THE woman behind a petition to save South Molton Recycle Phoenix has been talking to Tesco about its plans for the town's central car park area.
Melanie Shiner, an SMR Phoenix employee, was phoned by Tesco after writing to its chief executive Philip Clarke.
She said: "We had a good conversation and I was asked to send some of the comments that were on the petition opposed to the proposed central development."
She has selected a number of comments from the petition to give Tesco a good idea of the opposition to plans for a supermarket in South Molton.
Tesco confirmed its had been in touch with Ms Shiner and North Devon Council. A spokesman said there was no time scale set for the plans and that no agreement had been reached with NDC. He said: "We are in discussions with the council and any application would be subject to a full public consultation. This consultation would allow us to take account of all local views before any application is submitted."
Ms Shiner commented on a lack of response from NDC leader Brian Greenslade: "I think Tesco's response to me has been very refreshing, considering that Mr Greenslade still hasn't replied to a letter that I enclosed with the petition when it was presented back in February."
Source: www.thisisexeter.co.uk
Tesco tries to shift clothes from small London stores - Brand Republic
Tesco: rolls out F&F mobile campaign in London
The partnership will make the F&F collection available to buy in central London stores, which do not have the floor space to display the clothes, for the first time.
F&F clothing designs will appear in the windows of the Covent Garden, Dean Street and Tooley Street stores, allowing passers-by to purchase the clothes directly from their smartphones.
Passers-by who have the Aurasma app can point their mobile at one of the windows to view a virtual showcase of the F&F range on their device.
Viewers can then tap to purchase the item on display.
Emily Shamma, Tesco clothing online director, said: "Our smaller central London stores aren't big enough to have clothing ranges, so this is a great opportunity to help us to reach new customers.
The launch of the partnership comes at a difficult time for Autonomy, the company behind Aurasma.
Mike Lynch, Autonomy founder and chief executive, has resigned from the company amid confirmation that Hewlett-Packard, which bought Autonomy in October, would be cutting 27,000 jobs.
Follow Matthew Chapman at @mattchapmanUK
This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk
Source: www.brandrepublic.com
Asda launches fitness drive - Marketing Week
Asda is launching a health initiative designed to get local communities more active and involved in sport as part of its partnership with the Government’s anti-obesity initiative Change4Life.
The supermarket has partnered with the Fitness Industry Association (FIA) in a bid to take advantage of the increased interest in sport around this summer’s Olympic Games.
Asda will host 20 large-scale community-sporting events in playing fields or green spaces close to Asda stores around the UK, where its shoppers can try out new sports.
It hopes to help families find cheap activities they can do in their local communities that fit into their busy lives.
The supermarket will work with local charities, County Sports Partnerships and FIA members to showcase sports events including Kwik Cricket, football, martial arts, volleyball and Zumba classes.
Asda Active: Getting Britain Moving will be funded by Sport England’s Sportsmatch which awarded funds to the FIA. It will also be supported by Change4life’s sub-brand Games4Life and will leverage the Department of Health’s Chage4Life programme.
The initiative will be promoted by an online marketing campaign led by Asda, plus a digital and social media drive. It will also be promoted through local marketing channels and local stores.
Asda and the FIA will also use the events, which they hope will attract 50,000 people, as a data capture opportunity to build up a consumer panel. The organisations hope to use the data gleaned from the panel to gain insight onto the barriers and motivations to getting more people, more active, more often.
The events will run this summer, starting during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee bank holiday weekend.
Asda previously worked with the FIA as part of Change4Life’s ‘Great Swapathon” initiative which saw the supermarket distribute vouchers for discounted swimming and gym sessions.
Source: www.marketingweek.co.uk
London 2012 Olympics: Saudi Arabia Refuse to Lift Ban on Female Athletes - ibtimes.co.uk
Like us on Facebook
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei are the only countries that have never fielded women on their Olympic teams. While Qatar and Brunei have announced plans to take female athletes to London, the Saudis have yet to do so.
According to Rogge, discussions with the Saudis are continuing.
He ruled out the possibility of Saudi woman competing in London under the Olympic flag, rather than as members of the Saudi team.
The IOC has come under pressure from human rights groups for not imposing sanctions against Saudi Arabia for not sending female athletes.
Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Witson said: "Saudi Arabia is the last holdout denying women and girls the ability to take part in sports.
"The clock is running out for Saudi women to join the games and for the international community to insist that the Saudi government allow women to participate."
