The Business Village People Podcast S2 E2, "The Old Chuffer, Inspired An International Style Guru".

 This is a Pod One production. For more information, visit podone. co. uk. This is the Business Village People podcast. Hello, I'm David Markwell, and welcome to the Business Village People podcast. This is episode two of series two. Here, we showcase unique stories from the vibrant companies and service providers of the village. Based at the business village in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Well, if you're ready. In this episode of Business Village People, we meet a clothes designer who would not be doing what she does now if it wasn't for an old chuffer puffing about at a railway station. 

Plus, we chat to the Business Village's new chief executive, Martin Beasley. He was all set to join the RAF and possibly fly helicopters. But that dream ended when they found out he was from Rotherham.  Hello? David?  What?  It was just a joke, Kevin.  Yeah, I know. Okay. Okay.  Bye.  I've been advised to point out that the last bit is untrue.

He wasn't allowed to play with the choppers due to a sports related injury. I just thought my reason was funnier. 

Time to meet one of the newest clients to join the many companies at the business village in Barnsley.  In saying that, she's run her own designer clothing business in Barnsley since the late 1960s. Since then, Rita Britton has become renowned around the world as a straight talking business guru. A few years ago, she retired, but now she's back.

I asked her why. I think it lasted, well, probably a month, but I was seriously thinking after about four days this is, this is a big mistake. I think me and my other half.  Or I probably would have killed him for not moving his breakfast pots off the table and putting them in the sink. So yeah, I thought, get back to it.

Worked since I was 15. You know, you can't turn it off like a tap. And the other thing that you can't turn off, talking of taps, is creativity.  You can't, you know, you've only got to look, I was  listening the other day to the playwright. It looks like David, David Hockney. What's his name now? Alan Bennett.

That's it. And he was in Westminster Abbey. And, you know, he must be eight, what, eight, five, eight, six years old.  And he, it's the same there, isn't it? Can't just turn it off. It's still there, it's still interested in who those people were in those graves and what their lifestyle was like. And it brings it to life for you.

You know, you just think this is wonderful. And David Hockney,  you know, I think in Yorkshire we're an incredibly creative people. I really do think, maybe it's to do with adversity, I don't know. But, um,  When I used to work at the paper mill, which I did from being, what, 15, 16. And the girls there were incredibly creative.

We used to go to jazz festivals at City Hall in Sheffield and, you know, it was just wonderful. So yeah, it were, it were great. I think creativity is knocked out of people  as they get older. by organizations and businesses and things like that and they're frightened to  actually have a go at  making something or creating something or drawing or coming up with a creative idea. 

Yeah, I mean, I, I, I have come across that. But then on the other hand, um, I was working with a young student from Barnsley, but she's now working in London at Westminster College doing fashion. She came to see me in the shop and she wrote,  a mother with her and she brought her work with her  and then she, I looked at her work and I thought, you know, this is good.

This is really good.  And she wanted to work with one of the London designers, a designer called Simon Rocher. And one of my guys who used to work with me as an assistant buyer.  Oh gosh, I could go on and on and on and on, couldn't I? He was from Glasgow, right? And he was a real Glaswegian, red hair, fiery temper, the old lot.

He is now one of the most successful men in New York, James Gilchrist. He works for He's virtually second in command to, there's a source called Dover Street Market, I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but they are the most avant garde stores on the planet. And he works for them. So I sent her his work and he said, yeah, what, what, what she want to do?

I said, she wants to go and do a placement with Simone Russia. Two days later, she got the placement. And I did it with a jewellery design and then I thought the jewellery was gobsmacking. I mean, no one could have sold it here. It was like, uh,  It's at  about 10, 15 grand.  And I sent it to James and said, what do you think of this?

It's now in the New York store. So I'm still, what I find is that the people that I trained, and what he said to the jeweler who went to the store to place their jewelry in, he said, if Ree says, listen, or look at it, that's exactly what I do.  And I thought that was great because he's so loyal that if I say, look at this.

So I do work with young people and people that I've worked with in the past, buyers. Um, I mean, lovely stories I have to tell. The first buying job he had with me was we went to Prada in Milan. And James had got red hair and very pale skin. And this was his first buying job. And we walk in there, because you can't help, if you come from Barnsley, you're Barnsley.

Don't care where you are, won't show you.  So I'm walking down to go to our table to buy. And the shelves there,  and, On the shelf is a, is a, uh, uh, uh, a beret. And it's sequined. It's a sequined beret.  And I turned round to James and I said, You know that beret, if we took that beret, we'd have to sell that for 800 quid.

