Congratulations to SCA-Prudhoe business named 1 of most ethical business of the year

SCA are a brilliant local company providing secure employment to many hundreds of locals in and around Prudhoe. I have been there several times. They are also very community focused and always willing to help out great local causes. For example they kindly supported my sponsored walk of Hadrians Wall - see the pic of me in dodgy hiking gear, and then in 2014 sponsored the Tynedale cricket match in aid of Tynedale Hospice at Home. See here: http://guyopperman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/tynedale-cricket-match.html
One lucky person went home with a lot of the famous Double Velvet that day - there is no better toilet paper!!
Local people will be genuinely proud of this bit of good news. The full story is here:
http://www.thejournal.co.uk/business/business-news/toilet-roll-makers-sca-named-9563071

Tynedale Cricket Match

We have had the final donation in this morning and so we have our total today for the Charity Cricket Match we held a few weeks ago on behalf of Tynedale Hospice at Home. The amount raised at this event is £747.75 which is a great achievement by all those who were involved.

Thank you for all the people who came along and supported Tynedale Hospice at Home. One of the top prizes was a very large amount of toilet roll from SCA - many thanks to them and also to Dipsticks who both sponsored the number of sixes hit in the game and also bought some of the toilet roll. After a great game Tynedale eased home by 23 runs. My thanks to all the players, Councillor Cath Homer, and Gary from Tynedale Cricket Club, in particular, who did so much of the organising.

If you have not booked your tickets for the next THAH event on the 14th October at the Queens Hall I urge you to do so. 

Tynedale Hospice at Home and Cricket this Sunday - come along

Tynedale Cricket Club, Eilansgate, 2pm - late will see the clash of the cricketing titans:
The teams - the Valley Vikings and Guys Gladiators - will be made up of local cricketers from Tynedale [including some very good players from the Tynedale team], and several locals from Allendale, Hexham, Humshaugh, people from Tynedale Hospice and supportive local businesses such as Dipsticks .... and some star players from the Hexham Courant. And me :)

The cricket will last 2-7pm. At the same time there will be activities for the youngsters, a football stand a beer and Pimms tent, and a BBQ from 4pm provided by local businesses Flat Cap Kitchen and the Northumberland Sausage Company.

There will also be music and a raffle - with prizes donated by Slaley Hall, Tim Healy, SCA Prudhoe and Brendan Healey to name but a few.

Please do come along and support the event - there really is something for everyone. £1 entry on the gate, youngsters under 12 go free. All proceeds to a local and hugely worthwhile cause, Tynedale Hospice. My thanks in advance to the sponsors and everyone who has given up their time for this cause - I am defintely going to be praying for a sunny day in church on sunday!

900 SCA Toilet Rolls is a large [+ very soft] prize for this Sunday's charity cricket day for Tynedale Hospice

My thanks to SCA - a brilliant local employer and makers of soft, strong and very Northumbrian Loo Roll.
SCA have donated to the Tynedale Hospice at Home Charity Cricket Day a pallet of toilet roll; this is, I am told, although I have not personally counted, around 900 rolls worth over £500.

This is quite some auction prize....a prize for the best caption / trailer for Sundays cricket match - about which more tomorrow.
Man of the match and the champagne moment will receive many things but I think both will definitely get a few rolls to sit down and celebrate with....so to speak

Transcript of Debate on creating Skills and Apprenticeships in N East

My thanks for all the help in the drafting; the full transcript is here:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2013-11-27a.93.0&s=speaker%3A24962#g93.1

My thanks for help writing the speech on creating skills and apprenticeships in the N East

My thanks to everyone who has got in touch with ideas, opinions, comments and contributions, in particular Accenture's Bob Paton, Ross Smith of the NECC, the team behind the Adonis Report, the local employers like SCA, the team at the Department for Business, the FSB, and even the team at the Department for Education who heards about the debate and were keen to plug their early years apprenticeship bursary scheme.
Bob Paton is both my constituent, and the key driver of the dramatic rise in apprenticeship numbers at Accenture in the North East. He took specific time out of his busy schedule to come to Westminster to brief me today.
The debate is 11am in westminster hall. Still drafting as I update the blog - the key is to try and condense all that there is to say on such a subject into less than 15 minutes, which is the time limit of the speech.