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Retailers are flooding into Yate Shopping Centre’s new leisure complex – Yate Riverside – with over 70% of the units already taken before building even starts.
It has already been announced that the cinema operator Cineworld will anchor the scheme but there has been a lot of interest from the shop and retaurant chains for the remaining units with a further six parties either in the process of or completing legal contracts.
Updating Yate Town Council on the project, Mark Hull Group Property Controller for Crestbridge said “We knew that this scheme would be popular but not to this extent! The cinema operator Cineworld signed up almost immediately after planning permission was scured and since then there has been a steady flow to our front door. Unfortunately it looks as though we will not be able to accomodate all the interested parties but in some ways that is a good thing.
“As a result of this interest, we have received offers from some common high street names interested in coming to the main shopping centre. Early next year we will be submitting plans to reconfigure some of West Walk to create a new unit that is attracting interest from two major high street names. It is encouraging that our vacancy rate is half of the national average and there is scope to reduce this further over the next few months.
When copmpleted in Spring 2016 Yate Riverside will house a cinema, three modern retail units and up to 7 restaurants/cafe units. Work has already started in preparing the site for the construction phase and weather permitting, work should be under way by Spring.
Mark Hull said that this has not been the easiest project to deliver but it is heatening that we are close to the actual build phase and with so much interest, This is a great example of a community working together to achieve what the people of Yate want and i can not emphasise enough how important our relationship with Yate Town Council, all the local councillors and the many other stakeholders has helped us.
Yate Shopping Centre has been inundated by local music groups eager to get their names on the same billing as world superstar Peter Andre for this year’s Christmas lights switch-on.
The event on Thursday, 13thNovember, will be the start of the Shopping Centre’s annual Christmas event programme. This year will also feature the Christmas parade and the unveiling of a ‘unique’ Santa’s Grotto on Saturday, 15thNovember.
Marketing Manager Tracy King, explains: “To many of these young musicians it’s the glamour of being a supporting act to a star such as Peter Andre’ and providing the opportunity to promote their own name. We have had such demand that we have decided to bring forward the start time to 4pm to give as many local bands the opportunity to show their talents. “
Among the local bands that will be entertaining the early crowds are Love Beats Riots and Girl Next Door, and Reaction. They will be followed on stage by the UK’s leading One Direction tribute band ‘Only 1D’ along with Andy Scott Lee. The lights will be switched on by Peter Andre at 7pm.
This year, to maximise viewing opportunities, the stage will be set on a performance trailer located at the Leisure Centre end of West Walk.
At Noon on Saturday, 15thNovember, the camels will lead the Annual Christmas Parade through the Shopping Centre to mark the official opening of Santa’s Grotto. The parade will be repeated at 2pm.
Tracy King, Yate Shopping Centre Marketing Manager: “This year we are building our own Santa’s Grotto rather than using an outside agency so it will be interesting to get the public’s feedback. It’s been a really exciting project designing, sourcing and getting things ready. Our Grotto will be unique to South Gloucestershire!”
- The Grotto costs £3 per visit and opening times can be found either on the Centre’s website or on the information boards within Yate Shopping Centre.
- Further information about Yate Shopping Centre can be found at www.yateshoppingcentre.co.uk
Boswells Cafe fundraiser offers free drinks in exchange for cycle miles in spinathon
Free drinks are on offer to all customers who cycle for 15 minutes in an all-day charity ‘spinathon’ at Boswells café in in Yate shopping centre on Saturday 16 August.
The Yate event is part of a mammoth fundraiser by the Boswells café chain, whose staff and management are fundraising for research into pancreatic cancer, which claimed the life of the family company’s founder and Chairman, Jeremy Burn, in 2012 – just a few weeks after he was diagnosed with the disease.
In addition to the spinathon competition between the branches, Boswells directors (and Jeremy’s sons) Nick, Matthew and Tim Burn – together with half-brother Charlie, brother-in-law Nick and three close friends – will set off on a cycle challenge. The group will cover 400 miles in just four days from 20-23 August, visiting all 15 cafés along the way starting in Newport on 20 August and ending in Gloucester on 23 August – via the South coast – in tribute to their father.
‘Le Tour de Boswells’ will be arriving in the Yate branch on Wednesday 20 August, the first day and the second Boswells branch of their four-day challenge. Keen cyclists are also welcome to join the group on the different legs of the cycle ride.
Each cafe along the route will be holding a spinathon competition and the top five customers who add the most miles overall to the challenge will also receive free coffee for a month. Staff and customers at Boswells in Yate will be hoping to raise as much money as possible on Saturday 16 August but they need your help, so come along and join in. Everyone cycling for 15 minutes will receive a free drink.
