Cheese brand Primula has made a surprise donation totalling £105,000 to three local charities nominated by its team.
The charities Changing Lives, Bede Community Primary School and St Aiden’s Cottage believed they were attending to present their case to receive funding. Instead, all three causes were presented with the donation.
“We are overjoyed to receive such a fantastic donation from Primula Cheese,” Helen Aitchison of Changing Lives said.
“When we arrived today, alongside the other two beneficiaries, we did not expect a donation of £65,000 to be coming our way. This money will allow us to continue to provide thousands of meals to vulnerable people and families across the North East. We are incredibly grateful for the donation and cannot thank Primula Cheese enough.”
Changing Lives is dedicated to helping people experiencing hardships such as homelessness, sexual exploitation and poverty to rebuild their lives.
Bede Community Primary School received a donation of £35,000, which will be used to create a sensory room access to learning for children with special educational needs and barriers to learning.
St Aiden’s Cottage provides high-quality specialist support services for adults with neurological, learning and physical disabilities. The care home will use the £5,000 from Primula to create a memorial garden to allow service users to be meet with their families and provide a safe space to remember loved ones who have passed away.
James Annan, warehouse manager and co-chair of Primula’s charity committee, said: “We are delighted to surprise three brilliant local beneficiaries. We look forward to seeing the money donated go towards supporting and improving the lives of our local community.”
Henderson Retail said its new EUROSPAR Doury Road, built upon the site of the old SPAR Doury Road store, has completed the final stage of its build.
Bringing 16 new jobs to the local community, the supermarket has already been hailed as “absolutely outstanding” by shoppers who have submitted their feedback to the store, including that it is an “asset” to the local area.
21 staff from the previous store will continue in their roles at EUROSPAR Doury Road, bringing the total team number to 37, headed up by store manager, David McFall who has been with Henderson Retail since 2007.
Having the honour of opening the store after phase one of the build was Charmaine Dicky who has also joined the Henderson Retail team after working in the previous store for 40 years, and is a much-loved member of the local community.
“We have had a soft opening since early November where Charmaine cut the ribbon to our store, revealing the new services to our local shoppers, from the food-to-go deli to our in-store Fergus Butchery, run locally by Derren Logue and team, alongside the re-introduction of essential services including the Post Office,” McFall commented.
“Everything our shoppers need is under one roof here at their new community supermarket, including fresh, locally sourced produce, our own brand SPAR Enjoy Local range of bakery products, fresh meat, cheeses and ready-prepped meals, alongside The Kitchen products, all of which are made in Co. Antrim by SPAR’s team of chefs using locally sourced ingredients.
“We’re thrilled to have the final piece of the puzzle complete with the new 56-space car park, alongside the full range of services, now open to our shoppers and neighbours who have been so patient with us throughout the 43-week building project.”
The shop also boasts local Ballymena brands in-store, including Barr’s Deli and their range of fresh meats, alongside RJ Kerr’s Bakery products, all sourced, prepped and made in the local area.
Alongside everyday essentials for shoppers doing the ‘big shop’ or picking up something for tonight’s tea, EUROSPAR Doury Road also brings much-needed service station facilities to the area, providing a new six-pump Maxol forecourt, a hot food to go Delish deli, catering for breakfast and lunch, alongside prepared meals to heat and eat for dinner, and additional Barista Bar Coffee to Go machines.
EUROSPAR Doury Road is Henderson Retail’s final project completion for 2024, having invested £30 million into community retailing this year.
“EUROSPAR Doury Road is the perfect example of how our EUROSPAR brand enhances local retailing services and facilities for those within the community, providing everything they need under one roof at value prices,” Mark McCammond, retail director at Henderson Group, said.
“EUROSPAR also offers Tesco Price Match on over one thousand products in-store, and the footprint of Doury Road has now nearly doubled to provide an even greater range of locally sourced fresh produce, alongside our homegrown and handmade own brands.”
The store recently fundraised for Cancer Fund for Children, EUROSPAR’s official charity partner in Northern Ireland, with a pyjama day in-store. McFall said EUROSPAR Doury Road will also continue its community engagement, providing support and sponsorship to local schools, charities, community groups and organisations including Ballymena Primary School, Dunclug Nursery, Doury Road Development Group, High Kirk Church and Slemish Nursing Home.
