Category: Owner

Award winning Westgrove

Congratulations to our brilliant colleagues who have just scooped awards in this year’s BSIA Regional Awards and ACS Pacesetters.

This is great news and testament to how you all continually go the extra yard for the company and our Partners.

The BSIA Regional Award winners are

• Steve Allen – Midlands – SERVICE TO THE CUSTOMER (Haymarket)
• Paul Ogden – North West- SERVICE TO THE CUSTOMER (Market Place)
• Vijay Odedra – Midlands – BEST USE OF TECHNOLOGY (Haymarket)
• Gavin Jones, Mr Matthew Lamb, Mr John Wallbank – Midlands – OUTSTANDING ACT (Ropewalk)
• Steven Travis – North West – OUTSTANDING ACT (Arcades)
• Matthew Bray – North West – BEST NEWCOMER (Concourse)

ACS Pacesetters (one of only 12 in the UK)

• Steve Brooks – Security Officer of Distinction (Templars Square)

This is a huge achievement by all involved – well done! Fingers crosses for the national awards!

New Colleague Engagement Survey

Our second Colleague Engagement Survey is now online. This new survey focuses on career development and training.

We would love to hear from as many of you as possible – follow this link to complete the survey.

Thank you for your time.

Mental Health Awareness Week

Mental Health is something that Westgrove believes strongly in. Look out for a series of activities which we will be getting involved in during this important week, which runs from May 13-19. These include:

• Promoting our Mental Health Awareness E-Learning, which is available online for all colleagues;
• Discussing the important work done by Paul Ogden, our first Mental Health First Aider and advocate for mental health;
• Daily hints and tips from our Brand Ambassador and mental health awareness supporter, Alex Staniforth;
• Promoting the ‘Colleague Forum’ on our website and asking colleagues what they think we could do as a business to assist with mental health in the workplace;
• Daily emails to all colleagues with links to the Mental Health Foundation website with free downloads.

Skyfall Abseil

We are – nervously – looking forward to helping our Partner St Johns Shopping Centre in Liverpool to raise £3,000 for Alder Hey by abseiling 450ft down St Johns Beacon on Saturday, 11th May.
If anyone would like to support us, please visit this page.

Reward and Recognition Awards – Quarter 1 2019 Winners

Here are all our R&R Award winners for Quarter 1. Congratulations to you all.

Site Manager of the Quarter – Shane Roberts, The Core
Shane’s hard work and dedication has enabled us to raise our SLA score at The Core to 99.5%. He has strengthened the team, managed manning levels and created detailed procedures for the site to ensure compliance is met.

Colleague of the Quarter – Anthony Clegg, Grosvenor
We love Anthony’s easy to use fire system’s control panel guide which is perfect as a training manual for new security officers and all staff.

Team of the Quarter – St Johns Security Team
Well done to the team for their professionalism in dealing with a number of harrowing and challenging situations this year which have included escalator falls, serious assaults and first aid emergencies.

Service Excellence

We have a number of great nominations, which include:

Front of House Team – TATA Technologies
Special mention to Silvia and Phil from the EIDC reception team who go out of their way to welcome customers, help with conference room bookings and make sure visitor parking bays are available ahead of meetings. They both give ‘wonderful support’ and ‘provide a super experience when people visit EIDC’.

Security Team – Birchwood Park
Thanks to the security team who quickly manned both barriers to the ANPR car park in heavy rain, allowing 700 people arriving at Birchwood Park to park their cars without any issues. Excellent customer service.

Sean Helbert and Paul Clarke – Birchwood Park
Sean and Paul were praised for spotting a contractor working at a weekend without a Building Manager on site. They prevented the contractor from potentially having an accident due to the high winds and kept health and safety well under control on site out of hours. With the telephone support of a Building Manager they did an excellent job, well done.

Gillian Davison and Dave Phillips – Market Place
Gillian and Dave acted quickly after a radio call from Debenhams reporting a flood in their plant room. Dave and two maintenance engineers from the site quickly went to assist and quickly cleared it up.

Robert Mercier – The Galleries
Whilst on car park patrol, Robert noticed loose signage on one of the public/pedestrian entrances to the shopping centre. He immediately contacted the duty manager and made the area safe for the public.

