About 12 people were forced to move to temporary accommodation for the night owing to the fire’s close proximity to residential properties.
The upper floors of the building – the usage and owners of which are yet been established – partially collapsed along with the surrounding scaffolding.
Crews came from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, London, Oxfordshire and Surrey to fight the fire, while police were required to manage crowds of onlookers.
So this week saw Gorge Osborne present his budget and of course I was interested to see how it would affect small businesses and entrepreneurs.
There have been mixed reviews, some saying ‘failing obsession with austerity’ and others saying ‘moderately positive’, I think I am in the latter camp, of course there were no great announcements that shocked or excited me, but there was some good news for businesses. It wasn’t the entrepreneurial budget I may have been looking for but in a time where cutbacks and frugality are becoming ever more common, there were a few little gems given to us from George Osborne, giving SMEs something to smile about (at least a little) for a while.
It started well, being billed as the “budget for people aspiring to work hard and get on” a good sign for all of us who work hard to achieve our goals.
And the good news for small businesses didn’t stop there; there was a fivefold increase in the value of government procurement budgets through the Small Business Research Initiative – a significant boost for small companies seeking to engage with the public sector.
Last year saw Powwownow take advantage of the National Loan Guarantee Scheme which allows businesses to access loans with a reduced interest rate. So it is great to see other business initiatives continue.
There were some other good announcements for small businesses, a new £2,000 a year employment allowance introduced for National Insurance contributions from businesses and a reduction in corporation tax will all help to loosen the belts of businesses looking to maintain or grow.
And these are just a few of the changes that will affect SMEs, but overall I think people should take away the positive aspects to the budget and if we continue to work hard hopefully the next one will be even better!
But I couldn’t finish without mentioning that it was a shame to hear that alcohol duty on the whole is set to rise, and I am not sure that a 1p saving on a pint of beer is really going to help anyone, but I guess at least it isn’t a rise!
Always on the look out for some great guerilla marketing, i came across this from Durex today and it made me smile. Let me know if you find some great guerilla marketing
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So, in May I packed my bags and headed off with my mate Colin, and Buca the dog to Tarifa. Range Rover packed to the roof with my newly acquired kiteboarding kit, we headed off through France towards Tarifa. Making it down to Basque Country, we spent our first night before an early start for Tarifa – the kite and windsurfing centre of Europe.
Arriving late on the Sunday and checking into our apartment, we headed off to meet Sam Guest and the Tantrum Kite Surfing Team for beers and dinner.
The next five days were spent trying to find secluded spots as the wind was blowing at over 40 knots each day, not fun for a beginner. Despite the normal secluded spots defying all expectations and being windless, the Tantrum team were successful in finding spots 1.5 hours north of Tarifa and a fun afternoon was had by all.
The wind certainly didn’t live up to my expectations though, in total only getting on the water for eight out of the 30 days I was there!
Here’s a quick run-down of the beaches around Tarifa:
Los Lances beach is vast; it stretches over 14 miles and is several hundred metres deep at most points. A river mouth approximately two miles from Tarifa also causes flat water lagoons to form on the beach itself given the right conditions. The beach itself is so big that it is divided by locals into several smaller points (so people know exactly where it is you’re going), the most famous of these being Valdevaqueros and Arte Vida.
Arte Vida is located approximately halfway along Los Lances beach. It has a small point break to its right and the beach curves around gently, creating a great wave on the right-hand side. The water to the left is more open and generally less crowded and makes this a perfect spot when the westerly (Poniente) winds blow.
Right at the end of the beach is Valdevaqueros, this is the only beach in Tarifa itself which works in Easterly wind (Levante). With one of the world’s largest sand dunes and endless curving bay it is an idyllic setting which works in any wind condition. The wind is often stronger here due to thermal effect caused by the heat given off by the sand dune. For this reason this beach is very popular with kite surfers and there are also many bars, hotels and restaurants here when you’re too tired to kite.
Not strictly in Tarifa but still definitely within driving distance is the beach of Caños de Meca. When the Levante is howling in Tarifa, this is the place to go. One of Spain’s premier surf beaches the wind here is often calmer, more constant and with the addition of some swell, can turn this into a truly world-class spot.
Heading the other way up the coast is another fairly unknown spot called Palmones. Divided in two by a river, here you will find flatter waters and calmer conditions when it is blown out in Tarifa. A small flat water lagoon behind the beach is also perfect for practising those latest tricks.
Here’s some Tarifa Bars and Restaurants worth checking out too….
- Vaca Loca is awesome for great steaks
- La Tribu makes great pizza and is really well priced
- Bossa bar and Bar 10 are the two little bars in the old town
- La Cueva for awesome burgers
- Also check out the back streets for some amazing Tapas Restaurants.
I can’t recommend the Tantrum Team highly enough for kite surfing lessons, and also as a great group to hang out with when you can kite surf. Sam the owner and Maria the Centre Manager, along with the other instructor guarantee to make your trip to Tarifa loads of fun even if like me, the wind did not live up to expectations.
On a separate note, after I left the wind blew perfectly for 10 days, so that’s the law of the kiteboarding sod………..
Firstly apologies for the lack of posts over the last few months, but my time has been filled… well as you’ll see!
I have recently learned to kiteboard, and with a new CEO in place at Powwownow I thought it best to leave him to get on with running the business (or as Simon put it “isn’t it time you took yourself off kiteboarding for a year or two?!”). So I’m taking this opportunity to travel around the world taking in some awesome kiteboarding spots.
Coming Soon: Tarifa from earlier this year……
Yesterday two senior ministers questioned the use of private firms to deliver certain services after the G4S security failures at the recent Olympic Games.
When the recession first hit, the private sector was the first to be named as the go to people to get us out of the situation that the ‘public sector’ had got us into. However as soon as one bad egg doesn’t live up to the expectations set, then we are all tarnished with the same brush and a negative light is shone over us.
I founded and know a lot of well-oiled private sector companies that strive to deliver the best services and products possible. It is a shame that a company that clearly didn’t have the right management in place and ended up with a ‘humiliating shambles’ is being pinned against all private sector companies as a benchmark for what we can deliver.
It’s right that G4S has donated £2.5 million to the armed forces for the impact that their error had on the services, but what about the compensation to the rest of the private sector? The impact that this has had on our sector will always now be pulled into question and it is simply because G4S didn’t plan and think things through properly.
Maybe there needs to more regulations around the private and public sector and the impact of these two working together, or maybe there shouldn’t be so much pressure on the private sector to be delivering ultimately what the public sector should have been all along. What do you think?
I'm at Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) (Katunayake, Western Province) w/ 4 others http://t.co/zCE25Ay8JK Can anyone tell me if there's a record for the number of nights in a row you can drink Sambuca?
