Little red men disappearance

PEOPLE were left scratching their heads after about 120 little red men disappeared from a Chineham roundabout.

Rather than an unscrupulous kidnapping, the disappearance of the metallic men – part of an art installation on the Crockford Lane roundabout since 1999 – was a lot less suspicious.

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Basingstoke Wins Best Office Award

Basingstoke’s newest office building, Central 40 at Chineham Park, has been announced as the winner of the Commercial Workplace Award in the British Council for Offices (BCO) South West and South Wales category.

Established in 1990, the British Council for Offices is Britain's leading forum for the discussion and debate of issues affecting the office sector and their awards scheme is recognised as the pre-eminent benchmark for measuring excellence in workplaces. The awards programme also acknowledges innovation and focuses external attention on examples of best practice.

MEPC Chineham Park’s Central 40 beat a record number of entries with the judges commenting that the winning building embraced sustainable practices 'as standard', alongside delivering an exceptionally high occupier experience.

Patrick Morrisey, BCO Judging Chair for the South West and South Wales, added: "Our winner embodies the emergence of two particularly important patterns in best practice building design and development. Firstly, it illustrates that sustainability is now firmly embedded at the core of the vast majority of building briefs. This is evidence of the fact that environmentally friendly properties are now well established in almost all property sectors and geographies in the UK, which is hugely encouraging. Secondly, the winner has demonstrated how the design and finished building can have a great and beneficial impact on the end user occupier experience.”

Rupert Batho, managing director for MEPC Chineham Park, said; “” This is an outstanding result for us as it confirms MEPC Chineham Park’s position as a leader in our field. The Corporate and Social Responsibility agenda is growing, and Central 40 is now recognised as a building that combines functional quality with society’s increasing important environmental requirements. The building is designed to be occupied by one or more companies. Therefore organisations employing between 40 and 400 staff have the opportunity to benefit from the associated cost saving and environmental features of this office’s design. It is a great honour that Central 40 is now officially recognised as the best office space in the region.”

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