Rob Hawkins and Luke Aries – Gloucester Quays
After a gentleman fell and injured his head, Rob carried out First Aid and Luke assisted before an ambulance arrived. Once then man had recovered he wrote to centre management to tell them how well they had looked after him.

Neil Disley – St Johns Shopping Centre
Neil, who works in the centre’s control room, spotted a man smashing windows. He reviewed all the CCTV footage to hand over to the Police. The next day, he spotted the same man at the back of the centre and arranged for security staff to detain him.

Edward Booker – Templars Square
Edward spotted an elderly man in distress who was struggling to walk. He calmed him down, collected a wheelchair from the management suite and arranged for a taxi to take him home – kindly paying for it himself. He also stayed on for an hour after the end of his shift to ensure all the night cleaning jobs were completed. Outstanding.

Renay Snelson – Runcorn Shopping City
Renay was thanked by a member of the public for her help, support and compassion when she visited the centre for the first time after her partner’s death. The lady said that it was the first time for a while that she had felt like a person and not a widow. Outstanding customer service, Renay.

Tom Lewis – National Operations Manager
Tom was praised for the professional way he dealt with a very difficult situation at Riverside. Tom was able to organise an internal process without delay and worked with the DSM in ensuring all shifts were covered following the departure of a Westgrove employee.

Cleaning Team – Riverside
The Cleaning Team were praised by our Partner for their high standards, their positive approach and their team spirit. They are a ‘real credit’ to themselves and Riverside.

Security Team – The Galleries
Thanks to the team for their quick thinking after a serious accident which helped to keep the public away and freed cars from the car park.

Outstanding Act

Our quarterly winners include:

Mark Quinn – St Johns Shopping Centre
Mark came across a distressed disabled man in a faulty electric wheelchair on the mall. Mark calmed him, called the man’s relative and arranged for a taxi to take him home.

Security & Cleaning Team – Templars Square
The entire team won praise for a number of incidents they handled superbly on a busy day in March. These included tracking down a handbag thief and returning the bag to the upset elderly lady it had been stolen from and coming to the rescue after witnessing a man being assaulted in the car park.

Martin Wain – Templars Square
Martin calmly helped a distressed suicidal woman. He talked to her, listened and made her a cup of tea before calling the police to make sure she was taken to hospital to get the help she needed. A fantastic example of an officer making a difference by caring and being aware.

Security & Cleaning Team – Runcorn Shopping City
The entire team at Runcorn Shopping City worked tirelessly to deal with a major incident on site. They were professional, discreet and seamless in dealing with this incident and their hard work and efforts were recognized by our Partner and very much appreciated by all. Well done.

Jason Corker – The Riverwalk
Jason helped identify two known shoplifters which led to their arrest.

Steve Brookes & Richard Holmes – Templars Square
Steve consistently goes above and beyond what is expected of him. In addition to this he has now taken it upon himself to train our other night shift officer and between them they have done an astounding job not only looking after the centre but also the local community. In the last few months they have dealt with a number of incidents.

Dave Phillips, Denise Phillips and Paul Ogden – Market Place
Well done to our security guards for quickly responding to reports of a potential suicide. Our guards were brilliant and talked to the man while waiting for the emergency services to arrive. I’m glad to say the man is still alive, which is a big thank you to Paul and Nikki for their skills, whilst Dave and Denise controlled the situation.

Natalee Watmough – The Lowry
Natalee also showed professionalism and calmness in a difficult situation when a young man was threatening to jump from the car park.

Matthew Barrett, James Thompson and Gregorz Birowka – Stamford Quarter
The team responded with the utmost professionalism after a suicide in one of the service areas.

Chris Edwards – Maylords
Chris remained extremely calm, kept a professional manner and was helpful throughout an incident when a stall holder tenant went into cardiac arrest.

Rob Hawkins, Tom Chandler, Lisa Anderson, Alan Beattie, Lanre Bhadmus and Steve Mott (MSO) – Gloucester Quays
Well done to all involved who helped restrain a woman who had attempted to jump from a car park in the city centre.

