INDEX business TheBUSINESS CCP big clean


Canterbury City Partnership (CCP) is organising a third Canterbury Big Clean this month. The business partnership, which works to stimulate and enhance the local economy, will hold two clean-ups in the city centre. This is your chance to clear rubbish, scrub subways, wash paintwork and remove graffiti to get the city looking its best for Canterbury Festival. Community groups and voluntary organisations are invited to take part on Saturday 8 October. And businesses will get their chance on Wednesday 12 October. Sign up at www.canterburycp.co.uk.


If you have a success to announce, tell us, and we’ll tell everyone else – canterbury@indexmagazine.co.uk


Garden party celebrates tourism


Tourism champions and leisure and hospitality businesses celebrated their achievements at the annual Visit Kent Garden Party. Visit Kent, a private-


public sector partnership which promotes the county as a leisure destination to staycation and overseas tourists, recognises the Kent tourism industry’s achievements each year with awards. Recipients included the marketing team at Shepherd Neame; Charles Lambie of the Westgate Towers and Lady Fitzwalter, of Goodnestone Park.


Chairman Amanda Cottrell highlighted major projects including the openings of the New Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury and the Turner Contemporary in Margate. She also had high praise for the latest Kent produce taking markets by storm – Kent Crisps launched by Quex Foods. In keeping with her role


as Patron of Produced in Kent, Mrs Cottrell ensured her guests were served local produce including apple juice and wines from Biddenden Vineyards and canapés prepared by Chives of Canterbury.


£10million for


bigger bytes A funding injection from the government should help perk up broadband speeds in Kent. The culture secretary


Jeremy Hunt has announced that Kent will receive £9,870,000 from the £363million pot. Rural watchdog the


Country Land and Business Assocation (CLA) has welcomed the announcement. The association has been campaigning since 2003 for such public/private sector co-operation to provide the necessary resources. South East Regional


Director Rupert Ashby said: “As important as the money is, the clear message from Government is that rural connectivity is a major issue, and completely vindicates what we have been saying for years.”


Phoenixes from Pfizer


Five former Pfizer scientists have banded together to offer a drug design tool to the pharma and biotech industry. Pharma company Pfizer


is in the process of closing its campus at Sandwich, which went on the market in June. David Brown who was formerly director of structural biology and biophysics at the company is now Chair of Structural Biology at the University of Kent. He and his four colleagues from Pfizer will launch Cangenix, from the University of Kent’s Canterbury campus. The university is supporting


the start-up with six months of rent-free accommodation. In return, students and researchers can exchange knowledge and collaborate


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Caption: Tourism champions celebrate success at the Visit Kent Garden Party.


New shop A Canterbury flooring firm has expanded into Whitstable.


Clarks Flooring, which is family run and has been doing domestic and commercial work for 17 years, opened a new shop on Whitstable High Street in September. It will be managed by Ken Burgess.


with the Cangenix team. Pfizer has supported Cangenix with an offer of equipment to purchase at a reduced rate and advice on the academic courses Professor Brown will run. It has also allowed the team to retain its portfolio of pharmaceutically relevant structural targets. Cangenix will work as a


contract research organisation that offers crystallography – a structure-based drug design tool – and biophysics services. See cangenix.com This month saw the launch


of another company founded by ex-Pfizer employees – The


Research Network (TRN), which will broker deals between the drug companies and contract research organisations such as Cangenix. TRN is based at Pfizer’s campus in Sandwich. The campus, renamed Discovery Park, has been identified by the government as an Enterprise zone. Under the scheme sites around the country will benefit from cheaper business rates, reduced levels of planning control and faster broadband. The government hopes such sites will create 30,000 new jobs nationwide by 2015.


Listen in


Get your fix of local business news between issues of Index by tuning into Business Bunker at www.kentbusinessradio. co.uk. This weekly radio show has a friendly Kentish feel to it, with plenty of listener contributions. The shows go out on a Tuesday between 1pm and 2pm – but you can pick up the latest edition at any time in the archive.


47


The INDEX magazine October 2011


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