Although Saudi Arabia may not have women who meet Olympic qualifying standards, the IOC is prepared to offer them special conditions or look for other solutions.
As recently as the Atlanta 1996 Olympics, 26 national teams did not include women.
To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail:
To contact the editor, e-mail:
Source: www.ibtimes.co.uk
London picked as test bed for Skynet-like Intel tech - The Register
London will be a guinea pig for future smart city technology after Intel pledged to spend a slice of £25m ($40m) on a new lab in the capital. The chipmaker will also plough millions into research centres dotted around Blighty.
Intel will set up the unwieldily monikered Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities in the capital in partnership with Imperial College and University College London, it announced yesterday at an event at 10 Downing Street.
The company will spend the £25m over the next five years on all five of its Collaborative Research Institutes, but wouldn't give the breakdown of exactly how much London would be getting. ICL and UCL will also chip in some dosh, but again no figures were bandied about.
At the same event, Chipzilla said it will open a string of research centres around the UK, investing around £45m in an Intel Labs Europe UK R&D network: this will employ 350 researchers in labs including the one in London and others in Brighton, Swindon and Aylesbury to start with, and five more to be decided on by the end of the year.
"It is investments like this that will help us put the UK on the path we need to take to create new jobs, new growth and new prosperity in every corner of our country," Chancellor George Osborne said at the launch.
"We are determined to make the UK the best place to do business in the world and a great place for technology companies to invest and build new business. It is encouraging to see major tech partners like Intel investing in this country as a result of the policies that the Government has put in place," he self-congratulated.
Intel will use the London lab to suss out smart city technology and it will also team up with Shoreditch's Tech City entrepreneurs to use their "social media expertise" to "identify and analyse emerging trends with cities".
"Using London as a testbed, researchers will explore technologies to make cities more aware by harnessing real-time user and city infrastructure data," the company said in a statement, describing similar Skynet-like smart city research elsewhere.
"For example, a sensor network could be used to monitor traffic flows and predict the effects of extreme weather conditions on water supplies, resulting in the delivery of near real-time information to citizens through citywide displays and mobile applications."
Rattner: City under pre-planned stress
Intel CTO Justin Rattner also said that the London Olympic games would give the firm a great opportunity to look at a city under pressure and figure out where the weak points are.
"London is, as everyone knows, the host city to the 2012 summer Olympic Games, and we plan to use the event to understand the experiences of a city under pre-planned stress. What systems worked or didn’t work and why? How were the daily lives of the citizens, workers, and businesses of London affected?" he wondered out loud.
As well as giving Intel the opportunity to see it mess up, London is also a good choice for the research institute as the fifth largest city in the world.
"It has the largest GDP in Europe, and with over 300 languages and 200 ethnic communities, its diversity is a microcosm of the planet itself, offering an exciting test bed to create and define sustainable cities," Rattner enthused. ®
Source: www.theregister.co.uk
Tesco pushes virtual clothes in small London stores - Marketing
The partnership will make the F&F collection available to buy in central London stores, which do not have the floor space to display the clothes, for the first time.
F&F clothing designs will appear in the windows of the Covent Garden, Dean Street and Tooley Street stores, allowing passers-by to purchase the clothes directly from their smartphones.
Passers-by who have the Aurasma app can point their mobile at one of the windows to view a virtual showcase of the F&F range on their device.
Viewers can then tap to purchase the item on display.
Emily Shamma, Tesco clothing online director, said: "Our smaller central London stores aren't big enough to have clothing ranges, so this is a great opportunity to help us to reach new customers.
The launch of the partnership comes at a difficult time for Autonomy, the company behind Aurasma.
Mike Lynch, Autonomy founder and chief executive, has resigned from the company amid confirmation that Hewlett-Packard, which bought Autonomy in October, would be cutting 27,000 jobs.
Follow Matthew Chapman at @mattchapmanUK
Source: marketingmagazine.co.uk
London: Six tips for staying sane, saving money, staying in touch - Los Angeles Times
It’s going to be an incredibly busy summer for London, starting with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee June 2-5, followed by World Pride Week in June, the Olympics in July and August and the Paralympics in August and September.