Security Team – Templars Square
The fast action of the Security Team helped the police to arrest and charge a man who was seen in the centre with two large hunting knives.

CSR Of The Quarter

Our winners include:

Market Place
Thank you to the team for their work helping singer Jamie Lawson and his team make his new music video in the centre. Two of the Market Place team are actually in the video!

Lee Stones – Haymarket
Lee has been instrumental in helping the centre raise funds for their nominated charities. Thank you Lee.

Runcorn Shopping City
Thank you to every member of staff who helped to make the centre’s Christmas appeal to collect warm clothing for homeless people in the North West such a success. A great team effort.

Annual awards

We are looking forward to this year’s Reward and Recognition Award Ceremony and to celebrating the achievements of our colleagues across the UK.

Held once again at The Village Hotel in Warrington on February 7^th, this year’s event will include a welcome from our Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith, a company update from Brand and Development Director Laurie Barton Wright and a thank you from Company Chairmen Steve Fives and Simon Whittle.

We will hear about the latest security training in shopping centres and discover how a North West shopping centre is making strides to integrate with the local community.

There’s also a talk from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, who we have been supporting this year, and news on our Mental Health Awareness Project.

To book your place click here.

New magazine coming soon

Keep an eye out for the new issue of the Westgrove Magazine which will be coming out in the next few months. As before, it will be packed with lots of company and people news.

You can look back at all our previous issues here.

Reward and Recognition Awards – Quarter 4 Winners

Here are all our R&R Award winners for Quarter 4. Congratulations to you all.

Photo of last year’s Site of the Year award. from left Helen Jones, Paul Ogden, Joanne O’Neill, Malcolm Berry and Steve Kent

Site Manager of Quarter – Gillian Davidson, Market Place

It’s not easy for a new manager to come in to an established site and continue to make a difference, but Gill has. Not only were her team the first centre to roll out the mental health NVQ training, the centre has held a mental health awareness week. She has also improved the cleaning element of the service with weekly cleaning audits increasing from 65% to 85% and is supporting our partner to achieve ISO14001.

Team of the Quarter – Haymarket

The Dual Service Team at The Haymarket Shopping Centre had a fantastic 2018 with numerous achievements. These include: Health & Safety (won the ROSPA Gold Award), Security (a fall of 62% in anti-social behaviour incidents), Corporate Social Responsibility (a new recycling scheme means the centre is now zero to landfill) and Customer Service. Centre Manager Tony Spencer received the 2018 Savills Mystery Shop Award after the centre averaged a score of 96%, the highest in the whole shopping centre portfolio.

Colleague of the Quarter – John Price, Templars Square

Congratulations to John for his outstanding service to our customers and partners. His initiatives have included pro-actively checking over-door heaters in the shops to help prevent false alarms and unnecessary evacuations; making sure tenant owned loading bays and fire escapes are clean; and inspiring what has become a highly performing team of cleaners. Fantastic work.

CSR of the Quarter – Birchwood Park

Well done to the team for taking part in the site’s charity 5k fancy dress run. Special mention goes to Stewart and Paul who raised £140 for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and Zoe’s Place.

Outstanding Act of the Quarter

We have many winners this quarter which include:

James Buckley – Concourse

Three days after completing his counter terrorism training, James spotted a suspicious package outside the swimming baths during his routine checks. He instantly reported it to the control room, positioned his cleaning trolley to keep people away and closely monitored the situation. His swift and professional action in a very busy shopping centre was potentially life-saving.

Patrick Kelly, Anthony O’Connor and Ashley Stirrup – Spindles Town Square Shopping Centre

Patrick, Anthony and Ashley were outstanding when a gang of 15 targeted the shopping centre during a night shift in late October. The gang smashed their way into the centre and two mobile phone shops with sledgehammers. Anthony and Ashley quickly contacted the CCTV control room for the town centre and called the Police while Patrick shouted to the culprits over the tannoy system that they were being monitored. Centre Manager Mike Flanagan thanked them for their quick thinking and excellent work.