And he sat across the table and he's looking at me. And he went even whiter.  And then he put his hand across his mouth because I knew he was going to be sick. And he made a dash for the toilet. And as he's dashing down the room, I went, James, not in the beret, for God's sake, not in the beret. And he, when he's setting on new  members of staff now in New York, he tells them that story.

He's incredibly loyal to me.  So I still have, you know,  Get a hell of a lot of respect from the younger kids. I mean, tomorrow morning I'm going, um, I'm going to Barnsley College to talk to the  girl who's running the fashion department. So, I think I've still got things there, experience there that I can still  pass on. 

And I think that's, that's great. And, and I suppose, you know, same with, I think that's great. I'm not saying I'm in  the same range of Alan Bennett or something, but he's on TV and you sit and you listen to him because you know he's going to be interesting. You know it. So yeah, I've still got a spark there.

I love the job I do. I love it.  So tell me about your pots and pans at home and why it's turned you  to  get a unit down here at the business village. Well, to be honest with you, I've looked at how I've worked and where I've worked. I mean, I started off  selling clothes in my gran's business.  Back bedroom at home.

I went to London, bought Mary Quant. Um, I'm one of the funniest, because I could tell you so many funny stories. I know, that's why I wanted to say that. I remember, I remember going to Mary Quant, and of course, oh Mary Quant, you know. And my dad, God love him, drove me there because, um, because I'd fallen down and broke my ankle. 

And, and bless him, he'd done night shift at Redfins. It then got in the car.  At half past six in the morning, he drove me to London, he parked the car up and I had a nap in the car. I went to Mary Quant's  and they got models walking up and down, they'd all got Vidal Sassoon haircuts. And they served as Tea and cucumber sandwiches with the crust cut off.

And all I can remember thinking is, Bloody hell, they must be hard up for money. If all,  If all they're going to serve is cucumber sandwiches.  What will me gran think of this?  And then me dad brought me home. And then he went on to do his night shift again. So why have you moved to the village? Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm digressing, yes.

So, I suddenly thought, right, back bedroom, then we had Pollyanna in Market Hill, which was,  I didn't realise it, you're in the middle of it, and it was gobsmacking. I mean, I talk about Dover Street Market. We were the forerunner of Dover Street Market. But  for me, it was, it was a business, it was a job, and I wouldn't, I was never snobby about it.

It was, it's coming from Barnsley, isn't it? How can you be snobby coming from Barnsley? Anyway, so then I had stroke. Heart attack,  um, bloody hell, pneumonia. I mean, God threw everything at me. And I thought, I've got to do it a different way. And I, and I took a much smaller shop down George Yard, and I enjoyed that as well.

We had a cafe on the ground floor, um, with a guy called Martin who did the cooking, who was superb.  But then I suddenly realized that the heart has gone out of my chest.  Going and parking your car and going into shops. It's gone out of it. And whether I like it or not,  I have got to get an internet up and running.

I've got to be able to add on all that we know. We've got the client base.  We've got to sell. on the internet and come kicking and screaming into this century. And that's what I'm about to do now, but I still want face to face. And what I love about this place is that I'm surrounded with creative people.

You've seen it today. And the client just walked through the door and taking it.  I wouldn't want to be totally cut off, but I'm mean the middle of it, you know, I can see what IL's doing. What, and, and it's wonderful working with creative people. I mean, I've watched Azel over the last, she, I keep saying to her, she, you should be in a bloody Co. 

Don't swear. Don't swear. This is not broadcasting, not the bbc.  You can say Knackers if you want to. Well, yeah, but, well, one. It's more on the BBC, a certain radio, and I've gone and apologized,  but yeah, I mean, I said to Isley, you should be out there teaching kids in colleges because she's so bloody clever.

Um, and then, you know, we're getting, I'm interviewing  somebody on Tuesday that's coming in for a job who's come back from London and she's worked for some of the top designers in London and  Can't afford childcare down there.  And so, you know, we've got a big chance in Barnsley now. I mean, the young lassie who came to us and went, uh, uh, and, uh, and went to work for Simone Roscher.

She wants to start her own business and come back to Barnsley to do it. And I think, you know, it's all out there.  I'm a teenager and I need to be quick. Where there's young people that you can help to set their business up and you can give them the advice that they need. Which would be don't do it the way that I've done it. 

