Barry Dodd Chairman LEP, Caroline Spelman - Secretary of State and John Weighell Leader NYCC

Caroline Spelman visits the Alan Cryer Furniture showroom

The Secretary of State touring Sofas & Stuff

Ministers tour of Oakwood Park Business Centre

Secretary of State with AMCO Developments

Secretary of State with Carefound Ltd

Caroline Spelman Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) visited Oakwood Park Business Centre a Smart Park on the outskirts of Harrogate during the first of the Government’s new Rural Roadshows.

The Environment Secretary stopped off at the business centre, for the launch of Go ON North Yorkshire, which is part of a national campaign to promote take-up of internet and online services.

Caroline Spelman said: “Getting superfast broadband to rural areas in North Yorkshire will make a vast difference to local people and businesses and how they communicate with the online world. The business centre in Bishop Thornton is a perfect example of how access to broadband can transform Yorkshire businesses.

Alan Cryer, owner of Oakwood Park Business Centre said ‘We are delighted to have been recognised by the Minister as a successful rural Smart Park.  She seemed very impressed by our facilities and the quality of the tenants we are now able to attract due to our complete service offering.  I really feel that the park has everything to offer today’s technology savvy business and we are looking forward to what lies ahead.  We are already expanding our floor space to accommodate small and medium size enterprises, which will be available in the Spring.’

During her visit, the Minister visited some of Oakwood Park’s tenants to see how they have benefitted from the high-speed broadband, which was installed under the Smart Park Initiative.  Representatives from four of the companies, Sofas & Stuff, Take That Ltd, Amco Developments and Carefound spoke with the Minister to reiterate that having the type of connection available at Oakwood Park is vital to their business operations.

Amco Developments, which specialise in commercial property developments recently moved to Oakwood Park from Wetherby.  Paul Heap, Director of Amco Developments said ‘At Oakwood Park we have been able to take full advantage of the locational benefits, the centre has excellent business facilities and the fast broadband allows us to operate effectively, as if we were in a major city centre, but without the city centre costs.’

Caroline Spelman’s visit comes at a time when North Yorkshire is forging ahead in its effort to break down barriers to rural economic growth by supporting the county’s business community and residents.

The Smart Parks project was set up by a partnership between NYnet and York & North Yorkshire Ltd, to demonstrate the economic advantage to the region of offering high-speed, next generation broadband to tenants on business parks, usually only found in city centres.  To date the initiative has connected five business parks across the region with tenants taking advantage of the benefits of high speed broadband.

We’ve been busy in December setting up one of our upstairs offices as a show office.

The office has it’s very own kitchenette, complete with fridge and sink, leather sofa, telephones and four modern desks with plenty of room for extra office furniture.

The office benefits from four velux windows which open for ventilation and provide views of the open countryside.

We have some great incentives for 2012, contact us for further information.

Oakwood Park Business Centre is the latest business park to be awarded a Smart Park plaque by NYnet Ltd. The Smart Parks project was set up by a partnership between NYnet and York & North Yorkshire Ltd, to demonstrate the economic advantage to the region of offering high-speed, next generation broadband to tenants on business parks, usually only found in city centres. To date the initiative has connected five business parks across the region with tenants taking advantage of the benefits of high speed broadband.

Alan Cryer stated “When I heard about the Smart Park initiative, I immediately seized the opportunity to bring high speed fibre optic broadband to Oakwood Park as I could see the enormous potential for the park and its tenants. With more and more businesses now relying on decent broadband connections to operate their daily business functions such as uploading and sharing large data files, utilising IP telephony and video conferencing services as well as the increase in use of Cloud services, I knew that Oakwood Park would need to be able to offer this type of connection to stay competitive with office spaces located in the centre of Harrogate.”

One of Oakwood Parks original tenants, Take That, rely heavily on a high speed broadband connection. Matthew Swift, Technical Manager for Take That said “Our entire business is online and therefore having access to a reliable internet connection is crucial. When we arrived at Oakwood Park we were happy with the initial bonded ADSL broadband the park could offer, however its speed restricted how we could use it. For example uploading and downloading large files would saturate the connection and take a considerable amount of time to complete; because of this such tasks had to be scheduled outside working hours. Now that we have access to a more robust and reliable high speed fibre optic connection these tasks can be run on demand without any impact on performance for other internet users. As our company expands and with it the demand on the connection, it’s also reassuring to know we can easily increase the bandwidth to grow with us.”

(Photo: Alan Cryer, Oakwood Park and Julie Barton, NYnet Ltd)

RURAL businesses in Markington, near Harrogate, including Hob Green Country House Hotel, can now get access to superfast Internet broadband after businessman, Alan Cryer, owner of the Oakwood Park Business Centre, laid a fibre optic cable.   Read full article in the Harrogate News.

(Photo: Chris Ashby - Manager, Hob Green Hotel, Alan Cryer – Oakwood Park Business Centre, Julian Smith MP for Skipton & Ripon)

A new opportunity has arisen for a business to have exclusive use of a 2000 sq ft building (approx). The building is currently in the early stages of redevelopment providing a unique opportunity for a business  to have a say in the redevelopment plans and workspace layout.  Available 2012. For further information contact Alan Cryer 01423 779216

Due to expansion and a restructure, we are now in a position to offer secure self storage facilities at Oakwood Park.   We can provide businessses with a safe, dry environment to safely store their archives or goods onsite, with access 24/7.   Contact Alan Cryer on 01423 779216 for further information.