Category: Uncategorised

Women in Security Finalist

We are extremely pleased to announce that Sandra Perry from Templars Square Shopping Centre has been recognised as a Finalist in the Women in Security Awards 2022. 

Sandra has been nominated by Dual Service Manager, Mark Driscoll for her contribution to Templars Square over the past year.  Mark commented, “Sandra is such an inspirational female officer, she is passionate about the job she does and every shift that she works, she gives 100%.” 

We wish Sandra the very best of luck in the finals which take place in London on 14th September. 

She Inspires!

Huge congratulations to Gillian Davidson, our Guest Services Manager at Market Place Shopping Centre for being shortlisted as a finalist in the She Inspires Awards 2022!

The awards celebrate the huge wealth of outstanding contributions women have made to Bolton and Gill is a worthy finalist in the Women in Leadership category.

The finals take place in Bolton on the 24th November and we wish Gill the very best of luck.

Our Outstanding Colleagues – Q2

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 2 winners are:

Team of the Quarter

  • Castle Quay Team
  • Royal Priors Team
  • Head Office Operations Team
  • Market Place Cleaning Team

Site Manager of the Quarter

  • Clint Sayers, Telford Centre

Colleague of the Quarter

  • Dianne Gardiner, Riverside Evesham
  • Karen Watkinson, QVC Knowsley

Newcomer of the Quarter

  • Sharon Miller, Morgan Quarter
  • Jack Davenport, Templars Square  

CSR of the Quarter

  • Queens Square Team
  • Barry Davenport, Market Place

Health & Safety Champion

  • Brenda Peacock, Novelis
  • Riverside Evesham Team

Outstanding Act

  • Asa Abraham, Queens Square
  • Tai Adewuji & Wes Harper, Market Place
  • Philip Bird & Jamie Barnbrook, Telford Centre
  • Inderpal Singh & Jamie Banbrook, Telford Centre
  • Marc Brewster, The Meadows
  • Shaibu Abu, The Meadows
  • Jason Baker, Tony Cairns, Brain Heeney & Jane Gerrard, Spindles Town Square
  • Barry Burnham, Templars Square
  • Martin wain, Jack Davenport, Mohammad Ali, Templars Square
  • Kirsty Kirkland, Alan McCabe, Mark Quinn, St Johns

Service Excellence

  • Safeer Khan, Tata Technologies
  • Deborah Ogden, Spindles Town Square
  • Jane Hassel, DSA
  • Waqas and the Operations Team, Tata Technologies
  • Craig Wilkinson, Touchwood
  • Rebecca Higgins & Roger Smith, Maylord
  • Timea Kubikova, Head Office
  • Christine Preece, Royston Davies & Jackie Bull, Telford Centre
  • Majed Ali, Cornbow
  • Melissa Hales, Head Office

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

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.

Security Awards Win For Templars Square!

The Westgrove Group has scooped a prestigious national industry award for its outstanding security personnel work.

Organised by the British Security Industry Association (BSIA), the awards showcase the national finals of the security personnel categories and highlight outstanding personnel within the industry who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in their everyday work.

The Security Team at Templars Square Shopping Centre in Oxford have been awarded with the BEST TEAM accolade in this years’ awards, the second time they won in this category over the past 3 years.

The nomination summary read: “The team are being recognised for a myriad of cases which they have managed to successfully resolve, including suicide attempts, muggings, violent theft, fly tipping, stabbings, retrieval of bladed articles and even having to clean up ‘pooffitti’.  They have also given up their own time to improve the green spaces and help to relocate and set up a children’s charity in the centre.”

We are extremely proud of the whole team at Templars Square for everything they have achieved – congratulations to them all!

Well done and congratulations to our other Westgrove finalists;

Mohammed Osman, Queens Square – Security Manager of the Year Regional Winer

Paul Britton, The Galleries – Security Manager of the Yer Regional Winner

St Johns Shopping Centre – Best Team Regional Winner

Cornbow Shopping Centre – Service to the Customer Regional Winner

Ben Jaggers, Telford Centre – Outstanding Act Regional Winner

Birchwood Park Go Green!

Our security team at Birchwood Park have ditched their cars for bikes in an effort to become more sustainable.    

Birchwood Park hosts around 6,000 people in over 160 businesses on a 134-acre site in the heart of Cheshire.  The Security team will cover around 45,000 miles per year on their bikes – not only is it better for the environment but the team will work smarter – they will patrol more effectively by getting to places quicker than on foot and to places a car can’t get and there are the positive mental health benefits too.  

Stuart, Security Manager at Birchwood Park said “it creates a practical means of patrolling the business park that won’t impact the environment plus it helps with our mental health, we can talk to our colleagues whilst cycling around and it’s a great way to get fit!”

At Westgrove we recognise that we have a responsibility to help protect the environment and reduce our carbon foot print and we’re proud of the team at Birchwood Park for implementing this initiative.

Westgrove Support Men’s Health Week

This week, through our partnership with the Retail Trust, we’re supporting Men’s Health Week.  

This year, the aim is to get more men talking. About their health. Their feelings. Their worries.  Men’s Health Week takes place annually during the week ending on Father’s Day and recognises the importance of the health and wellbeing of boys and men. Father’s Day was chosen as the anchor to make use of the extra attention paid to male family members near that holiday.  Men’s Health Week provides an opportunity to educate about what can be done to improve the state of men’s health.  