Well, you've learned from experience, haven't you? Yeah, and if you pass that experience on, that's great, yeah. So what have we actually got in, in your new workshop? What do you do here? Well, I mean, we, in the main, we will,  because I spoke to, what they call the young photographer, Alex, he's such a lovely lad, and I said, I can't get an old collection together, because I can't do it, because we'll sell it, as we're doing it, um, and so I'm working with him to do virtually one garment at a time, but I mean, all those, under that table there, that's all All the fabrics that we use, and a hell of a lot of them, when we're into the wools, most of them are from Yorkshire.

We do incredible Woolsey. We never sing the praises of it. We really do some fantastic Woolsey and Cashmere.  And we've got, you know, we have got tweeds that we're using now that are from the same people that I know Chanel use. You can tell if I showed you the tweet, you'd know it.  So, even the people in Paris are buying their wools in Yorkshire or in Scotland.

But we don't sing the praises of it. Well, how can we change that?  We've got to change a culture, haven't we? Well, I think it's also a model, isn't it? Because you've changed your business model. From, from having premises. Yeah, I mean, I have, and, and if I'm absolutely honest, I thought, well, I'll come in here, you know, I'll see how it works, see how I feel about it.

I mean, at the moment, we've been in, what, short time, what, two or three months, Hazel? But, but, you know, I'm, I come in and I'm  completely at ease and happy with it.  And I think,  I'm,  it's nearly like my grand's back bedroom.  Going back to my grand's back bedroom, yeah. Well that's what, what, what I'm going to say, the word work should be, it should be enjoyable because you spend so much time doing it.

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, you've got to earn the cash and that. Which one day I might do but you've got to you've got  to enjoy it. You've got to live but then  You know, I think if you if you're happy with what you're doing it It possibly shows in what the finished item is  And I can go under there. We've just got the new swatches from Japan for linens and I can go in and it's still a look at him and it blows me away.

I think, God, that's absolutely amazing. Feel that. That's fantastic. Then I can go into the walls and.  And I think, you know, these are what we produce,  ten miles down the road, and, and then I can go in, I know it's in Lancashire, but we deal with somebody called Adamley Silks, and they are people who print on our silks, and they are, I know it's Lancashire, but.

We'll put up with it for a sort of, you know, just a bit, actually. And, you know, I go, Azel went with me the other day, what were it like, Azel? It was fantastic, weren't it? I mean, she, you were in your element, weren't you? She wanted to die and be left there. She wanted to die and be left there, it was just so  Oh, it was Azel.

Azel's chief machinist. We've got another two or three starting, but  What he doesn't know is not well,  yeah. And you realise they're not training them up anymore, that's the problem. That's the big problem, not training them up anymore. Maybe there's an opportunity then for an academy. You know what? What I've always said, David, is that if, if kids go to college to learn how to do fashion, and it's a three or four year course, the first two years should be dedicated to doing pattern cutting and making the garments.

Right? Because they don't have to teach them creativity because they wouldn't be there if they weren't creative.  But they need to have the tools and know how to use the tools in order to make the garment. So yeah, let's, let's, you know, let's get them knowing how to use a machine, knowing how to cut a pattern.

And that, to me, should be a two year course.  And then they make, they make their own, I mean I was just looking the other day, there was a designer called John Galliano, who, um, can't be far behind me in age, well he might be 15 years behind, but I was looking at his first outfit that he made, coming out of Central Saint Martins, and it is mind boggling,  mind boggling, you could put it on today, and, um, One of the things I truly believe in is, because Hazel was on today about Vinted, where they sell beer. 

And I said, well, they couldn't sell mine because I wear them to death. I mean, I've got a coat hanging over there now that's got to be, that I wear, that's got to be 30 years old. So I buy it because I love it, and I love it even more as time goes on. So we've got to get rid of this old thing about  fashion. 

Because if you change that to style,  fashion being disposable,  because it's bringing the planet down. You don't like the word fashion, do you? I hate the word fashion, no, because it's so fashionable. 

And the business village has got a policy that allows dogs. Where's Reggie and Ronnie? Um,  uh, well they would live up to their name of the craze.  They are Scotties and they are nasty little bees.  So I don't, so we scrapped that idea straight off. You know, you can't bring Reggie and Ronnie into work because they're just nasty, nasty, nasty little  Glaswegians. 