Bike experts, the Specialised Concept Store, is sponsoring the overall event. All money raised will be donated to the national charity, the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, which supports the very best UK research into the disease (www.pcrf.org.uk).
Each year approximately 8,800 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It is an extremely difficult cancer to diagnose and treat because it is unusually aggressive, symptoms are often vague and generally appear at an advanced stage of the disease. Around three per cent of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will survive for five years or more, a figure that has barely improved in forty years.
Boswells director, Matthew Burn, says: “Dad was proud of us; he’d drilled us to take over on his retirement and he was gearing up to stepping down. He was a great mentor with lots of experience and wisdom to share. He was also great fun to be around and we all miss him enormously. Family was really important to him and he should have had much more time to enjoy retirement, to enjoy the grandchildren – he deserved to take things easy after so many years of working so hard for us.”
To donate, please visit Team JB’s Just Giving page www.justgiving.com/LeTourdeBoswellsor simply text the code LTDB99 with your amount to 70070
You might think you are seeing things this coming Saturday (28 June) if you think you see football legend David Beckham demonstrating some of his typical footballing skills at Yate Shopping Centre.
No need to rush to the opticians! It’s not actually him but a celebrity lookalike demonstrating both his well rehearsed act and teaching the crowd a few of the megastar’s tricks.
Tracy King, Centre Marketing Manager: “Unfortunately, David was a bit busy so we got a stand-in to come and entertain the crowds. With the World Cup going on what better time is there to learn some of the famous star’s tricks of the trade? It’s just a shame that England is no longer in the competition but future stars will have their chance to show the crowd how good they are. You never know it could be your opportunity to learn a few tricks to impress Roy Hodgson for Qatar 2022!”.
David’s lookalike will be appearing between Noon – 3pm on Saturday 28 June in the Centre Square at Yate Shopping Centre and full details can be found at www.yateshoppingcentre.co.uk
A hairdresser’s in Yate is marking 10 years of scissor happy cuts at trim prices.
LA Barber opened on South Parade, in Yate Shopping Centre, on February 28, 2004.
The no appointment salon was unique at the time, although many budget hairdressers have since followed suit, and was started by Lesley Didsbury.
With walk-in cuts and styling, the salon has gone from just two employees to now having six stylists and two apprentices.
Mrs Didsbury, who has another salon in Chippenham, said: “It has been great, the time has absolutely flown by.
“Having no appointments has worked really well, it means we can do far more people and most people love the fact they can just drop in. Busy mums especially love it.
“It was quite unique when we opened and has been why the salon has worked.”
She added: “With six stylists on a Saturday we can do around 40 people each.
“We started the apprenticeship scheme three years ago and that has gone really well too, we have put quite a few young people through now.”
LA Barber will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a week-long 10 per cent discount on all cuts, treats for all customers and a big staff party.
Yate Shopping Centre figurehead, Mark Hull, has just returned from a gruelling five-day cycling trip through Jordan in which he helped raise over £15,000 for the Big Heart Bike Challenge.
Mark, who is Group Property Controller of Englander Group – owners of Yate Shopping Centre, was accompanied by two other members of the Shopping Centre team, Paul Boden of project managers Hanover Cube and Tim Davis, Regional Head of DTZ Bristol and the South West Office.
The team completed 220 miles over the five days, spending up to 6 hours every day in the saddle in temperatures up to 92 degrees whilst climbing an incredible total height in excess of 18,000 feet during the trip.
Mark Hull: “Unfortunately due to this commitment we were unable to make the official turning on of the Christmas lights at Yate but we did raise over £15,000 for the British Heart Foundation and other Heart related regional charities.
“It was an amazing but very challenging trip, cycling through refugee camps and often being stoned by the local school children as we cycled through towns and villages! Despite the pain, suffering and unexpected greetings, we have already decided to do a Yate to Paris bike ride for 2014 as part of our training for another gruelling 450 mile ride through India in 2015 which will also be in aid of national and regional heart charities.”
A musical extravaganza will kick off the Christmas festivities on Thursday 14thNovember when the Yate Shopping Centre lights are switch on.
The evening will offer 3 X Factor star appearances, and performances from Tich & Charlie Brown, singing up to 20 songs along with tribute acts including a SKA performance from Mainly Madness and an ultimate Take That 2 experience.
The concert will commence at 5pm with X Factor appearances from Misha B, Lorna Simpson & Shelley Smith, Tich & Charlie Brown culminating with the switching on of the Christmas lights at approx 8.15pm.
