Press Releases

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One Team – One Garden

During July 100 employees from one of Harrogate’s biggest employers - The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), took part in a week long garden regeneration project based at RNIB Tate House, Harrogate. Tate House provides residential care for the elderly who are blind, partially sighted and or deaf/blind.

Teams from different departments across RBS, Operations, Retailer Card Services, volunteered to help renovate the extensive gardens at Tate House. Each day had its own set of challenges including the construction of a pergola and the clearing and restoring of the pond and its surrounding area. The Summer House, all the handrails and the benches have been sanded and painted and the flowerbeds are now restored to their former glory through lots of digging and weeding. Everybody thoroughly enjoyed the experience and left with a great sense of personal achievement. The gardens were formally opened on Saturday 15 July at the annual Tate House Summer Fayre.

The project, run in association with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT), was also aimed at raising the level of awareness of British wildlife and wild flowers. Don Vine from YWT commented, “It is so important in this day and age to ensure we keep rebuilding and supporting our natural wildlife. Tate House has a fantastic variety of species, which we hope will flourish in the now ideal environment. We also look forward to being involved with the development and maintenance of the garden on an ongoing basis.”

Gareth Pickles , Head of Operations, Retailer Card Services said: “This was a fantastic experience. Improving the grounds at Tate House for the benefit of residents and putting something back into the community made the week’s achievements even more significant.

Days spend like these help us to focus as a team, which in turn helps us provide a better service to our colleagues and customers.”

John Baguley, from Tate House said “I was delighted with the amount of work carried out throughout the week and would like to thank the staff from RBS for all their hard work. The tasks undertaken will help more residents enjoy the grounds and gardens safely and enable them to take pleasure in the wild life."

Greg Wilson, director of corporate team building specialists Life Events who organised the week, was impressed with the efforts of the team. “It was great to see the camaraderie generated between the delegates. The achievement was truly fantastic and the credit is all down to the hard work and enthusiasm for all those that took part”

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No Obstacles in the way for Bradford & Bingley

On the 5 September 2005, 51 employees from Bradford & Bingley Plc took part in a series of regeneration projects based at the popular Grizedale Forest, Cumbria.

Teams, from different departments across Bradford & Bingley were brought together to help with restoration work on various educational activities, which aim to teach youngsters a greater sense of social and environmental awareness.

Working in four groups, each team was allocated tasks to be completed by the end of the day. These included constructing steps on a popular but steep walking trail, improving a pond and its surrounding area for use on school nature visits and public events and restoring one of the most popular educational activities at Grizedale – the Blindfold trail.

All the teams thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and excelled themselves by finishing all the tasks successfully. Satisfying the original brief to bring together departments generating a sense of team spirit and camaraderie whilst having fun and strengthening relations ensured that they day was a complete success.

Greg Wilson, director of corporate team building specialists Life Events who organised the day, was impressed with the efforts of the team. “It was great to see the camaraderie generated between the delegates. The achievement was truly fantastic and the credit is all down to the hard work and enthusiasm for all those that took part”

Richard Swift, Operations Development Manager, from Bradford & Bingley said: “This was a fantastic experience. Days spent like this help us to refocus our energies on our team, which in turn help us provide a better service to our colleagues and our customers. Coupling this with the added bonus of improving facilities at Grizedale made the day’s achievements even more important.”

Jonathan Clarkson, the Recreation Manager at Grizedale Forest added “I was really pleased with the amount of work carried out on the day and would like to thank the staff from Bradford and Bingley for all their hard work. The tasks undertaken will help more people of all ages and abilities to enjoy the forest."

Note to Editors:

Caption for photograph: One Team – One Garden!