Author: Lucy Wood

Westgrove Wins RoSPA Gold Award!

Westgrove Wins RoSPA Gold Award 2023

The Westgrove Group based in Warrington, has fought off stiff international competition to scoop a prestigious RoSPA Award, demonstrating its commitment to health and safety excellence.

Westgrove won a RoSPA Gold Award in the Health & Safety Performance category, demonstrating its dedication to ensuring its colleagues get home safely at the end of every working day.

This is Westgrove’s second successful year on achieving a RoSPA Gold Award.

The RoSPA Health and Safety Awards is the largest occupational health and safety awards programme in the UK. Now into its 67th year, the Awards have almost 2,000 entries every year, covering nearly 50 countries and a reach of over seven million employees. The programme recognises organisations’ commitment to continuous improvement in the prevention of accidents and ill health at work, looking at entrants’ overarching health and safety management systems, including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.

While most awards are non-competitive – recognising individual organisations’ achievements – competitive awards are presented in 20 industry sectors and for specialist areas of health and safety management.

Westgrove Head of Health, Safety & Compliance, Angela Crawford said “The RoSPA Gold Award is a fantastic achievement, and recognition of all the hard work, commitment and support within all areas of the business, to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of all our colleagues.”

Julia Small, RoSPA’s Achievements Director, said:

“Accidents at work and work-related ill health don’t just have huge financial implications or cause major disruption – they significantly impact an individual’s quality of life. That’s why good safety performance deserves to be recognised and rewarded.

“We are thrilled that Westgrove has won a RoSPA Award and would like to congratulate them on showing an unwavering commitment to keeping their employees, clients and customers safe from accidental harm and injury.”

Sponsored by Croner-i, the RoSPA Awards scheme is the longest-running of its kind in the UK, and receives entries from organisations across the globe, making it one of the most sought-after achievement awards for the health and safety industry.

The Westgrove Group was founded by Group Chairmen Simon Whittle and Steve Fives.  Based in Warrington, Cheshire, Westgrove employs over 1000 colleagues and specialises in providing security, cleaning, technical services and customer service to shopping centres and mixed-use destinations, corporate offices, business parks and manufacturing throughout the UK.  Following a successful 25-year history, the company expanded in 2020 to add technical services to enhance its well-established award-winning soft services provision. 

2023 Annual Reward & Recognition Award Winners Announced!

The Westgrove Group Annual Reward and Recognition Awards are our way of saying thank you to our Colleagues for the amazing work that they do each and every day, often going above and beyond in their role. 

This year we have had some outstanding nominations from life savers in the outstanding act category, colleagues who have supported our partners by going above and beyond with Service Excellence, Teams that work well together and Colleagues who excel in their role and much more!

We are very proud to announce this years Annual Reward & Recognition Winners:

Site Manager of The Year – Muhammad Younis, Royal Priors Shopping Centre

Team of The Year – Castle Quay Shopping Centre Team

Health & Safety Champion – Mark Driscoll, Touchwood Shopping Centre

Colleague of The Year – Paul Seddon, Westgrove Technical Services

Newcomer of The Year – Michelle Fogg, St Johns Shopping Centre

Chairman’s Commendation Award – Ryemarket Shopping Centre Team

CSR of The Year – Jane Gerrard, Spindles Town Square

CSR of The Year – Touchwood Team; Adil Hussain, Colin Robert O`Neill & Clare Danks

Outstanding Act of The Year – Christine Preece, Telford Centre

Outstanding Act of The Year Kyle Sands, Telford Centre

Outstanding Act of The YearCastle Quay Security Team; Hameed Smith, Imran Younis, Jonathan Chandler, Owen Jarrett

Outstanding Act of The Year Damon Kosmalski-Pearson, Riverside Shopping Centre (Hemel)

Service Excellence of The Year Antony Yates & Christopher Ashley, Birchwood Park

Service Excellence of The Year Steve Allen, Haymarket Shopping Centre

Service Excellence of The Year Joanne O’Neill, Westgrove Head Office

Our Senior Management Team will be visiting all of our Annual Award Winners to present them with their trophies.

Huge congratulations to all of this year’s winners, finalists and nominees. You are all amazing!!

Westgrove Announce BSIA Nomination List!

Westgrove are delighted to announce that we have put forward 25 nominations for this years 2023 British Security Awards for our Colleagues across the country.

The British Security Awards are a National Event that recognises the talent and commitment from the industry’s finest. The awards are organised by the British Security Industry Association and celebrate the achievements and bravery made by members of the Security Industry.