“Community is everything to the team here and we will work hard to engage with our shoppers to make a difference to the local groups and organisations that are important to them,” McFall concluded.
Fujitsu should have shown more "remorse" since failings of Horizon IT system emerged, minister Gareth Thomas has said while claiming that all those who had applied for compensation would have received "80 per cent of the amount" by March 2025.
After an intensive year of testimony and revelations at the public inquiry, Thomas recently suggested more could have been done by Fujitsu since the truth about Horizon emerged.
“I’m surprised Fujitsu haven’t done more to indicate remorse. It was a computer system they developed," The Guardian quoted Thomas as saying.
“I’m glad they’re still working with the Post Office to make sure the current Horizon system [works], which the Post Office is still having to use while a replacement is in development; I’m grateful to them for the fact that they’re continuing to work with us.
“But clearly there were significant failings, or it would appear, at least, that there were significant failings in the computer system. And we’ll obviously wait for Sir Williams to opine in full on that issue.
"I think I’m just surprised that they haven’t … wanted to do more," he said.
At the start of 2024, Fujistu, which is forecast to have earned more than £1.5bn from the Horizon contract by the time it expires in 2025, apologised for the role it had played.
The Japanese company also said it will negotiate a compensation package with the government after the public inquiry led by the former high court judge Sir Wyn Williams has published its report.
Talking about compensation to the victims, Thomas claimed that all those who had applied for compensation would by March next year have received 80 per cent of the amount offered even if the total sum was still under dispute.
“There are a series of complex cases still to be sorted, although we have made a lot of progress in just the five months since we’ve been in government. The amount of compensation that’s been paid out has doubled since we came into office," he said.
The Post Office expects to have paid out more than £650 million in compensation to branch owner-operators by next March, and it has put aside £1bn.
Commenting on the buzz on the future of Post Office model, Thomas expressed his doubts on the proposed idea of mutualisation.
He said, “My instinct is that, one of the ways you transform the culture of an organisation like this is to give more power to those who were treated very badly in the past.
"We’ve got to think through what are the incentives that you build in to the governance of an organisation like the Post Office that really gives postmasters much more of a voice in the key decisions the board of the Post Office has to make going forward.
“Given that the Post Office has got a significant social value in that sense, I don’t think I’m as yet convinced that full mutualisation is the way forward. But how do we ensure postmasters can hold those at the centre more accountable?”
It was reported earlier that the government is looking at the future ownership and structure of the Post Office. The Communication Workers Union has proposed handing it over to branch operators, known as mutualisation.
The Scottish Government must urgently act to support the country’s struggling high streets, Labour has said, citing an analysis' findings that more than 10,000 retail jobs were lost in a year.
The data, based on the Scottish Government’s Business in Scotland report, showed that retail jobs in Scotland are at their lowest levels since at least 2010. It found there were 235,920 retail jobs recorded this year – down from 246,270 last year and 258,900 in 2010.
The drop was the sharpest in the last year. Between 2023 and 2024 alone, more than 10,000 jobs were lost from the industry – almost 1 in 20 retail jobs. In 2023 there were 246,270 retail jobs.
While there has been a shift to more online shopping, the impact of the covid pandemic can be seen in the statistics.
Between 2010 and 2020 the decline in retail jobs was around 8000 over a ten-year period. Between 2020 and 2024 however, the drop was almost 15,000 in just four years.
Scottish Labour has criticised the Scottish Government for not extending rates relief to the retail industry.
During her budget earlier this month, Finance Secretary Shona Robison announced a 40 per cent rates relief for the hospitality sector. Labour has called on her to match England and extend that tax cut to the retail sector.
Daniel Johnson, Scottish Labour economy spokesperson, said “The decline of our high streets is impossible to ignore.
“The pressure on retail businesses is bad for Scotland’s economy and for local communities.
“We need a real plan to support retail and breathe fresh life into Scotland’s high streets – including short-term rates relief and a long-term plan to level the playing field between local businesses and online giants.”
Johnson said the Scottish Government can still make changes to the budget for next year to help businesses with a similar scheme.
The draft budget, presented by Finance Secretary, Shona Robison, will be debated again in the new year before a final vote in the Scottish Parliament in February.
