Martin Havenhand, independent Chairman of the Sheffield City Region Forum and former chief executive of Yorkshire Forward and Bassetlaw District Council, officially opened the £2.5million Retford Enterprise Centre on Tuesday 16 November.  He is a guiding hand in the emerging Local Enterprise Partnership that is to replace the Development Agency which is being phased out by the government.

Announcing this, Leader of Bassetlaw District Council, Mike Quigley, said. “This is a changing world and these are challenging times both in the public and private sector.  We greatly appreciate the support from East Midland Development Agency in making the Enterprise Centre a reality.  It’s part of the Council’s long-held vision for the local economy to be a dynamic example of the spirit of enterprise. We firmly believe that self-help, drive and determination will be the key traits allowing our local entrepreneurs to succeed.

“We’re equally convinced that to foster enterprise, we need to provide the right support. This doesn’t mean doing things to our entrepreneurs, but providing the platform for them to thrive in what are difficult trading circumstances. Such platforms include a focus point for enterprise and understanding the individual needs of the local business community.

“Retford Enterprise Centre is such a platform for Enterprise. It announces our serious intent to stimulate and develop an entrepreneurial culture by encouraging new start businesses, social enterprises and by supporting growing businesses. Most importantly we will listen, we will adapt and we will deliver.

“Not only are we offering our tenants full reception services, quality meeting rooms and full voice and data services, but we also have serious broadband capacity. We believe that using High Speed Data Transfer (HSDT) technology is a key to unlocking the enterprise potential for Bassetlaw. The Centre has 100 mbps of capacity and it will act as a hub to transmit high capacity via wireless connections to local businesses, particularly those in the rural areas.

“Listening to our business community is also vital to achieve the spirit of enterprise and we have a programme of support, seminars and workshops to pass on the essential knowledge vital to make our indigenous businesses successful.  For instance, over breakfast this morning we held a Question Time session entitled ‘Money Makes the World Go Round’ with a panel of accountants, bankers and business advisors involved in a lively debate.  This evening we had a session called ‘Beating the Recession’ aimed at helping local businesses develop the right strategies to overcome the present difficulties.”

The building contract was completed by Lindum Construction, who stuck to the timescales despite one of the worst winters in the last 20 years.  The project team was advised and guided by the expertise of Edmond Shipway PLC.

Mike Quigley added, “The building is not just mere workspace. From the very beginning, we insisted that we wanted a sustainable building, which would be an example of all of the standards that can be achieved.  Our intention was to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating, which we accomplished by careful design, use of locally sourced materials and the incorporation of sustainable features.

“For example, we've incorporated highly efficient air source heating throughout the building. This doesn't only deliver controlled heating to each room, but also cooling in the summer. This is the only business centre in the county to achieve this. We recycle the rainwater to flush the toilets and we generate our own electricity from our wind turbine and have recycling facilities.”