I just returned from four days in London -- so action-packed that I spent part of one day in Greenwich and then went to Paris for dinner and was back in London by midnight. (You can read about this and other suggestions for a different view of London in the Sunday Travel section or online.) Here are the strategies and lessons I learned on this trip, my third to the city. You will know some. You may scoff at others. Or you may have some of your own. If you do, send them to me at travel@latimes.com or share in the comments section below. Herewith, ideas on what travelers should know:
--Two words: Oyster card. That’s the card you need to buy the minute you get off the Heathrow Express that will allow you to use the London subway, trains and buses to get almost anywhere in the city. You buy the card, load it with some pounds and then you have only to plop the card on the ubiquitous round circle on every mode of transport to gain access. Also, you can get some discounts for having an Oyster, sort of like a AAA card but for urban transport.
--The subways are pretty intuitive, but the buses are not. The answer to that: The London Transport Planner. It is explicit about what bus, what stop and where. Pay attention when it says Stop Q or whatever. Otherwise you will, as I did, end up going the wrong way. (A stop may have your bus number but it won’t be going the way you want it.) The detailed instructions make the buses manageable.
--Two more words: chip and PIN. U.S. credit cards sometimes will not work abroad even in cosmopolitan-caters-to-tourist London (vending machines -- which is where I bought my Oyster card -- can be tricky) and having a chip and PIN card, which is the international equivalent of a U.S. credit card but with different security system, will come in handy. (The chip transmits data, and you verify your identity by using a personal identification number.) U.S. MasterCard and Visa are hoping to have this by 2013. Till then, some other options are available -- Chase British Airways, JP Morgan Select, among others. Other companies are testing them. I used a preloaded chip and PIN card, and it got me out of a couple of jams. Mine came from TravelEx, which gave me two in case I lost one. Pretty slick system.
--Phone home but be careful. This gives me such a headache, what with swapping SIM cards and all. Here’s what I did: I left the smartphones at home and bought an inexpensive Samsung phone for about $30. I topped it off with about $8 (5 pounds) of airtime and bought an international phone card for 3 pounds (about $5). This worked fine, but I burned through my time pretty quickly. By the end of my four days, I couldn’t make a call without retopping my phone with some time, but I could send text messages. I decided to stick with text messaging.
--Here’s why: I always travel with a netbook, my small laptop that I bought years ago for less than $300 and which has taken a huge amount of abuse (like dropping it on concrete, which shattered the screen but was easy to replace). Without a smartphone, I needed my mini-laptop (see transport planner above), which also allowed me to edit pictures in my free time.
My best purchase was a Huawei USB wireless stick with a SIM card. This allowed me to connect wirelessly to the Internet. With my Skype account and earphones with a microphone, I could call home when I wanted, which I did every day. My total phone bill using Skype was about $2.
Having the Internet allowed me to buy advance purchase tickets to some attractions (saving time and money), although I then had to find a place to print them out, which is another story. (Think thumb drive/USB stick.) You won’t find the proliferation of Internet cafes you once did (doesn’t everyone have a home computer or a smartphone?), so here’s what helped me out: Mail Boxes Etc. (Thanks to the kind folks at the MBE at 95 Wilton Road.)
--Wear two pairs of socks. Sean O’Neill, an ex-pat living in London, gave me this bit of wisdom: “London is like a track and field event every day.” He’s right. You’ll do a lot of walking, and your feet will need the protection. If your shoes won’t accommodate two pairs, well, then, reconsider your choice of footwear. The streets are uneven in many places; there’s construction everywhere and if you want to walk in stilettos, it’s your funeral. (I also packed Band-Aids and used all of them.)
London is as fashionable as any place in the world, but honestly, people aren’t going to be looking at your feet. On the other hand, I did confess to some London friends who had invited me to dinner that I had done the typically American thing of wearing only running shoes. We ended up dining in. The first thing the hostesses did was offer to let me take off my shoes. I don’t know if that’s because she didn’t want to see those shoes or if she felt sorry for my tender little Angeleno feet, but whatever it was, it was a godsend.
--Buy London A-Z. It’s a book full of maps. You may have a lovely map from a guidebook, but this is very detailed and if you’re trying to find a very specific address, this will help immensely. It’s about $11, it’s spiral-bound and you can usually get it at newsstands or shops that sell phone cards, which are pretty much everywhere. (You can find it on Amazon.com too, but it’s actually less — less! — in London.) And when you do ask for it, ask for it as "London A to Zed." That’s how the Brits pronounce Z. And it’s just one of the many differences that charmed the socks off me.
Source: www.latimes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment