We’re over the moon to welcome the new hybrid buses soon to be trialled on the extended bus service 1/1b with its new terminus of Lingfield Point. Stopping at three locations around Lingfield Point, this new service will take you into town every 30 minutes.  This, in addition to the regular service running past Lingfield Point, means our neighbourhood is one of the best served, most accessible business parks in the region.

Local bus company Arriva North East will be trialling a new hybrid vehicle on the newly extended 1,1b service from this January.  The current route runs from Tow Law, Crook and Bishop Auckland to Darlington Town Centre and  from 2 January will be extended to Lingfield Point via Darlington College/University, funded by the Department for Transport through the Local Sustainable Transport Fund.

The bus being trialled on the route is a state-of-the-art vehicle which is powered using an electric engine. If the trial proves a success the company will take delivery of 7 new hybrid vehicles in the summer of 2012.

The investment comes following a partnership between Arriva North East and ourselves working with Team Local Motion to champion even more environmentally-friendly means of transport being available to the people of Darlington.

Nigel Featham, Managing Director for Arriva North East, said: “The extension of the service will ensure that we continue to improve our customers’ journey experience, and the testing of the hybrid vehicle is another real benefit for the area. We know that value for money and reliability are very important to our customers, however more and more we are hearing that the environment is another key consideration.”

Councillor David Lyonette, Darlington Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport said ” The Department of Transport funding will benefit people locally and regionally by providing improved access to education as the route now extends past Darlington College and the University, and to jobs at Lingfield Point too, which will assist future economic development. I’m delighted Team Local Motion has been able to secure this development.”

John Orchard, Director of Marchday commented “We think it’s great news that this service is being extended to include our community. It is important that our site is well-served by buses, with over 1,800 staff based at Lingfield Point, and a great deal of them living in and around Darlington,  it will certainly make the choice to travel to work by bus far easier.

For Lingfield Point to be served by hybrid buses is very appropriate as it fits perfectly with our ethos of sustainability – and the vision of our masterplan – setting out to make Lingfield Point one of the most environmentally-friendly developments in the UK “

So don’t forget your new year’s resolution … hop on our new bus service …. you’d be surprised how easy it really is!

Colin, our Lingfield Point Bee Keeper

In a quiet corner in the Lingfield Allotments there is a hive of activity!  As you may already know we are very fortunate here at Lingfield Point to have our very own bees.  We have two strains of bee – and Italian and a strain all the way from New Zealand – we’re very continental!

Both hives have produced a decent amount of honey despite early set backs.  In September we extracted our fourth batch of honey and Jenny from Marchday was lucky enough to bee there!

“I was a little wary as Colin, our resident Lingfield Point Bee keeper had been stung on a number of occasions, so I donned the bee keeper suit and triple checked it for holes!”

“We start by smoking the bees, this calms them and makes them less aggressive.  Then, once the lid is off the hive, it’s time to remove the ‘supers’, these are the frames where the bees build up the hexagonal wax cells (comb) and where the honey gets stored.

“With a little shake and a brush for those stubborn bees, the supers are removed and put neatly into a storage box.  The bees are, of course, pretty grumpy about us taking their honey, so they are all around us and it feels like they are trying to get into our suits!  One manages to and poor Colin is stung on his hand – poor bee too, honeybees are the only bees that die after they sting.

“We then take the Supers into a clean and sterile room, which is kept nice and warm. The supers are then carefully placed into a honey extractor – this is a manual spinning machine, which requires a fair amount of time and patience to spin the honey out of the combs.

“The honey then has a little time to settle, so all the waxy bits from the comb can float to the top and can be skimmed off (this is re-used to feed the bees).  The honey is then put into jars. 

“In the end, our Lingfield honey bees produced about 25lbs (50 jars) of honey and with the hives now established, fingers crossed next year will be even better.

Yum!

Interesting facts about honey bees

1. There are three types of bees in the hive – Queen, Worker and Drones.
2. Queens can live for up to 5 years.
3. Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for humans.
4. Just a single hive contains approximately 40-45,000 bees.
5. Bees can recognize individual human faces.
6. The average worker bee produces about 1/12th teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.  A worker bee lives for about 6 weeks.
7. A hive of bees will fly 90,000 miles, the equivalent of three orbits around the earth to collect 1 kg of honey.
8. It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the world.
9. A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip
10. According to Albert Einstein, If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live

Paul Buckley the Estates Manager comment; “Behind Garden Cottage we have been building an allotment. We have built 3 raised beds which are ready to go…and we’d like to offer them to our customers who may have an interest in growing food crops. All we have asked in return is a share of the fruits of their labour!