Brian Downing – Concourse Shopping Centre

Security Officer Brian trusted his gut instinct after seeing a man behaving suspiciously around the shopping centre. He contacted the Police who told him the man was wanted for previous incidents. When they arrested him, he was found in possession of a large kitchen knife. Outstanding work Brian.

Nathan Parkes – Cornbow

Nathan bravely talked down a suicidal male who was seconds away from jumping off the top level of the car park – and stayed with him until the Police arrived to take over..

Christopher Garry Davies-Elsdon – St Catherine’s Walk

When Garry heard that a young girl had lost her money on the mall, Garry reviewed the CCTV footage to see what had happened. He discovered two women had picked up the money and were still in the area. He had a friendly chat to them and the money was given back to the girl.

Gavin Jones, Matthew Lamb and John Wallbank – Ropewalk

Gavin, Matthew and John joined forces during an incident one November afternoon when an intoxicated man turned violent. They restrained him until the Police arrived, checked on the man who had been assaulted and swiftly dispersed the crowd who had gathered. The entire incident and arrest was captured on CCTV.

Clive Strange – Crown Glass

Clive was praised for his response to a call from a mobile phone shop manager who had noticed illicit images on a customer’s mobile phone. The Police were called and the man was arrested.

Patricia O’Mara – Old Square

Patricia’s quick thinking while on a security patrol prevented a shoplifter from making off with stolen goods from a department store.

David Evans – Doncaster Sheffield Airport

When a passenger on a flight took ill, Dave ensured the team were briefed on what to do until the paramedics arrived. The DSAL Airport Duty Manager commended Dave and his team for their support during a very difficult situation.

David Shaw and Stephen Hall – Hardshaw Centre

Many thanks to David and Stephen for helping a lady who had collapsed in one of the centre’s cafes and needed her inhaler. They used their First Aid training to make her more comfortable and called for medical help. The lady later sent a thank you card for their help.

David Floyd – Handforth Dean

David rushed to help after reports that a lady was attempting to commit suicide in a nearby car. He got her out of the car, put her in the recovery position and controlled the situation until the emergency services arrived.

Steven Travis and Raymond Squires – Arcades Shopping Centre

Steve and Ray bravely dealt with a gang of teenagers running amok in the shopping centre throwing bottles and armed with a knife. They calmed the situation down and removed the youths from the premises.

Alex Memory – Eccles

Alex was praised for his help after a break-in where a number of computer monitors were stolen. Keen-eyed Alex found a smashed computer monitor which the Police are interested in for fingerprints.

Richard Holmes and Majid Khan – Templars Square

Richard quickly called for help after spotting a distressed woman at the top level of the car park. Both himself and Majid calmly talked to her until help arrived.

Mike Taylor – Market Place Bolton

Mike and the security team were praised for their First Aid help and support after a man was seriously assaulted and injured outside the shopping centre. Fantastic work.

Service Excellence

Again we have a number of great nominations:

Stan Sinclair and Rob Hawkins – Gloucester Quays

The Store Manager of White Stuff wrote to thank Stan and Rob for responding quickly to their requests for help with a distressing situation involving a customer with complex mental health needs. They were praised for their empathy, calmness and reassurance. Well done both.

Security Team – Market Place

The team won praise for their help with a bubbly young lady with special needs who visits the shopping centre daily. She feels safe whilst in the centre and is touched that the security team go out of their way to make sure she safely gets her transport home. Great team work.

Paul Greenslade – Templars Square Shopping Centre

Paul was on a night shift when he spotted a man acting suspiciously around the centre and then breaking into one of the nearby flats. He immediately called the Police and kept monitoring the situation so he could lead them to where the man was hiding. A great example of an officer ensuring the safety of the centre and the local community.

James Blackburn – The Galleries

James was on duty when he heard water from inside a service lift. He reported it to the technical services manager who investigated and found a burst pipe in the plant room. If it had not been spotted so quickly, it would have caused thousands of pounds worth of damage. Great work James.

Iain Stevens and Dave Phillips – Market Place

Iain and Dave summoned all their mechanical skills to fix an elderly gentleman’s mobility scooter which had broken down at the mall. The man, who had been quite distressed because the scooter gave him his independence, was delighted with the results. He has been back since to tell them that the scooter has never worked as well!