When I was doing my research on you, I read an article and there's a lovely piece that resonated with me about,  I'm assuming it's your granny that was the knocker upper.  She also, did she clean the railway stations? She did both railway stations, because we had two railway stations, with the one now that everybody goes to, which was the smaller of the two railway stations, and then where we've got the big car park, that was, um, the big, really big, and I can remember me and my cousin John, when we were off school, when we'd finished, we used to go to the railway station, because she'd start at six o'clock in the morning, and it was summer, so it was light.

And, uh, and we'd go with my gran. And we didn't clean, we just boogered about with the, with the typewriters. You know, they used to have typewriters with really long things like that, and the typists used to complain that when they came in, they were all crossed over. And then they got those telephones that looked like daffodils, that you wind up and put to your ear.

Candlesticks. Like this. Yes. Yeah. So, so, and John and I then used to go into the shunting shed  and there would be at least one engine in there and it'd still be cooling down and we'd stand and look at it. It was like looking at a giant and then all of a sudden it'd go, shh, like that and we'd both  jump back, oh, magic, magic, magic, magic day.

Because when I was reading about that, that particular thing. It basically inspired you  about design and how things work. Yeah. And that, I love watching old steam programs because I'm a middle aged fat white bloke.  Um, and I love watching Locos. when they're set off going, just the design and the planning that goes into it.

Yeah, yeah, well the engineering. I always, I've got a great soft spot for engineers, to be honest.  I really have. I don't think that we I always remember  being on one of  Tony Blair's committees. Forgive me.  Um,  I was on one of  Blair's committees.  And, uh, and I can remember at the time we were looking at education  and, and what we were saying was that, that we have, we, at that point we had 3, 000 engineers came out of university every year. 

But, I'm not being awful about this, but we almost looked down on it. It wasn't like being a doctor or, or,  or being some high flyer. We never appreciated them.  And so there were 3, 000 engineers came out of university every year. And a lot of them, because of the low pay, would drift off into something else.

At that point in time, BMW took on 3, 000 engineers a year.  And you'd think, you know, the, the, the Germans in a way looked at engineers and technology in a totally different light from how we view it.  So I'd always a great deal of respect for engineers. We can't, you know, whatever you look at, machines, With somebody in the other day servicing our machines.

Wherever you look at, it's technical, innit? The car that you get into, whatever. Well, Rita, it's been lovely to, uh, chat with you.  It's been hard to get a word out of you, if I'm being honest.  But, uh, this On that tip. Ha ha ha! We've hardly scratched the surface, so I'd love to come and do some more recording with you, if that's okay in the future.

Yeah, whenever.  Thank you for your time. Good luck with the business. Thank you, love. Good luck with yours. 

Good morning, the Business Village. Holly speaking. How can I help?  Upgrade your workspace and boost productivity at the Business Village. Our modern offices are designed to meet your needs. From solo entrepreneurs to growing startups. You'll have access to high speed internet, conference rooms, a bistro, and a thriving business community with networking events. 

and collaboration opportunities. Contact us today to schedule a tour. Call 01226 249 590. That's 01226 249 590. And start your success story at The Business Village. 

This is the business village people  podcast. I'm David Markwell, a new chief executive was appointed here at the village. His name is Martin Beasley. Previously, Martin led the enterprising Barnsley team, a local government organization that provides local businesses with with support for new and established companies.

So why did you want to move across town and join the team at the business village? I've worked with the guys at the business village for for quite some time and I know what's such a sort of great job to do here supporting businesses and with Adrian who's left the business village in in such a great state in terms of when he started and where we are now I just thought it was a great opportunity to sort of  Continue the great work he's done and come with the team and just to see if I can sort of look at what I can do to sort of add value to the, to the community here and the businesses and tenants.

Where are you from? How did you get to where you are today? And why public service? I, I, I didn't choose public service by choice. So I, I'm originally from Rotherham, brought up in Rotherham. From school, I wanted to join the RAF. And that's what I always wanted to do. Weren't sure what I wanted to do in the RAF, just thought, well, something sounded really good, could travel, etc.

So, when, I did quite well in, at school, so when I went to the careers office in Sheffield, they went, oh well, because you've done so well, why don't you come in as an officer? But you have to go to university, uh, to go in at that level. And it'll save, um, having to work, go work your way through the ranks, so. 

Went to college, went to university, came back out, said, yeah, I've done my degree. Like, right. So they sent me off to Cranwell for officer recruitment, applied to go into the intelligence branch, but quickly realized that that wasn't for me. When you go for officer admission in the RAF, well, some years ago, you actually don't know if there's actually a job available.

