Hello to one and all and a belated Happy New Year to everyone.

Hope you all had a great Festive break – which does seem such a long time ago now doesn't it? My apologies for the late resumption of this newsletter, I had intention to get started last weekend but somehow it has took such a long time to get back into the swing of things after a break. Both me and Alison got to the end of a manically busy 2014 and just “collapsed”! So here we go off to a brand “new” New Year with great promises, ambitions, intentions and resolutions [most broken by now?] for 2015…

I am pleased to announce that one project I had been working on for the last months of 2014 has totally come to fruition – a “brand new website for ME PAT Services and also a new logo”, which literary started as a scribble on a napkin as most good ideas usually do. I like it but naturally I am bias so please tell me what you think?

This new website is at www.mepattesting.co.uk and was put together with great patience [and that’s just working with me…], by my friend Paul Reynolds of Dollee Website Design. The main features of this new site is four widescreen pics of “Fry”, the newly branded van, both me and Alison and a brief view of all of the equipment we use in the course of our PAT test contracts. We have the usual Home and “About Us” pages but with a “Rogues Gallery”, a selection of damaged plugs and electrics we have encountered, a page for archive newsletters and a “Testimonials” page. The Testimonials page make me feel proud of as we get the occasional nice words said about us, but I must admit that these were scattered around the office and across the media – however now we have put them together in one place they tell the outside world of the good job we do, thank you to the valued clients looking in.

Throughout 2015 I will incorporate the new look across our literature and this newsletter, including the new email addresses – so watch this space. Incidentally if you like the new web and  are interested in chatting to Paul of Dollee* then let me know? I am more than happy to help.

 

Calling all local landlords out there beware – “Landlord fined for safety failings

A UK landlord has been hit with a £15,000 fine after being found guilty of safety and welfare offences. Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard that the landlord had repeatedly failed to carry out upgrade works relating to fire safety, heating and kitchen facilities at a large bedsit property, which he was operating as a house in multiple occupation (HMO). The council issued a HMO licence which asked for work to be carried out for tenants’ safety, but the requests were ignored and the landlord also failed in his duty to produce certification relating to the electrical safety of the property. A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: “As our recent conference for landlords showed, there is a wide range of help and support available for landlords to make sure they can meet the rules and regulations that keep both tenants and them safe. This prosecution shows how seriously we take it when landlords fail to play by the rules.” The landlord was fined £1,000 for each of the twelve offences and ordered to pay £3,000 costs.  
Full story at www.batleynews.co.uk

And Finally….

Newcastle Old and New: the story so far?

The Year of the Book, “My Book!”
 
2015 will be the year of my book as we had just finished the last chapter before Christmas of my very personal project "Newcastle Old and New: The Story So Far", I plan to do a series of talks to chat about the “Journey” [a forty year journey at that!] up to today and promote an official launch event in 8-10 months’ time, [of course just in time for Xmas shopping 2015??].

Where/when/who/how has yet to be decided but in "McCoy Tradition" it will be on a shoe string budget so don't expect any fancy canapé's! Depending on if we can get venues for a low price [free if possible?], we might have a couple of events? My co-writer Chris Rooney of Writing Works who specialises in family history projects will be on hand too. More importantly there will be an insight to a "young boy’s vision of his home city many years later". We have a lot of “dot the I’s and cross the T’s” to do so now that ME PAT Services is doing well I will take a bit of time out to complete the book with an ideal publishing date of around the 1st June 2015. There I have staked my colour’s to the mast so I’d better get a move on…!

If anyone is interested to know more then please get in touch as I am more happy to share this story with you – its genuinely quite a story, and that’s just the journey, as they say?

Talks on Newcastle Old & New, The “Journey” as well as the story so far…
I have two talks lined up over the next four weeks:
Tuesday, 27^th January 2015:  
Britannia Hotel Newcastle Airport, 4Networking Breakfast meeting
Wednesday, 25^th Feb 2015:    
Fulford Golf Club, York, 4Networking Breakfast Meeting

If anyone would be willing to have me talk about a subject I am so passionate about then let me know…

Have a great, day, week, month and of course have a fantastic 2015 – we deserve it, don't you? :)

 Yours Mike and Alison McCoy

 ME PAT Services Ltd
 07865 923716

 www.mepattesting.