The Galleries Security Team

Special thanks to the entire security team who have taken it in turns each day to patrol the centre in plain clothes. It has resulted in the detention of nine shoplifters and numerous deters. An outstanding act by the whole team on the floors and in the control room.

Alex Power – St Johns Shopping Centre

Praise goes to Alex who helped a family of four visiting Liverpool from Norway with their travel arrangements. By mistake, the family had booked the wrong train tickets to London and were set to lose the £250 cost. Alex stepped in to help, negotiated with the train company and changed the tickets at no extra cost. His support and compassion towards the family left a lasting impression on them and their visit to the centre, the people and the city of Liverpool.

Jeanette Richards – Maylords

Well done to Jeanette for her fabulous customer service skills and for her happy, caring nature. Several times a week – and for a number of years now – she assists a blind gentleman who visits the shopping centreto make sure he is OK. She always goes above and beyond.

Majid Khan – Templars Square

Majid was nominated after he helped a woman in a wheelchair who was having a serious panic attack. He stayed with her, calmed her down and helped to find the friend she had lost. Fantastic service excellence Majid.

Jane Hessel – Doncaster Sheffield Airport

Mrs Fiona Quirk contracted us after she received assistance from the team for her brain-damaged son. She said that she had not been on holiday for eight years due to concerns about getting her son through the airport processes. She praised our service and Jane for her fantastic manner with her son. They had such a positive experience that they are now confident in booking future family holidays – but only from Doncaster.

Daanyaal Maroof – Skydome

Daanyaal showed excellent customer service skills after stepping in to help support an Odeon manager who needed extra man-power to cope with a group of troublemakers in one of the screens.

Steve Mason – Riverside

Steve received excellent feedback from a confused customer who thought she had lost her car or that it had been stolen. Steve helped to search the car park and quickly found it for her.

Alistair Currie – Doncaster Sheffield Airport

Alistair helped a young lad flying home alone after a leg operation. When the boy was sick on himself, he was told he would not be able to fly. Alistair cleaned him up, helped him change his clothes and made sure he made the flight back home to his family in Ireland.

Martin Wain – Templars Square

Martin not only engages with his local community, he knows, supports and helps them too. Recently, he stepped in to make sure that an elderly local man got the medical help he needed after he became concerned about his failing health. The man later thanked Martin for his care and said he was getting the treatment he needed – all thanks to him.

Colleagues of Tomorrow

Do you know anyone who might be interested in working with us? Let us know and, if they are successful, we will reward you with £100.

‘Colleagues of Tomorrow’ is Westgrove’s ‘refer a friend’ scheme, which means that for every friend that you refer to us, and we recruit, we reward you with 100* to say thanks!

It’s just a great way of speaking to people interested in joining us and rewarding the colleagues who already work with us.

If you have someone in mind you think would be great for our business, please send an email to Recruitment@Westgrove.co.uk quoting ‘Colleagues of Tomorrow’.

*£100 is payable on completion of a 6-month probationary period.

Colleague Engagement Survey

Last year over 800 colleagues took part in our annual survey. This year we would like to hear from even more of you! We are splitting the survey into four parts and sending out a shorter questionnaire at the start of every quarter. The first part of the survey is all about Health & Wellbeing.

If you missed the link to the survey, you can click and complete it here instead.

We raised £1,500 for Alder Hey

Well done to everyone who took part in Westgrove’s ‘Walk for Alder Hey Day’, which has helped to raise £1,500 for the charity.

Across the country, partners and colleagues walked 1,500 miles in a day to raise the money for Alder Hey Children’s Charity.

The money will go towards a new App designed to help children when they first arrive at the hospital.

Alder Play app is powered by the very latest digital and cognitive advances. It uses gaming and augmented reality to distract patients having procedures in hospital. Within Alder Play, parents will also be able to interact with a chatbot called “Ask Oli” to ask questions about the hospital and what may happen to their child.

We are really proud of everyone who took part, especially the team from Spindles Town Square Shopping Centre in Oldham who raised the most money for a single site. Look out for more fundraising events in 2019. 