So what they do is you go through a series of tests. If you're successful, you sort of last to the next day. So you get there on a Monday. do a load of tests. If you're successful, you call your name out, your state will choose you, so on and so forth, till there's about 10 year left on a Friday. I got a letter back, went to, back to the careers office and said, oh, we've got two, two jobs for you.

So you can't be a, an intelligence branch because there's no vacancies, but I weren't suitable for it anyway. So they offered me to be a PT instructor.  Because I did a sports science degree and thought I was fit, uh, I know quite fit then, not now. Oh, an helicopter pilot. Well at the time I couldn't even drive a car.

So I think, I ain't driving a 50 million pound helicopter. So, uh, I, they offered me, so I, I agreed to do, be a PT officer. And they, uh, so you have to go to Guy's in London for an extra set of medicals. And then they soon found out I'd dislocated my shoulder quite a lot of times doing sport. And they basically, like, red rubber stamped me, reject me.

So, and then from there, I've always worked from being eight, cleaning cars, to working in pubs, doing shutdown at the steelworks, working at, like, conveyor belts for Northern Foods while I was at college,  anything to earn a bit of brass while I was studying, and I just thought, well, I've got to get a job doing something, so I just went straight down to a recruitment agency, got a degree. 

Et cetera, et cetera, this is what I can do. And they went, well, you've got two options. There's a job available as a data analyst at T Mobile in the Durham Valley. Or there's this organization called Objective One, which is a, which is a, like a government quango, which is dealing with European funding. And I thought, that sounds interesting.

And that was it. So that was sort of my first step into economic development. And what, was it interesting? Yeah, because I had to go in, well I didn't have to, but I went in as a, started at the bottom as an administrator in the business and enterprise team. So we were involved in lots of projects to support all sorts of organizations, businesses, everything from supporting the creative industries, supporting graduate startups, universities, spin outs, a lot of the work which has Being done on the AMP, the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership at Portway, I supported a lot of businesses on there like Castings Technology, TWI, Talasys, lots of companies doing R& D, so it is a, it gave me a really good introduction to economic development and business support and I was able to work on lots of different varied projects and that sort of gave me a flavor for the, for the industry really.

So, Did you miss the chance of becoming a pilot or working for the RAF? Have you ever thought, well You know, things happen in a certain way, so just accept it and get on with it. Yeah, I think, yeah, I mean, looking back, yeah, I think I should have, I should have prompted to go for the, the helicopter pilot role, but ultimately I'd have been failed on my medical anyways.

Consequently ended up having about three operations on it, so, like, from a, uh, a ministry of defense perspective. They're never going to invest six figure sums in training when the physical condition.  So when you're on my so when you've got pin in your shoulders pinned. Yeah. So so no, I don't regard. I mean, I've I've worked in some great.

I'm luckily I've worked every place I've worked. It's been great. It's been, uh, really interesting work and I've worked with lots of really good people who are, hopefully, a lot of them think of me as a friend and that's been the biggest bonus. So you come to the business village from Enterprise, Barnsley?

Yeah.  What did you do there? So Enterprising Barnsley used to be called Barnsley Development Agency. So when I came to Barnsley Council from an organisation called Renaissance South Yorkshire, I was asked to lead a business support programme, which had a number of different partners delivering lots of different business support activities.

So at the time it was Bebic as an organisation who was doing Delivering incubation support for businesses who were, who were new businesses and they wanting to grow and they needed space to be. So obviously BB was obvious for that. There was the Barnes Rob Chamber who had a number of consultants who offered, uh, business advice, but also at the time we had University of others field who used be based in town, who were doing graduate entrepreneurship program.

So I was asked to like program manager, all of that. And the project was really successful. We got another big wedge of money from the eu. to continue that activity and Enterprising Barnsley as a program received that much positive PR that everyone started referring to BDA as Enterprising Barnsley to the point BDA was scrapped as a name and it became Enterprising Barnsley.

My former boss at the time, he left, so I was successful in applying his role as group leader. So group leaders are sort of the  manage big teams at the, at the local authority. So yeah, I managed the enterprising Barnsley team, really successful. We, the, the team covers everything from the launchpad program to running the digital media centers, to providing key account management, sports business, dealing with inward investment, property inquiries, the team sort of grew from about eight to nine people to about, there's about 30 staff there now.

And also the reputation of teams. so positive that we get to deliver a lot of activity for other local authorities as well. So, um, not only do we deliver programs in, or the team used to deliver programs in Barnsley, but also across South Yorkshire as well. What are you most proud of, of your time at the enterprise in Barnsley?