We were pleased to nomnate the following colleagues for a BSIA Award and would like to wish them the best of luck in the regional rounds!

BSIA Service To The Customer Award

Antony Yates & Christopher Ashley – Birchwood Park

Steve Allen – Haymarket Shopping Centre

Asa Abraham – Queens Square Shopping Centre

Damon Kosmalski-Pearson – Riverside Shopping Centre

Sandra Perry – Templars Square

BSIA Security Manager Of The Year Award

Muhammad Younis – Royal Priors Shopping Centre

Paul Lavery – St Johns Shopping Centre

BSIA Best Newcomer Of The Year Award

Jack Davenport – Templars Square Shopping Centre

Kyle Farrelly-Reid – Spindles Town Square

BSIA Outstanding Act Of The Year Award

Hameed Smith, Imran Younis, Jonathan Chandler, Owen Jarrett – Castle Quay Shopping Centre

Castle Quay Shopping Centre Security Team

Haider Hussian – Queens Square Shopping Centre

Damon Kosmalski-Pearson – Riverside Shopping Centre

Jason Baker, Tony Cairns, Brain Heeney, Jane Gerrard – Spindles Town Square

Kyle Sands – Telford Centre

Martin wain, Jack Davenport, Mohammad Ali – Templars Square Shopping Centre

Martin Wain, Sandra Perry, Nar Gurung, Darren Harris – Templars Square Shopping Centre

Rodney Gould – The Galleries Shopping Centre

Angela Crawshaw – The Moor Shopping Centre

Imran Hanif – The Moor Shopping Centre

John Whitford – Willow Place Shopping Centre

Ryan Griffin – Willow Place Shopping Centre

BSIA Best Team Of The Year Award

Ryemarket Shopping Centre Team

Templars Square Shopping Centre Security Team

Touchwood Shopping Centre Security Team

Colleague Commended By Merseyside Police

We’re extremely proud of our colleague, Paul for receiving a commendation from Merseyside Police in recognition of his outstanding service in assisting the Police over the last few months with regards to his remarkable use of CCTV.

Paul Lavery works as a Security Officer at St Johns Shopping Centre, the largest of Liverpool’s covered shopping centres, located in the heart of the City.  With the support of Paul, the Police have been able to prevent crimes and made a number of arrests of wanted individuals.

Paul is being recognised for a number of incidents where he has provided CCTV footage to the police.  One incident, during Christmas 2022, a gang of youths committed over £1million worth of damage throughout the city centre. Paul was vigilant and noticed one of the individuals walking through the shopping centre and provided footage to the police, leading to an arrest.

Dave Crawford from Merseyside Police wrote to Paul to “thank him for his help, work and keen eye on the matter”.

Paul has also been nominated for a number of Westgrove Reward & Recognition Awards and National Industry Awards for his impressive use of CCTV.  

Congratulations to Paul on his commendation, keep up the fantastic work!

From left; Dan Richards (St Johns Shopping Centre Security Manager), Paul Lavery with his commendation letter, Neil Ashcroft (St Johns Shopping Centre Site Manager)

OSPA’s Finalists!

Our team has a fantastic time at this year’s Outstanding Security performance Awards (OSPA’s) which were held on Thursday 23rd February at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London.

It wasn’t to be for our three finalists this year, but we are very proud of them all for making it this far.

Sandra Perry from Templars Square Shopping Centre and Asa Abraham from Queens Square Shopping Centre were recognised as finalists in the Outstanding Security Officer category.

Gillian Davidson from Market Place Shopping Centre made it to the finals in the Outstanding Contract Security Manager category.

The OSPAs recognise individuals, teams and companies across the security sector that have made a significant impact and excelled, demonstrating outstanding performance in their role.

Pictured, Clare, Westgrove Business Manager and Asa, Queens Square Security Supervisor

Our Outstanding Colleagues – Q4

Our people are what make us special. From saving lives and preventing crime to helping people in need and much more. Our Reward and Recognition scheme is our way of saying thank you to our Colleagues for the amazing work that they do each and every day, often going above and beyond in their role.

Well done to all our winners and everyone who has been nominated for an award this quarter – you are all amazing!