Westgrove Group beats competition to win prestigious local security contract

We are delighted to have been appointed to provide the security for Birchwood Park in Warrington, one of the North West’s leading business destinations.

The business park, which provides 1.1 million sq ft of office and warehouse space, is home to more than 165 companies and over 6,000 people from large blue chip organisations to SMEs and new start-ups.

The park is also one of the key sites in the Cheshire Science Corridor Enterprise Zone and is nationally recognised as the UK’s hub for the Nuclear Services industry. High profile firms include Rolls-Royce Nuclear, Sellafield, Wood Plc and Atkins.

Both Westgrove Group and Birchwood Park have celebrated their 20^thanniversary this year with a series of special events.

This is our third contract win with CBRE and we worked hard to show Birchwood Park that our security knowledge and expertise aligned with our colleague centric approach is second to none.

Finance Awards North West nomination for Westgrove

The Westgrove Group was shortlisted for the annual Finance Awards North West.

The awards, held by Robert Walters in partnership with the ICAEW Manchester, The Growth Company and RSM have previously been held in the Midlands and the South East, becoming the largest awards of their kind.

Due to this success, 2018 marks the first year for the North West awards, tapping into a fresh pool of talent working within a thriving finance market.

This is a very well respected award and we are proud that our Finance Team was one of five companies shortlisted for Small Finance Team of the Year.

First ‘Woman in Security’ Award Winner

Well done to Rebecca Howarth for being nominated for the Woman in Security awards.

Rebecca was one of 12 women to be shortlisted out of 200 nominations for this highly regarded industry award after saving a woman’s life.

The awards are specifically for women who operate on the frontline of the security industry and includes entries from door supervisors, security officers, CCTV operatives, engineers, profit protection officers, investigators and monitoring operatives in ARCs.

Rebecca was on a night shift in May at Crown Point Shopping Centre in Denton, Manchester, and was using the CCTV system to monitor the site. She spotted a distressed woman standing in the middle of the motorway bridge nearby, informed the local Police control room and immediately went to help. Over four hours, she talked to her, calmed her down and called for assistance. The woman has since been in touch with a thank you card and present for Rebecca.

Westgrove Group Managing Director Claire McKinley Smith said: “It is amazing that the Women in Security awards take time to highlight females working in the security industry. Rebecca has shown to many people what it takes to be a very good security officer regardless of gender and to stand out within the industry.”

Congratulations to our 20 Super Colleagues!

To celebrate our 20^thbirthday we searched for 20 colleagues who consistently go the extra mile day in day out.

They are the ones that are super reliable, super helpful and super cheerful.

We received many nominations from teams and managers and can now unveil the winners. As well as receiving a Super Colleague certificate, our winners will also be VIP guests at our Annuals Awards Celebration in 2019.

The winners are:

1. Andrew Cooper – Lion Yard
2. Bob Perry – Queens
3. Sunny Idiaghe – Media City
4. Paul Bratby – Peel Dome
5. David Brooks – Grosvenor
6. Dave Shaw – Hardshaw
7. Paul Bird – Runcorn
8. Eric Roye – Spindles
9. Scott Hazlehurst – Handforth Dean
10. Michael Beharry – Haymarket
11. Jaspal Singh – Old Square
12. Waqas Maroof – MSO
13. Kaasim Khan – Skydome
14. David Tanner – Broughton
15. Andrew Smith – Cornbow
16. Rufai Hydara – Lexicon
17. Gavin Jones – Ropewalk
18. Roger Smith – Maylords
19. Gemma Healey – Head Office
20. Emma Munroe – Head Office

Reward and Recognition Awards – Quarter 3 Winners

Every quarter we receive lots of nominations for our R&R Awards and Quarter 3 has been another busy one. The 15 sets of winners are:

Site Manager of Quarter – Gavin Jones, Ropewalk

Gavin has worked hard to engage and build relations with not only a new Centre Manager but also a new employer when we took over the contract two years ago. He has taken on new initiatives including Lotus Pro, Sphere and Aspire and helped Ropewalk to achieve 7* status. From team rotas, Connect payroll to training and engagement, Gavin is just great.