I think for me, I mean, the, the, the sort of,  sort of pinnacle of how our work was during COVID the team responded really well to what was we appreciate and empathize what was really difficult circumstances for private sector businesses but whilst some I appreciate some businesses and some services went into furlough mode we went completely the other way.

Um, we were flat out for seven, eight months, working 12, 14 hour shifts every day, trying to support businesses, trying to administer the funding, which, it was interesting, Boris used to come on the TV every night, and then that's when we'd actually find out what we were going to be doing the following day, because, um, some people might not know that government don't exactly talk to local authorities a lot of the time about what they're going to do, so, you know.

for the staff to react so quickly and be so agile, but also  support the amount of businesses we did during that intense period. I think that's probably the proudest moment, watching everyone sort of get stuck in and try and work as a collective. And what can the business village expect from your tenureship?

I think for me, it sounds a bit cheesy, but it's about, um, I think evolution, not revolution. I think Adrian's done a fantastic job. I think when Adrian came in, I think the,  The business village was about 60 percent occupancy, and I think we're up to about 92 percent at the moment. There are some projects in the pipeline, so we want to continue to redevelop the spaces.

So tenants feel like they're getting value for money in terms of the rent they're paying, but also look at how we can continue to support businesses here to sort of become more successful and making sure that they've got the right support they need.  I suppose it's survive and thrive. I think my background is a lot around external funding.

So I think that's something obviously I want to look at in terms of can I look at accessing money over and above the profit that business centres make to support organisations  here. Business villages are not for profit. So all the money we do make comes straight back into the census to try and make them better for everybody.

So, so, yeah, so I think I've, I've got some things I'm identifying. I'm still in that, that scoping mode at the moment. Receiving, not transmitting. I think there's like the hard and the soft. So the hard stuff, I can look at spreadsheets and look at figures and look at numbers, but it's the soft elements. And I appreciate there's a lot of people here and especially  within the team who've worked here for quite a long time.

So I'm not egotistical enough to come in and give it the, to tell them how they're not doing everything right. So I will be obviously in listening mode and seeing what I can do to add value and help them do their jobs better. I expected. The first day he turned up they changed all the parking spaces  and redecorated it and  set fire to this.

Yeah, that's the first thing.  My old parking space with my name and my own office, but yeah. I live at,  we live at Donnerth and I come on Junction 37 and I see this big sign that says Barnsley.  A place for possibilities. Yeah, yeah. What does that mean? I think it's where anybody in the Barnsley can, can thrive.

And they get that, given that opportunity, whatever they want to do in life, they get that opportunity to do it. So, I think it's part of the, the council's overall inclusive economy perspective where,  where anyone has that opportunity to be successful in whatever they choose to do. I think that's what it's all about, that strap line's all about.

Do you think the council and other organisations do enough to get younger people interested in entrepreneurship and working for themselves? I know my former colleagues in employment schools do quite a lot to try and do that. I mean, the challenge has always been, is a lot of young people, it's all about the art, sort of the art of the possible.

And if their window is to see someone driving a van or someone working in the shop or  Being a but whatever it may be and if that's the the trades they see in the jobs They see and they don't realize actually there's a which aren't I'm not saying those about John I'm just saying in terms of a restrictive view on what jobs are and they don't see the whole panacea or what what they can Do obviously then they'll have a restrictive view of what of what they can do when they get older in terms of work wise So I know the council do try and engage with local businesses and regional businesses to try and provide those opportunities for young people.

My biggest bugbear around this, around social mobility, is transport. I think that's a massive issue. If you're young Jenny and Johnny who live at Royston and you want to get a job on the advanced manufacturing park on the edge of Rotherham, how do you get there? It's like a three hour journey on a bus, it's just not feasible, so for me, I do think that's something which, and the council can't, can't do it on their own, they need national and regional support with this, it's, what can we do to make sure we can improve social mobility for young people so they get a better understanding and, you know, Better opportunities.

Martin, thanks for your time. Yeah, not a problem. Good luck with your new job. Thank you, I'll need it. 

For all the latest news from The Business Village, subscribe to our free newsletter at business village. co. uk  Thank  you for listening and special thanks to my guests. Rita Britton and Martin Beasley, if you've enjoyed your time with us, please share the podcast with your friends. Your support helps us grow and reach more listeners like you.

I'm David Markwell and this has been a Pod One Creative Audio production. 

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