FENLAND’S ever-growing business park is a “spectacular, recession-beating success”, according to the leader of the district council Alan Melton. Recently the FDC leader Alan Melton at the South Fens Business Centre at Chatteris officially cut the ribbon to open their new extension.

The £730,000 extension already has two of its eight business units filled and there is interest in the remaining space. “In times of economic recession, this has been a spectacular success and we intend to build on it,” Cllr Melton said. “I am so proud of it. It shows that the public sector working with the private sector can really achieve something. “I feel completely vindicated that we have invested this sort of money and now we plan to start thinking about phases 4 and 5.”

The Fenland District Council leader said the enterprise park provided the support needed for small and medium-sized business in Fenland but would also help service sector work. Prodir, a promotional merchandise company, was one of the first to move into the extension.  Office and accounts manager Wendy Jones said: “It’s quite exciting. It’s nice going to a new building. We needed the warehouse space so this place is brilliant.“ Malcolm Lyons of the Federation of Small Businesses in Fenland said: “Cambridge is stuffed full of business and it’s time that started to expand up here.”

Experience Cambridgeshire commercial builders CD Hood Ltd are here to help any small to medium sized business with extensions or refurbishments.

In order to be most effective, refurbishment projects must adopt a whole building approach and think about carbon reduction as an end-to-end process, from the very beginning with the design team, through to collaboration with the occupier. It can also be useful for an individual to adopt the role of carbon monitor throughout a project to ensure that the different stages fit together cohesively.

Experienced commercial builders, CD Hood Ltd like the whole building approach and have teams of people they can work with to deliver any commercial building needs.

Some of the  key factors involve CD Hood Ltd have noticed are involved are:
• Developers, design teams and contractors working together on the project from the outset.
• Dispelling the myth that a green retrofit is more expensive.
• Translating carbon reduction goals into the language of business metrics by illustrating the value added.
• Investing additional capital expenditure, proving the market valuation and partnering with third party funders.
• Flexible funding mechanisms to overcome unwillingness from organisations to invest in initiatives where the payback is longer than five years.

Almost any successful building project requires a whole building approach so that purpose and design factors can be delivered by reputable builders like CD Hood Ltd of Cambridgeshire.  If your building project requires this kind of approach CD Hood Ltd are happy to form a range of collaborations to help you achieve your aim and talk you through your options of how to achieve it.

Although many of the restrictions of living in a conservation area may sound very tedious, the areas controlled are obviously attractive to buyers: by its very nature, a conservation area is special in some way otherwise it would not enjoy this enhanced status.

Properties in a conservation area are almost always of higher value than nearby houses that don't come with that special status. Russell Jervis, managing director of Haart estate agents comments: "Homebuyers are always prepared to pay extra to live in an area or building that is something out of the ordinary.

"This is particularly true of conservation areas, which are places of special architectural or historic interest with unique character.

"The desirability of living in a conservation area, whether it be a grand country house or a small town house in an old Tudor street, can have the effect of inflating property prices by as much as 20 per cent more than homes in the surrounding areas."

However, most local councils are at pains to point out that living in a conservation area does not mean, as some people fear, that there can be no room for change. As the Direct Government website puts it, "Conservation areas are not open-air museums but living communities which must be allowed to change over time in order to remain vital and prosperous."

However because there are rules in place to protect conservation areas and the properties within them, residents tend to have an extra sense of pride and responsibility in the neighbourhood - thereby making them all the more attractive and desirable. Cambridgeshire builders CD Hood Ltd are experienced in working within conservation areas