Team of the Quarter – Stamford Quarter

Stanford Quarter have had a fantastic quarter submitting a record number of nominations and completing many distant learning courses including Customer Service, Team Leading, Principles and Cleaning. The team also helped a mum find two lost children and rescued a lady stranded in the car park.

Colleague of the Quarter – Paul Taylor, St Johns Shopping Centre

Congratulations to Paul Taylor for using his Disability Confidence training to identify a vulnerable customer with multiple health conditions who was unable to speak any English and had no money to eat or live. He accompanied her to the in-centre Job Centre, raised her concerns and today she is now getting the benefits she is entitled to.

Service Excellence Awards

Phil Nicholson – TATA Technologies

Well done to Phil for building team morale after a series of recruiting issues. Phil turned things around with a great one-team approach, operating with the team as an equal yet leading from the front.

Madhav Sehgal – Haymarket Shopping Centre

Madhav is a valued member of our team who constantly delivers a high level of service. Special thanks go to him for his work producing an in-depth stock recovery report in his spare time which has now become an integral part of our monthly SLA meetings.

Paul Britton, Istvan Szobollodi, Sam Cardwell – The Galleries

Paul, Istvan and Sam worked together to round up a ‘lift surfer’ who was gaining access to the goods and passenger lifts to ride on top of them, each time racking up £200 of engineer costs. Sam used his body worn camera to film the culprit as he emerged from his latest lift surf and then they called the Police.

Gavin Jones, Matthew Lamb and John Wallbank – Ropewalk

Well done to Gavin, Matthew and John for working together on the Centre floor and using CCTV to catch a gang of shoplifters spotted walking out of a store with a number of stolen coats. They were tracked back to their vehicle and stills of all three offenders along with their vehicle details were given to the Police Crime Desk.

Outstanding Act Awards 

Nathan Parkes – Cornbow

Nathan calmly dealt with a man who was threatening to commit suicide by jumping off a car park. He quickly grabbed the man, pulled him back from the edge and sat with him until help arrived.

Luke Hart – The Arcades

Luke saved the life of a woman found covered in blood in the centre. The woman, who had been self-harming, tried to run away when she realised Luke had called for an ambulance. He bravely held on to her and tried to calm her down. She later returned to the centre to thank him.

Jason Fairhurst – Market Place

Jason prevented a woman first threatening to jump from the car park and then walking in the middle of oncoming traffic. Control contacted the town centre CCTV who called the Police, who took the woman to hospital.

Security Team – The Arcades

The Security Team swung into action after a man was spotted acting suspiciously and threatening to jump from first the car park and then the building. The man was restrained and the Police called. Well done to everyone involved.

Yahya Saho – The Lexicon

Yahya was nominated for his quick thinking after tackling a knife wielding man running through the centre. He bravely restrained the man until the Police arrived.

Janet Crinion and Andria Devonport – The Arcades

Janet and Andria found a bleeding woman lying in the road by a loading bay area who had been knocked over by a man on a mobility scooter. They moved the woman to safety, checked her injuries, reassured her and phoned her husband.

Steve Brooks – Templars Square

On one day, Steve talked down a woman threatening to jump off the roof, staying with her until help arrived, then put out a cigarette fire threatening to burn two homeless men who had made a bed out of paper and sheets they had found in a loading bay.

Erdal Sicakdemir and Philip Over – Grosvenor Shopping Centre

Erdal saved the life of a young man about to jump from the top level of the car park by pulling him back from the edge. He then stayed with him, talking to him until help arrived.

Colleagues of Tomorrow

Do you know anyone who might be interested in working with us? Let us know and, if they are successful, we will reward you with £100.

‘Colleagues of Tomorrow’ is Westgrove’s ‘refer a friend’ scheme, which means that for every friend that you refer to us, and we recruit, we reward you with 100* to say thanks!

It’s just a great way of speaking to people interested in joining us and rewarding the colleagues who already work with us.

If you have someone in mind you think would be great for our business, please send an email to Recruitment@Westgrove.co.uk quoting ‘Colleagues of Tomorrow’.

*£100 is payable on completion of a 6-month probationary period.