A significant proportion of shoppers are expected to shop in person during the Boxing Day sales in a considerable rise from last year, shows a recent research.
According to a research by Barclays, Brits this year are likely to are expected to splurge £4.6 billion with each shoppers poised to spend £236 during the Boxing Day sales, suggesting consumers will be actively participating in the post-Christmas sales.
These figures are down slightly on those reported in 2023, when shoppers spent £4.7 billion during the Boxing Day sales — about £100 million more than this year. The average shopper is forecast to spend £18 less than in 2023.
However, each shopper is still expected to spend £50 more than in 2019, before the pandemic.
Researchers said that while some of this growth “will be down to inflation”, some of it can be explained by a “continued desire to use the post-Christmas sales to seek out value for money”.
More than a quarter of the British public are expected to shop in person during the Boxing Day sales, up from 15 per cent in 2023.
While some bricks-and-mortar retailers have confirmed that they will not open on Boxing Day, 26 per cent of those who plan to shop in the post-Christmas sales say they will spend the majority of their money in-store.
This is driven by a preference to see and touch items before purchasing (41 per cent) and the enjoyment of socialising while shopping (32 per cent).
High streets (33 per cent) and shopping centres (32 per cent) are the most popular destinations. Meanwhile, 17 per cent cite wanting to support their local high street, and a further 15 per cent plan to shop with independent small businesses.
A third of Britons (34 per cent) say they’d be more inclined to spend at brick-and-mortar retailers if they were offered discount codes that can only be redeemed in-store, or if they were given a free item with in-store purchases (27 per cent).
Men are expected to spend £53 more than women during the sales.
The research also showed that 24 per cent of the public “will only be buying what they consider essential items in the post-Christmas sales”.
Police are hunting for knifemen who struck at two convenience stores in the space of eight hours in Uttoxeter in East Staffordshire on Sunday (22).
According to the local reports, the first robbery took place at Tesco Express in Holly Road, Uttoxeter, at 10.40pm. A man entered the store and started threatening workers with a knife while demanding cash. The suspect then fled the scene after stealing several items.
A second raid then took place at the nearby Nisa store on Ashbourne Road in the town during early hours of Monday (23).
A knifeman again threatened staff with a knife after approaching them at the till. He fled emptyhanded from this store.
A force spokesman said: "We have launched an investigation after a robbery and an attempted robbery in Uttoxeter. Just after 10.40pm yesterday, a man demanded money from members of staff inside the Tesco Express on Holly Road.
"The suspect was carrying a kitchen knife. After taking items he left the store. Then today, at around 6.30am we received a report of an attempted robbery at a Nisa store on Ashbourne Road.
"A man went into the shop and approached the till. When challenged by two staff members he threatened them with a knife and left. No-one was injured in either incident. Officers have carried out a number of enquiries as part of our investigation into the incidents.
"We’re keen to hear from anyone who was in the area at the time, or those with information that can help with our investigation."
Meanwhile, Staffordshire Police's increased activities to target shoplifters this month is reflecting some positive results.
Staffordshire Police stated on Monday (23) that the targeted action saw both special constables and PCs take the lead on identifying and detaining individuals on suspicion of shoplifting offences throughout the district.
In total, goods worth £867.10 have been recovered and returned to affected stores.
Some of the positive results the team achieved include:
Recovering a total of £287.87-worth of items from a man and a woman found shoplifting from a B&M store
Detaining a man, with the help of security, and recovering £120.38-worth of stolen items found under his clothing
Arresting a man for theft from One Stop in Chasetown with property recovered
Arresting another man over the theft of £143-worth of alcohol
Issuing two banning orders and recovering £110-worth of property from two different detained men
Issuing three banning orders to three different women and recovering £208-worth of stolen items.
Officers are also continuing to carry out targeted patrols in areas where more than £500-worth of cleaning equipment was stolen from stores Chasetown, while we also responded to a small number of calls relating to anti-social behaviour and property alarms going off.
Temporary Chief Inspector Paul Finlayson, Commander of Lichfield local policing team, said: “I am pleased this plain-clothes operation has been such a success, especially in the lead up to Christmas.
“We are particularly grateful to our community partners including stores’ security staff, business owners and leaders, retail premises and the local authority, who have all supported this action.
“We will continue to run these types of operations across the district to target retail crime throughout 2025.”