The Retail Trust have talked to some of the top experts in male mental health and pulled together their best advice, tips and guidance which we are providing to all our colleagues.  

These resources can be found HERE.

Our colleagues have access to free and confidential advice and support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year through our partnership with the Retail Trust.  

Westgrove Celebrates the Queens Platinum Jubilee

Our Westgrove colleagues and sites have been busy over the weekend celebrating the Queens Platinum Jubilee. We’ve had everything from street parties, colouring competitions, parades and more!

Copyright Mike Sewell 2022 31st May 2022 Queen’s Jubilee celebration event at the Haymarket Shopping Centre.
Runcorn Shopping City, Meet the Queen!
Touchwood Shopping Centre
Market Place Shopping Centre, Royal Parade
Queens Square Shopping Centre, Security Team
Quedam Shopping Centre, Corgi Photo Opportunity!

#NationalVolunteerWeek2022 – The Big Dig

We are proud to be celebrating #nationalvolunteerweek2022. Volunteer Week is an annual celebration of the contribution millions of people make across the UK through volunteering. As well as helping others, volunteering has been shown to improve the volunteers’ mental and physical wellbeing too.

At The Westgrove Group, we see the importance of giving back and we are pleased to be able to offer our colleagues the opportunity to volunteer for a cause close to their hearts through our ‘Volunteer Days’ scheme.

Lucy from our Marketing Team recently used one of our Volunteer Days to support a local primary school to help them to dig a pond! 

The school wanted to develop an unused area of their outdoor space to create a pond to attract local wildlife to the area. Ponds are a wildlife magnet, providing homes, breeding grounds, bathing spots, food and a watering hole for all manner of creatures including birds, frogs, toads, newts and insects and it will create an ideal live science lesson for the children as well as an array of opportunities to help maintain the pond and learn more about it.

Lucy said: “Spending a day digging a pond with a fantastic bunch of people was a great experience. It was hard graft but I had so much fun and found it very rewarding knowing that my contribution would create so many experiences for all the children to enjoy”.

Colleagues can find out more about Westgrove Volunteer Days by emailing marketing@westgrove.co.uk.

Lucy helping with the Big Dig
The Pond Dig
Attracting wildlife

Security Officer of Distinction Award

We are extremely pleased to announce that one of our colleagues has been awarded an ACS Pacesetters Security Officer of Distinction Award 2022!

Martin Wain from Templars Square Shopping Centre in Oxford has been recognised in these prestigious awards for his outstanding contribution to the security sector and has received one of 12 awards in a ceremony that took place at Windsor Racecourse on the 25th May 2022. 

The awards set out to reward Security Officers who have gone above and beyond in their duties. The winners are selected by a panel of industry leaders and senior officers from all branches of the emergency services.

We would like to thank Martin for his outstanding contribution, not only to Westgrove but to Templars Square and the security industry as a whole.

This follows on from the success of last year with Martin’s colleague Majid Khan also being awarded this accolade. As a business we also nominated the following colleagues for their hard work and commitment over the past year and thank them for their continued support. 

Ben Jaggers, Telford Centre went above and beyond to save the life of a member of the public who he believed was about to take their own life.  Through intuition, Ben recognised what was happening, through determination was able to prevent it happening and through empathy was able to comfort and support the person until professional help arrived.

Dave Phillips, Marketplace for his dedication to Marketplace for over 20 years.  Dave shows extensive knowledge of the site and his role and has fantastic customer service skills.

David Field, Ryemarket for providing lifesaving CPR to an unresponsive female during the pandemic.  David remained extremely calm, confident and in control of the incident and was able to bring the lady back to life.

Jake Quieros, Castle Quay, during an incident at an adjoining hotel, Jake was inspirational in the way he managed the situation outside of the hotel, liaising with hotel staff, police, the public and managing the situation in an exemplary manor.  Afterwards, during the team debrief, Jake recognised how the incident had affected his team and comforted, reassured and offered help and guidance.

Congratulations to all of our colleagues who were nominated for an ACS Pacesetter Security Officer of Distinction Award, you are all winner in our eyes. 

Westgrove Show Support For Mental Health Awareness Week

The Westgrove Group are continuing to support Mental Health Awareness Week. Hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, this year the theme is ‘Loneliness’.

The past couple of years have been incredibly difficult for many people, at home and at work.  Here at The Westgrove Group, we take the Mental Health of our colleagues and those around us very seriously. We’re taking this opportunity to talk about Mental Health and start the conversation with our colleagues.   

This week we are providing our colleagues with a Mental Health Toolkit.  We want our colleagues to know that if they are struggling there are lots of ways they can reach out for support.

Mental Health Toolkit

We have Mental Health First Aiders in the business and all Colleagues are offered Mental Health Awareness training via our e-leaning programme.

Through our partnership with the Retail Trust, our colleagues have access to free and completely confidential advice and support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and access to the Retail Trust wellbeing portal where they can create their own personalised wellbeing toolkit.

We provide our colleagues with free access to the Mind Over Mountains charity who run events throughout the year.  Mind Over Mountains believe that time in nature, coupled with professional support is a powerful way to build resilience, talk without pressure and re-find stillness; restoring mental health, naturally.

If you are struggling with your mental health, we urge you to take the first step and reach out.

The Mental Health Foundation provide a list of charities and organisations that offer help and support directly to people with mental health problems – Click here.