Tag Archives: warwickshire

News

Former senior Sainsbury’s exec in C&W role

A former senior executive with Sainsbury’s has been appointed to a major role in Coventry and Warwickshire.

Anna Clarke has been made vice chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Place Board, which sits under the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, and promotes the reputation of the area through a number of initiatives including the successful Champions programme.

Clarke, who lives in Kenilworth and was raised locally, spent 17 years with the supermarket giant, working for its TU clothing brand.

She rose to be head of design and innovation across women’s, men’s and children’s clothing and essentials, in more than 600 Sainsburys stores and online, including Argos. She has set up her own business and now works as a fashion retail consultant, artist and gut health specialist.

Clarke has been on the Place Board, for three and a half years and succeeds Steve Stewart who is stepping down from the role.

She said: “The profile of Coventry and Warwickshire has never been higher, and the Place Board, through Champions and other projects, has worked on a number of initiatives over the last 10 years to ensure our story is heard at all levels.

“I was invited to speak at a Champions event when I was at Tu, situated at Ansty Park and was really struck by the power of the network and how it had buy-in from right across the area and from the private and public sectors.

“I am really invested in the area. My father, a born and bred Coventrian, had a legal family practice in Coventry for many years and he was actively involved in a number of charitable and local groups.

“I have built my career from here, as well as my family life, and have a huge passion to follow in my father’s footsteps in giving back to the local community. It is an area that has so much going for it and the work of Place Board allows that to be shared to a wide audience, especially evident with the numerous City of Culture events held this year.”

The Champions network celebrates its 10th anniversary in September and regularly attracts 150 businesses to its bi-monthly meetings and has featured a range of speakers with strong local connections, ranging from Oscar winners to leading academics, and from nationally-acclaimed business figures to leading sportspeople.

The Champions: Next Generation events, showcasing young talent and business entrepreneurs from across the area, was successfully launched in 2019.

The Place Board is chaired by former Jaguar Land Rover executive Les Ratcliffe who is a Deputy Lieutenant of Warwickshire.

He said: “Steve has done a sterling job and really helped to build the Place Board. We have taken the Coventry and Warwickshire story to London and to Birmingham, launched our Next Generation programme, and expanded representation on the board.

“Anna has a fantastic background at the top of her field, and is highly invested in the area and its success. She has made a real impact since joining the board and I know that she will continue to drive our activities forward as we celebrate out 10th anniversary.”

News

Housebuilder helps plant thousands of trees and shrubs this year

Housing developer Mulberry Homes – which is celebrating its 10th anniversary of providing new homes developments – is working to improve biodiversity and ecology by planting trees and shrubs.

As part of the housebuilder’s The Mulberry Way initiative and commitment to the areas in which it builds, Mulberry Homes has helped to plant more than 3,650 trees and shrubs across sites in Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Leicestershire since April 2021.

Mulberry Homes plants an average of 12 trees and shrubs per new home delivered, as part of its pledge to create greener spaces with great living appeal for local people.

At select housing developments, Mulberry Homes is creating organic gardening clubs and is donating tools, planting spaces, a shed, water sources and decking areas to local residents.

For National Tree Planting Week – which takes place between Saturday, November 27 and Sunday, December 5 – the housebuilder is encouraging green-thumbed locals to get involved with planting at home.

Kerry Jones, Sales and Marketing Director for Mulberry Homes, said: “We are really proud of our commitment to preserving the environments surrounding our developments, and our drive towards our sustainability goals.

“At Mulberry Homes, it is one of our key ambitions to enhance ecology in any way that we can, and with thanks to our The Mulberry Way initiative, we’re delighted to be continuing our hard work to improve ecology across our sites.”

For more information on Mulberry Homes, visit https://mulberryhomes.co.uk/.

News

Housebuilder teams up with Warwickshire Bat Group to bust bat myths for International Bat Week

A housing developer has teamed up with Warwickshire Bat Group to help provide people in the county with a better understanding about bats, by busting the myths surrounding our nocturnal neighbours.

As part of a pledge to improve spaces for wildlife, housebuilder Mulberry Homes is providing bat boxes alongside select properties at its new housing development The Templars in Temple Herdewyke.

To celebrate International Bat Week, which takes place annually from Sunday, October 24 to Sunday, October 31, Mulberry Homes has partnered with Warwickshire Bat Group – which works to conserve bats and their habitats for future generations – to inform the public with interesting facts about bats.

Julia Waller, Membership Secretary at Warwickshire Bat Group, said: “It is highly important to help provide a sustainable environment for bats, and that’s why we are pleased to work with organisations which are helping to provide safer spaces for these much-loved mammals, such as Mulberry Homes.

“Bats are much misunderstood mammals. Primitive man’s fear of the dark and the creatures that were active in it, has left a legacy of myths and fears, and that’s why we are here to help spread the truth and dispel the myths. Here are six of the common myths which we are dispelling for Bat Week:

 

Bats are blind

All bats have good eyesight and only switch to echolocation (sending out sound waves and listening for their reflections) when it gets too dark for them to find their way around.

 

Bats are just flying mice

Bats are mammals but are more closely related to dogs than rodents; they feed their young (called pups) on milk.

 

Bats get tangled in your hair

Bats are very agile flyers as, unlike birds, they can readily change the shape of their wings. They may fly near you, but they are just after the insects that your body heat attracts.

 

All bats drink blood like Dracula

Out of over 1,400 different species of bat across the world, there are only three species that feed on blood, and they only live in Central and South America. All UK bats eat only insects.

 

Their nests can cause damage

Bats do not build nests like birds or chew on anything, as they just crawl into small gaps to rest or hang from a convenient spot.

 

Bats breed like mice or rats

Bats only have about one baby a year, or sometimes none at all if the weather is bad or there is a lack of insect food about.”

 

Julia added: “We are hoping next year to be much more active with bat walks, talks and surveys, but as winter is approaching our work with bats will reduce, for the bats begin to hibernate due to their insect food disappearing.

“So, whilst the bats are sleeping our focus shifts to a series of monthly talks about bats, which are open to anyone.

“One of our main projects that we have been continuing with, despite the pandemic, is our detective work in trying to locate one of Warwickshire’s rarer species of bat – the Serotine. We are especially trying to find where they call home, in other words their ‘roosts’.

“Although we haven’t been successful with locating these bats so far, which are one of the larger species in the UK with a wingspan of over 30 cm, we will be continuing with the project. This will allow us to not only build up a picture of all the other more common types of bats we have in the county, but also spot other rare species. In fact, it has already recorded bat calls from another rare species of bat known as the Barbastelle.”

 

Kerry Jones, Sales and Marketing Director at Mulberry Homes, said: “At Mulberry, one of our key missions is to help improve the environments which surround our homes.

“This is why we have installed bat boxes at our new housing development, The Templars, to help provide these fascinating mammals with further protection and shelter.

“We hope that with the ecological work we are carrying out across our developments, we can help to protect and attract wildlife to local areas where we are building our homes.”

 

More details about the bat talks can be found on the Warwickshire Bat Group website, https://www.warksbats.co.uk/aboutus/diary.aspx.

Priced from £239,950 to £429,950, there is currently a range of two-, three- and four-bedroom homes available at Mulberry Homes’ The Templars at Falkland Place in Temple Herdewyke.

For more information on the homes, call the sales team on 0333 121 1080 or visit https://mulberryhomes.co.uk/developments/the-templars/overview/.