Hundreds of farmers gather for machinery auction

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One of the most important events in the Cotswolds agricultural calendar attracted hundreds of farmers to an abandoned airfield this week.

The 850 lot collective machinery auction at Southrop Airfield, between Lechlade and Fairford, is a chance for farmers to buy and sell implements, tools and requisites – anything from a wheel barrow to a flat bed lorry.

Business coach helps manufacturer’s sales to soar

ActionCOACH Nigel Scott with James and Dawn Boaden of Midas NDT Systems in front of a massive ultrasound machine. The machine will be dismantled and exported to Malaysia, where it will be used to check for faults in jet engine covers

A Marlborough business coach has helped a niche manufacturing company scoop a major European business award.

Herefordshire-based aerospace specialist Midas-NDT Systems was a finalist in the Manufacturing category of the 2013 ActionCOACH Business Excellence Awards, after business coach Nigel Scott helped the company to put in place strategies to manage soaring sales.

Devizes law firms agree merger deal

Nicky Morris and Stuart McGregor-Johnson

Two Devizes law firms, which pride themselves on traditional values and high professional standards, are to merge.

Solicitors from Morris Goddard & Ward (MGWLaw) will join forces with Wansbroughs on Friday, May 17.

Social Seminars will help businesses get to grips with social media

Marcus Lilley of FutrSocial

A series of free workshops aims to give Wiltshire businesses and organisations a better understanding of social media.

The informal courses will be led by social media entrepreneur Marcus Lilley, whose Marlborough-based firm, FutrSocial, helps people across the UK get to grips with an ever-changing array of communications technology.

Filling station to make way for prestige housing development

Alex Dean of Bridge Homes with plans for the Bridge Garage site, in front of the filling station forecourt, with the listed buildings in the background

A Marlborough filling station could be demolished to make way for a prestige housing development that will “enhance the gateway to the town,” under ambitious plans unveiled by its owner this week.

Alex Dean, who owns Bridge Fuels on London Road, plans to flatten the filling station – one of two serving the town – to create a riverside housing development.

Skate firm is on a roll, winning two awards in two months

Charlie Allen of Shiner and Nigel Scott of ActionCOACH with Shiner’s award for Best Customer Service Results

Bristol-based action sports goods distributor Shiner has scooped a major European business award for customer service.

And the importer of skateboards, roller skates, scooters and BMX bikes is on a roll – having bagged two trophies in as many months.

The company’s success is also good news for Wiltshire business mentor Nigel Scott, of ActionCOACH, who has been helping Shiner to ramp up its operations over the past three years. He’s been presented with the ActionCOACH award for Best Client Results.

Joanna’s Jumbo stomps at the Savoy

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The magical relationship between humans and animals, from Disney to David Attenborough, are celebrated in a new exhibition by Wiltshire artist Joanna May.

The Iconic Animals of London Zoo will be opened at The Savoy hotel in London on Saturday (November 24) by TV wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan.

Animals residing at ZSL London Zoo, beloved to the UK public in their lifetimes, became immortalised in some of the nation’s – and indeed the world’s – favourite stories, such as Jumbo the elephant, who became Disney’s Dumbo, and Winnipeg the bear who became A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh.

And Joanna, who had a gallery in Marlborough for eleven years and now lives and works at her gallery home in Keevil, has had exclusive permission from Disney to incorporate the images of Dumbo and Winnie-the-Pooh in this work.

Technology forum offers delegates a glimpse of the future

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• Vodafone employs 5,000 people at its Newbury HQ, but only has chairs for 3,500 of them.
• Blackberry – famous for its mobile phones with keyboards – is doing away with buttons and will be launching new touchscreen software and hardware soon.
• Microsoft is no longer an IT company – it’s all about devices and services these days.
• We’re all doing unpaid overtime equating to 240 hours a year, thanks to our smartphones.
• There’s still a place in our digital world for the humble ballpoint pen.

Those were some of the bombshells dropped at the Swindon Technology and Innovation Forum yesterday (Wednesday).

Royal Agricultural College alumni join Moore Allen & Innocent

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Two graduates of the world famous Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester have joined the team at land and property agents Moore Allen & Innocent.

Andrew Stibbard comes to the firm from Jones Lang LaSalle in London, where he managed portfolios for big names including Deutsche Bank and Scottish Widows.

As Moore Allen & Innocent’s new commercial surveyor, Andrew will be overseeing the sale and letting of shops, offices, industrial properties and development land along with provision of management and other professional commercial services in and around Cirencester.

Game aims to settle battle-of-sexes parking dispute

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It’s a question that has divided opinion for as long as cars have been on the road – who’s best at parking: boys or girls?

Now men and women are taking to Facebook to settle the argument once and for all, in an online game that challenges players to park a car in a space using their computer cursor keys, without crashing into other cars or obstacles.

The game, which can be played at www.facebook.com/Parkshare, was launched by the creator of ParkShare, an online community which aims to connect people with empty driveways or garages and commuters who need to park a car, but would rather not use an expensive car park.