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Andy our gardener will be on hand to assist and advise. It goes without saying access to the plot s are 24 hours per day 7 days per week. Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking to install a water tap, a small shed and add in some tools and seating to help are gardeners on their way. We may even add in some chickens further down the line!”

Since  then we have been bowled over by the demand, so much so that all 3 beds have now been allocated,  but despair not, more are being built and prepared as we speak and hopefully they will be ready by the end of next week.

The first three beds have been allocated as follows…

Andy (the gardener)
The SeeWhy Team
The Trinity Team

As the next beds become available they will be allocated as follows…

The Garden Cottage Team
The Fastlane Team
The Touch Team

Once they are up and running we will be looking for any ideas on how we can help, advice and support our gardeners and build on what we have in order to maximise all the opportunities and benefits that allotment gardening offers. Any assitance or guidance needed then Andy our gardener will be on hand!

House of Commons for sale

Marchday the company behind the idea say it wants to put the House of Commons up for sale on behalf of the people of England – saving hundreds of jobs in the process. Marchday happens to own a huge 107 acre development Lingfield Point in Darlington, County Durham and could offer the Government a great deal at a fraction of the price. But to take advantage of it MPs would also have to be prepared to accept the advice of MP Iain Duncan Smith and move to follow the jobs.

John Orchard, of Marchday (which also owns New Lodge in Windsor and Cavendish Square in Central London) said:

“The Palace of Westminster functions as a giant office space with meeting rooms and chambers.

“It is very costly to run and maintain. Obviously there are cheaper places to be based – for example Lingfield Point – which is an award-winning sustainable business park that offers everything needed to run the country efficiently and cost effectively.

“Ok, this is a tongue-in-cheek poke at the Government but with several serious points behind it. For example in the past few years the Government has commissioned two reports into devolving civil service jobs to the regions, the Lyons Report and the Smith Review, the Lyons Report alone cost £2.22m and yet very little changed as a result

“News reports earlier this week made it clear how hard some of the poorest areas of England will be hit by the planned spending cuts and this is a great opportunity to resurrect this idea.

“The Government is asking everybody else to face the harsh realities that cuts will bring – it needs to take a top-down lead by example approach.
Office space at Lingfield Point is available at £10 per sq ft compared to the average of £35 per sq ft in London. The North East has a work-ready army of skilled people and logistical and transport links to Europe that are the best in England.

“This isn’t about making political points – it is a moral issue – we want the people in charge to think about the human cost of the proposals on the table and how easily some of the effects could be mitigated,” said Mr Orchard.

John Orchard at the Houses of Parliament

MP for Darlington Jenny Chapman supported Lingfield Point’s stance and said:

“The Government should listen to John Orchard.  David Cameron wants people to get on the bus to find work and I want them to come to Darlington.  We’ve got great schools, excellent transport links and great value real estate.  Darlington is a top place to do business and could save you money.   John says this is tongue in cheek, but I say the Government should listen up.”

Have a great break. See you in the New Year!

The thinking being that as well as cutting car travel and carbon emissions it will make us fitter, healthier and happier.

We might exclude Tim, he is productive enough, (another baby on the way) and is always too damn cheerful anyway.

Next time you see us we will all be leaner and fitter…………… apart from Tim of course!

We have had some fascinating discussions recently with experts and providers in the fields of waste to energy, biomass energy, CHP and district heating systems.

A big thank you to everyone that we have spoken with.

All of the discussions are focused mainly but not exclusively, on our Masterplan implementation at Lingfield point Darlington.

It is always great to be learning something new but when there are direct and potentially profitable applications for our mainstream business it is even more exciting.

Could we turn New Lodge, Windsor into a 150 year old grade 2* listed zero carbon building or retro fit  non carbon based CHP to award winning regeneration projects at Lingfield?

Maybe we can!

If we can do so and make the projects more profitable at the same time, even better!