Our 2022 Quarter 4 winners are:

Team of the Quarter

Spindles Town Square – Security and Housekeeping Team

Technical Services Team

Colleague of the Quarter

Paul Lavery – St Johns Shopping Centre

Paul Seddon – Technical Services

Newcomer of the Quarter

Jennifer Worsley – Market Place Shopping Centre

Samantha Shipperbottom – Market Place Shopping Centre

Michelle Fogg – St Johns Shopping Centre

Site Manager of the Quarter

David Phillips – Market Place Shopping Centre

CSR of the Quarter

Templars Square Shopping Centre Team

The Galleries Shopping Centre Team

Adil Hussain, Colin R O`Neill & Ethan Cashmore – Touchwood Shopping Centre

H&S Champion

Jane Gerrard – Spindles Town Square

Syed Shah – Queens Square Shopping Centre

Service Excellence

  • Rayhan Choudhury – Royal Priors Shopping Centre
    • Exceptional efforts and commitment to his role
  • Paul Britton & Gary Lucas – The Galleries
    • Helping a distressed new driver and making sure they got home safe after hours
  • Front of House Team – Tata Technologies
    • For the service they provided to a tenant during a three day conference  
  • Colin O’Neil Jnr – Touchwood Shopping Centre
    • Took on an extra role as Carpark Host during a busy weekend and provided outstanding customer service
  • Deolinda Borges – Longridge House
    • Responding quickly to requests and doing an all round great job
  • Joanne Oneill – Head Office
    • For the support she gives to the St Johns team
  • Tomasz Staziewicz – Touchwood Shopping Centre
    • Was really helpful, friendly and engaging and went out of the way to make 2 young customers feel special on their visit
  • Ben Pickering – Willow Place
    • Helped a new mother in her time of need
  • Kevin Harvoutt & Carl Williams – Ryemarket Shopping Centre
    • Assisted an elderly gentleman and made sure he was safe and comfortable
  • Samuel Cardwell – The Galleries
    • Friendly, thoughtful, understanding and helpful in relocating a customers car
  • Steve Allen – Haymarket
    • Quick actions avoided damage to the building after major issues with the sprinkler system

Outstanding Act

  • David Phillips & Denise Phillips – Market Place
    • Supported and protected a young girl after a group were threatening her
  • David Phillips, Dalma Balazsovits, Mat Hall, Denise Phillips & Greg Barlow – Market Place
    • Assisted with an attempted robbery and helped recover over £800 of stock
  • Imran Hanif – The Moor
    • Assisted with an arrest
  • Dominic Dunn – Quedam Shopping Centre
    • Assisted with an attempted robbery and deterred shoplifters. Over £1,700 of stock recovered
  • Haider Hussin – Queen Square Shopping Centre
    • Excellent CCTV skills helped police track down and arrest a group who had stolen metal cages and were checking doors
  • David Sutherland – Tata Technologies
    • Acted fast when noticing a significant water leak and assisted the engineer
  • Anton Morris – Queen Square Shopping Centre
    • Assisted an elderly couple who had fallen on the escalators and rang for a paramedic

Congratulations to all our winning colleagues and to everyone who was nominated in Quarter 4.

If you wish to nominate a colleague for a Reward & Recognition award, click here.

To see a list of all our previous winners, click here.

Festive Volunteer Day!

Westgrove Marketing & Bid Manager, Lucy Wood volunteering

Last week, our Bid Manager, Lucy took part in a ‘Volunteer Day’ and spent the afternoon at a local primary school’s annual Christmas Fair.  The aim was to raise around £4,000 to support the school’s ongoing playground development project.  This money will go towards redeveloping the outdoor provision at the school to provide lots of opportunities for creative and imaginative play. 

Lucy helped set up the fair and run a stall for the evening, Hunt the Golden Carrot – a firm favourite game with a constant queue of children wanting to win a prize.  Then came the clear up and a celebratory drink to finish!

Lucy commented, “Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the local community and give a little bit of time to a great cause.  It was so much fun to see the excitement on the children’s faces – they were happy to just take part, but their smiles were beaming when they found the golden carrot and won a prize!”.

Westgrove offer Volunteer Days to all their colleagues.  It’s important to give back to the communities where we work and live.  Colleagues can find out more about Westgrove Volunteer Days by emailing volunteer@westgrove.co.uk.

OSPA 2023 Award Finalists

Westgrove OSPA 2023 Award Finalists

We are proud to announce that Westgrove has three finalists in the 2023 Outstanding Security Performance Awards (OSPAs).

Sandra Perry from Templars Square Shopping Centre and Asa Abraham from Queens Square Shopping Centre have been recognised as finalists in the Outstanding Security Officer category.

Gillian Davidson from Market Place Shopping Centre has made it to the finals in the Outstanding Contract Security Manager category.

The OSPAs recognise individuals, teams and companies across the security sector that have made a significant impact and excelled, demonstrating outstanding performance in their role. The finals are being held on Thursday the 23rd of February 2023 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

We wish Sandra, Asa and Gill the very best of luck in the finals.