun on a £15m project for our client Westleigh Developments, causing a media flurry on announcement. Along with Westleigh, the redevelopment of the former British Union Shoe Machinery (BUSM) works on Ross Walk, Belgrave, is the result of a collaborative partnership between Leicester City Council, the Homes and Communities Agency, and two housing associations based in Leicester and Nottingham.

Featured in today’s Leicester Mercury, the low cost housing scheme for an initial 119 new properties, was herald for bringing affordable homes to the Belgrave Community, something that was in great demand.

BBC Radio Leicester also featured the story last night, which you listen to by clicking on the following link: bbc-radio-leicester-270710-1742

Westleighs Chris Beighton with land owner, Mandeep Singh, representitives of the LHA-ASRA and NCHA and Leicester City Council's Director of Planning, Andrew Smith.

PR Snap Shot of the Month - August 2009

Matt Moore of client Westleigh Developments and Ian Harrison from Mosaic1898, Leicester’s leading and longest standing disability services charity, shake hands after agreeing a deal for Westleigh’s commercial division to build its new permanent head office at the LE3 business park off Ratby Lane.

Hard work by the PR team resulted in great coverage in the Leicester Mercury and a happy client!

Client Westleigh Developments Ltd recently welcomed local students to its headquarters in Whetstone for an event that forms part of the Leicestershire Education Business Company’s (LEBC) Excellence in Enterprise Awards 2009.

Entitled ‘Building for the Future’, the event saw teams of six pupils from De Lisle Catholic School in Loughborough, Countesthorpe Community College in Countesthorpe and John Cleveland College in Hinckley undertake a number of construction-based challenges, to demonstrate the variety of skills required to work in the building industry.

Participants from each school were able to watch and learn new skills from Westleigh employees during the morning, by the end of which all teams had a member trained in the fields of surveying, estimating, brick-laying, health and safety and two educated in timber construction. These skills were then put in to practice with each team challenged to construct a timber-frame scaled down house using materials from Westframe, the timber-frame division of Westleigh Developments.

Pupils from Countesthorpe College (orange), John Cleveland (green) and De Lisle Catholic College (blue) at Westleigh

There’s lots of great environmentally friendly news with some of our Leicester-based PR clients at the moment:

A brand new website has been launched by the Raynsway Group for the Watermead Business Park in Thurmaston. There’s a huge focus on sustainability around the whole project which is already home to businesses of both regional and international importance, such as Lafarge Aggregates Ltd and Bentley. For more information on the wealth of green features there, then why not visit the site.

Westframe, the timber frame manufacturing division of Westleigh Developments, has made it into today’s Leicester Mercury after supplying and erecting the timberframe for a landmark ‘eco-house’ in Mountsorrel. Once completed it will be the first home in Leicestershire to achieve the highest available rating (Code Six) for environmentally-friendly homes.

And finally, the commercial division of Westleigh Developments, Westleigh Commercial has begun work on a new £12m environmentally aware office development on the outskirts of Leicester, adjacent to junction 21a of the M1. Once completed, LE3 will comprise of a combination of office units from 17,000sq ft upwards.

Keep up the green work everyone!!