Business & Technology
Oxford law firm welcomes new appointment Selina Norris
Howes Percival’s Oxford office has welcomed Selina Norris as legal director in the first phase of growth for the firm’s real estate services in the city.
Ms Norris joins the team with expertise in estate and asset management, acquisitions, disposals, development, investment, and corporate transactions.
Rob Lynch, partner at Howes Percival, said: “It is fantastic to be able to bring Selina to Howes Percival.
“Selina is highly regarded and brings a great deal of experience and gravitas with her.
“The appointment will enhance the firm’s offering to the drinks, hospitality, and leisure sectors, while her work with financial institutions, logistic companies and in the retail sector is also impressive and will help us grow our offering to clients who either operate in this area or are actively considering investment opportunities.”
Mr Lynch joined the firm in January to head up the Oxford real estate team.
He added: “The next few years will see both challenges and opportunities in the economy and perhaps most pertinently in the drinks, hospitality, and leisure sectors, so Selina’s knowledge and experience will prove invaluable in assisting our clients.”
Howes Percival’s commercial property team is one of the largest outside London and represents major UK housebuilders, developers, investors, lenders, charities, landowners, and public sector bodies.
Business & Technology
Oxfordshire children offered free summer breakfasts
As part of the Little Loungers Breakfast Clubs scheme, venues including Pinto Lounge (Banbury), Torino Lounge (Bicester), Berro Lounge (Didcot), and Como Lounge (Witney) are offering complimentary bowls of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Bran Flakes, or Rice Krispies, with a choice of dairy or non-dairy milk until schools reopen in September.
The programme is in partnership with Kellogg’s and is distributed by Bidfood.
Sarah Lake, chief marketing officer at Loungers, said: “School holidays can really stretch family budgets, so we wanted to do something genuinely helpful for our community.
“Partnering with Kellogg’s means we can offer a balanced breakfast in a warm, friendly space where families can relax, chat and enjoy time together.
“It’s a small way of making those long summer weeks feel a bit easier for parents, grandparents and carers.”
The initiative aims to support families who rely on school breakfast clubs and may face additional food costs during the holidays.
A recent survey by Kellogg’s found that 19 per cent of UK parents would see an increase in household food costs without access to school breakfast clubs, with 17 per cent worried their child might go without breakfast.
The free breakfasts are available without vouchers, and each child is eligible for one breakfast per day.
More than 200 Lounges across the UK are taking part.
Details of participating locations are available at https://thelounges.co.uk/whats-on/kids-breakfast-club/.
Business & Technology
Mouse droppings found in Oxford city Chinese restaurant
Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle in New Inn Hall Street was inspected by Oxford City Council on May 26.
Inspectors subsequently handed the Chinese restaurant a rating of two out of five, meaning “improvement necessary”.
According to the report, received by the Oxford Mail after a Freedom of Information request submission, officers identified a series of concerns, including evidence of mouse activity.
The report states that mouse droppings were found throughout the business in two food storage rooms and the bar area.
In one of the storage areas, mouse activity was present where noodles were kept in plastic carrier bags and potatoes and onion were left in the open.
“Historic” mouse droppings at Ten Seconds Yunnan Rice Noodle (Image: Oxford City Council)
Inspectors said pest-proofing measures were “not great” and identified a hole beneath a sink in the bar area which could potentially allow pests to enter the premises.
In the report, the inspector said: “At the time of the inspection, I observed a number of historic mouse dropping in both the food storage areas.
“The most recent pest control report mentions no mouse activity in any of the food storage areas.
“All areas where food is prepared and stored must be kept clean and capable of being kept clean. This is so that pests are not attracted into your premises and the risk of food being contaminated by dirt is minimised.”
They advised the owner to remove all historic mouse droppings within the food business and continue to identify any issues of pest proofing within a month.
A hole where pests could have entered underneath the sink (Image: Oxford City Council)
The business was instructed to remove the droppings and improve pest-proofing measures where previous temporary work had failed.
Food storage issues were also highlighted during the inspection.
In an “overfilled” fridge, officers found raw chicken stored above ready-to-eat foods, including uncovered beans and spring onions, which could cause cross-contamination leading to food poisoning.
That same fridge, which stored items such as cooked rice, chicken ballotine and prawns, was above the required eight degrees, raising concern about food poisoning.
A large number of food containers were also unlabelled, despite the food looking fresh.
The officer insisted a “robust system for ensuring adequate stock rotation” was implemented and recommended all food be kept in sealed, pest-proof containers.
An overfilled fridge which was measured above safe temperature (Image: Oxford City Council)
No food-safe sanitiser or disinfectant were available on site, only a kitchen cleaner which they said did not provide adequate disinfection.
Despite the concerns, the report noted there had been a “huge improvement” in cleaning standards since the restaurant’s previous inspection.
The business also had a food safety management system in place and a pest control contract with Pure Pest Solutions.
The council has required a range of improvements, with compliance timescales ranging from one week to one month with a revisit inspection planned.
Business & Technology
Oxford startup secures Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award
Oxford-based Peripear has secured an Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award and a £74,974 grant for its development of a wearable device designed to prevent perineal trauma during labour.
The funding will support continued product development ahead of the company’s planned first-in-human study.
Nina van Schaick, co-founder and COO of Peripear as well as a midwife who trained at Oxford Brookes, said: “I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to see this gap.
“I was incredibly lucky to meet my co-founder, Eviatar Natan, right as my frustration about the lack of translation of evidence into practice had peaked.
“There was a proven mechanism that could reduce injuries occurring in up to 90 per cent of vaginal births, and it was being left out of clinical pathways simply because no standardised tool existed to deliver it.”
Peripear is developing what it describes as the world’s first automated perineal thermotherapy wearable, designed to prevent perineal trauma during childbirth.
A perineal thermotherapy wearable is an emerging medical device.
It is a hands‑free warm compress device used on the perineum during the second stage of labour to reduce severe tearing and episiotomies while improving maternal comfort.
Ms van Schaick added: “I’m a farmer’s granddaughter, and when I started practising over 14 years ago, I asked: where is the tool I need to implement this evidence? I looked around and realised we were still asking clinicians to improvise.
“Peripear is what happens when the person who has lived the problem, both personally and professionally, meets the person who can help her build the solution.”
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