Fabulous Flowers is an Oxfordshire-based florist business specialising in high-end floral design for weddings, events, gifts and corporate clients, with a shop in Abingdon and a design studio in Kidlington.

Founded in 2004, the company has grown into a well-established local brand, serving customers across Oxford, Abingdon, Kidlington and surrounding areas with same-day flower delivery and bespoke arrangements.

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Led by co-founders and directors Gary Cooper and Matthew Taylor, Fabulous Flowers has built a reputation for creative, luxury floristry, underpinned by decades of experience in horticulture, hospitality and event styling.

Their team of specialist florists designs and installs flowers for everything from intimate celebrations to large-scale events, with a particular focus on Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds’ wedding venues and corporate settings.

Positioning itself as a “premier florist”, the business combines traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design, supplying bouquets, venue dressing and ongoing corporate flower contracts for clients across the region.

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The team has now won a gold Chelsea in Bloom award for their floral display outside Boodles on Sloane Street in London.

A statement published on the Fabulous Flowers Instagram page said: “We are delighted to announce the Boodles Chelsea in Bloom flowers on Sloane Street have been awarded GOLD by the Chelsea in Bloom judging committee!

“A big well done to Team Fabulous!”

This was posted alongside a photograph of the team standing outside the store, including co-founders Mr Cooper and Mr Taylor.

UK Connect has launched a field engineer as-a-service offering for managed service providers and channel partners, providing on-demand field engineering support across the UK.

The new unit, UK Connect Professional Services, uses a credit-based model that lets partners book engineers for specific jobs without employing their own staff. Partners can buy credits and deploy senior field engineers nationwide without contracts or minimum commitments.

Known for fixed wireless access and wireless connectivity services in Britain, UK Connect said the move is intended to solve a common operational problem for service providers that need engineers on site at short notice. Many MSPs and channel partners struggle to find reliable subcontracted engineers when demand peaks.

The company cited figures showing that three in four MSPs see field operations as their biggest challenge. It added that about one third of subcontracted field engineers fail to turn up, arrive late or attend with the wrong equipment, increasing administrative work and eroding profit on service jobs.

According to UK Connect, the average field job takes more than two hours to organise, while 15 to 20 per cent of margin can be lost to coordination overhead. Maintaining an in-house engineering team is often too expensive for smaller providers or businesses with fluctuating workloads, it argued.

How it works

MSPs and channel partners can book jobs by email. UK Connect then generates an engineering brief covering site details, access instructions, scope of work, contact information and any special requirements. Engineers with at least five years of experience can be dispatched to any postcode in the UK.

After the visit, partners receive a digital completion report with a job checklist and engineer sign-off. Documentation is provided for every job, giving partners a record of the work carried out and the findings from the site visit.

UK Connect said the service already supports MSPs, wireless internet service providers and IT consultancies across the UK. It completes more than 3,100 jobs a year and has a 97 per cent first-time fix rate on break-fix call-outs.

Cost pressure

In making the case for the model, UK Connect pointed to the wider employment costs tied to field engineering roles, including tax, pensions, vehicles, fuel, insurance, tools, personal protective equipment, training and scheduling.

“Most MSPs look at their field engineering costs and see one number: the engineer’s salary. But that number is only the beginning. By the time you add employer’s National Insurance, pension contributions, van lease, fuel, insurance, tools, PPE, training, and the management overhead of scheduling and dispatching – the true cost of a single in-house field engineer is typically 35-45% higher than their base salary. Our model removes virtually all of these costs from your balance sheet. You pay per-job, with credits that scale up and down with your workload. No vehicles, no employer’s NI, no holiday cover headaches. Just a vetted, senior engineer on-site when and where you need them,” said Sara Rose, Channel & Partner Manager, UK Connect Professional Services.

Customer example

One early example involved Signal Solutions, a mobile connectivity specialist that needed support at a customer site in Scotland where an existing CEL-FI deployment was not performing as expected. The issue required an engineer to inspect the installation, identify the cause of the problem and recommend remedial steps.

UK Connect said it sent an engineer to the site within a few days of the request. The engineer surveyed the installation, investigated the performance issues, identified the root cause and produced a technical report setting out the findings and recommended changes.

“When performance issues arose at a customer site in Scotland, we needed fast, dependable on-site support to protect both the installation and the client relationship. UK Connect deployed a competent engineer quickly, carried out a thorough assessment, and delivered clear, practical recommendations. Their professionalism and speed allowed us to resolve the issue efficiently while maintaining full confidence in the quality of service delivered under our brand,” said Mark Rose, Director, Signal Solutions.

The launch broadens UK Connect’s offer beyond connectivity services into operational support for partners that need engineering coverage in multiple regions. It also reflects a wider shift among technology service providers towards more flexible staffing models as they manage labour shortages, variable project demand and pressure on margins.

For MSPs and channel businesses, field service remains one of the hardest parts of delivery to standardise because quality depends on local availability, response times and contractor consistency. UK Connect’s new service targets that gap with a model built around short-notice deployment and job-by-job purchasing rather than permanent headcount.

The company said a senior engineer can be dispatched to any UK postcode, with a full engineering brief issued on confirmation and a detailed completion report delivered after the work is finished.

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils have awarded a new Waste Collection and Street Cleansing contract to Biffa Waste Services.

The new contract extends its 15-year success and starts next month (June). It could run for a maximum period of 16 years, costing almost £260m.

There is a minimum period of eight years and a break possible after four years to give maximum flexibility. 

While they will continue to focus on an all-in-one bin approach for recycling with the decision kept under review, they are also preparing for law changes with the national ‘Simpler Recycling’ scheme that comes into effect by March 2027, allowing residents to recycle soft plastics.

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Vale of White Horse District Council said this country-wide approach will reduce confusion.

It said: “With a single set of core materials collected kerbside, it will lead to clearer labelling for the public on packaging and greater volumes of the correct items being picked up and sorted for re-processing by the councils.”

But with no immediate changes, residents in Abingdon, Farringdon, Wantage, Dicot, Henley, Thame and Wallingford, can expect the same services until then.

Just short of half of Biffa’s fleet is either new and already in service or arriving as new vehicles within the next six months.

The remaining replacement process, pending councillor approvals, should be concluded by March 2028.