Yate Shopping Centre Marketing Manager, Tracy King: “Following the success of last year’s Christmas events and significant positive feedback we will be holding the light switch on event on the 14thNovember and a separate Christmas Parade for the children on Saturday 23rdNovember at 12pm & 2pm. The parade will include the arrival of Father Christmas, camels & wisemen, rollerskating elves & snowmen & much much more.
Meanwhile, the traditional free Halloween pumpkin carving will take place between Noon and 3pm on Thursday, 31stOctober in the main square.
For more details see – http://www.yateshoppingcentre.co.uk/Events
The Easter Bunny will be entertaining children at Yate Shopping Centre on Thursday 28th March between 11am and 3pm.
During the day there will be a varied programme of entertainment for children with appearances on the hour every hour by the Centre’s very own Easter Bunny who will be out and about meeting children.
There is also a series of workshops planned where children can make Easter eggs, egg cups and Easter cards. All activities will be held in the central square at the Shopping Centre.
Tracy King, Yate Shopping Centre Marketing Manager, says: “This day of activity kicks-off our 2013 entertainment programme. All children are welcome to come and meet East Bunny or to take part in the workshops.”
Dubstep duo MK1 are to accompany Steps at Yate Shopping Centre’s Christmas launch on Thursday, 15thNovember. The couple were recently eliminated from the X Factor competition and are currently in the middle of their ‘Anybody Out There?’ national tour. They will be playing on stage at 5.40pm and will reappear on stage at about 6.40pm to turn on the Centre’s Christmas lights with Steps.
Tracy King, Yate Shopping Centre Marketing Manager, said: “MK1 and Steps is a formidable line-up and will give a real buzz to the evening. With the wide range of artists appearing, there will be music for all tastes and a great way to kick-off the Christmas festivities.”
The Thursday evening musical extravaganza is part of a two day Christmas bonanza with a family super funday on Saturday, 17th November.
On Thursday, the musical entertainment will commence at 3pm with our well loved Calypso Band performing festive tunes, followed by a variety of local acts including a fabulous hour of ABBA from the well known ABBA tribute band ABBA Vision, and X Factor finalists MK1 at 5.40pm. At 6.15pm STEPS will perform two singles from their Christmas album along with a couple of favourites that everyone can join in with. At 6.40pm STEPS and the X Factor star will then be invited back onto the stage to turn on the Christmas lights.
On Saturday the entertainment is aimed entirely at the children with Santa arriving on his pantomime ponies at Noon to set off three hours of party fun including stilt walkers, Cheeky Elves balloon modelling, Make your own Christmas Cracker, face painting, Roller Skating Christmas Pudding, Roller Skating Snowman, Twinkle the Christmas Tree, and a fun fair.
Olympic heptathlete Louise Hazel will be guest of honour on Friday, 2ndNovember at the celebrations to mark the re-opening of the Lloyds TSB Bank branch in East Walk, Yate Shopping Centre following weeks of refurbishment although the bank will start trading again from Tuesday, 30thOctober.
Louise will be bringing an Olympic torch with her and there will be face painting for all to enjoy. The Bank is also looking to raise funds for local Charity “CORIN’S FIRST STEPS”.
The refurbishment is part of the Bank’s commitment to its branch network. The Yate branch has been serving its customers in Yate for over 30 years.
Senior Bank Manager Marc Ashley comments: “We’d like to say a big thank you to all of our customers for putting up with the disruption during the refurbishment works.
“Branches are at the heart of how we serve customers and we are delighted to have made these improvements. We look forward to helping our many customers in Yate and to welcoming new customers and business over the coming months.”
Yate Shopping Centre Manager, Andrew Lowrey, said: “We welcome this transformation and wish Lloyds TSB every success for the next 30 years!
“This is another demonstration of the commitment that our tenants have in the future of the shopping centre. Over the last few years we have seen very substantial investment in the Shopping Centre from the new Tesco Extra to a new health centre, refurbished library and leisure centre and have just started work on four more major retail units.”
The new look branch provides a more welcoming and comfortable environment in which to do business. With improved access to branch staff and services, customers at the branch will continue to get help with their everyday banking and also with their financial needs when required.
The many changes to be introduced include open plan till positions to make the branch
more interactive and personable; downstairs office space; downstairs office space for customer services; and more space to help accommodate buggies and wheelchairs.
Long serving bank employee, Pam Gardner who joined the branch in 1972 said, “It’s great to see the branch looking so bright and modern. I can’t wait to get back to doing what we do best, serving customers in our fantastic new environment.”