SIDMOUTH-based family Holiday Park, Oakdown, has kicked off 2018 with yet more incredible award success, by winning the prestigious gold award for Best Holiday Park in the South West.
The award was presented to the Oakdown team at the South West Tourism Awards ceremony at the Riviera Centre in Torquay last night.
‘Winning the Visit Devon award last year was just brilliant for us, but now to be awarded the gold at a regional level, really is the icing on the cake,’ said Alastair Franks, owner of Oakdown.
‘The team works incredibly hard to provide our visitors with...
South West businesses plan to increase recruitment in the coming year despite a dip in confidence, according to the latest Business in Britain report from Lloyds Bank. Business confidence in the South West – calculated as an average of respondents’ expected sales, orders and profits over the next six months – fell to 19 per cent compared with 27 per cent in July 2017. However, the net balance of firms looking to hire more staff rose by 21 points to 17 per cent, compared with July 2017, while the net balance of businesses expecting to increase investment held firm at five per cent. And the...
Devon County Council’s campaign to re-establish regular rail services on the Exeter to Okehampton line has won the support of an influential group of South West MPs.
The South West Rail All Party Parliamentary Group will lobby the Department for Transport for vital funding following a presentation in Westminster by Cllr Andrea Davis, Devon’s Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Development and Waste. The County Council is co-ordinating the Okehampton initiative on behalf of the wider Peninsula Rail Task Force, and working with the OkeRail Group. Cllr Davis said: “It's a big step...
Business activity in the South West lost growth momentum in November, according to the latest Lloyds Bank Regional Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI®).
The South West PMI recorded 52.8 in November, down from 54.0 in October. A reading above 50 signals growth in business activity. The rate of expansion was the second-weakest out of the 12 monitored UK regions, with only Scotland posting a slower rise in private sector output.
Despite client demand also rising at a slower rate, businesses in the region continued to create new jobs.
Stagecoach South West has confirmed details of its Christmas bus services, with services operating throughout the holiday period excluding Christmas Day and New Year’s Day*.
Stagecoach has added extra journeys to its Red (Honiton Road) Park and Ride service on late night Thursdays. There will be additional buses from the city centre every half hour between 8.10pm and 10.10pm.
In Plymouth, Stagecoach is running a Sunday Park & Ride service from George Junction and Milehouse between 26 November and 24 December. First buses in will be shortly after 9am with the last...
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has launched a campaign with property industry charity LandAid* to raise over £2 million in the biggest ever fundraising campaign for the charity. The funds will contribute to ending youth homelessness across the South West and will provide secure and affordable bed spaces in the region.
As part of RICS’ 150th anniversary in 2018, the campaign - known as Pledge150 - will see the leading industry body partnering with LandAid to raise £2.25 million for the provision of 150 bed spaces across all 12 UK regions by December 2018, for...
Stagecoach South West has announced that, from 29 October 2017, it will be making a number of changes to its Torbay bus services, improving reliability and connectivity over a core part of its network.
The Hop12 timetable will remain largely unchanged, with some alterations to early morning journeys in order to improve reliability.
On the 13, there will be minor changes to morning and afternoon peak journeys to improve connections for commuters. On school days, the 0820 arrival into Newton Abbot will extend to Newton Abbot College. There will be a new journey at 1712 from...
The South West of England is home to some of Brits' ultimate “happy places”, according to a new study.
New research from SACO, The Serviced Apartment Company polled UK holidaymakers to discover the places in the UK which evoke special memories and ultimately make us “happy”.
The poll of 1,500 British adults revealed that Cornwall is our top ‘go-to’ holiday destination for making happy memories, voted for by almost one in five Brits. The Lake District was in second place, with Devon also featuring in the top three.
Occupier demand has moderated in the retail segment of the South West commercial property market, but conditions in the industrial and office sectors remain firm, according to the Q2 2017 RICS UK Commercial Property Market Survey.
South West occupier demand strengthened during Q2, following only modest increases in each of the last two quarters with 16% of respondents reporting an increase. Sector breakdown shows flat demand for retail space, offset by reasonable growth (net balance of +26%) in demand for industrial property.
South West workloads have slowed across all sectors of the construction industry as Brexit delays investment, according to the Q2 2017 UK RICS Construction and Infrastructure Market Survey. Anecdotal evidence from respondents suggests that uncertainty regarding Brexit is weighing on investment decisions, alongside the political turmoil generated from last month’s general election.
After a positive picture in the Q1 survey with the growth in workloads accelerating at its strongest pace since the referendum, there has been a modest slowing in Q2 2017 with private commercial and...
