We are now EG
Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that there have been a few changes around here. Yes, we are blasting off into a bold new era – but getting this rebrand ready for launch certainly took its toll on the best minds in the office. As the team sought to dream up a new name for Estates Gazette after 159 years, working groups wrestled with options, brains were stormed and thought showers rained down. Eventually, a plume of white smoke rose from the office chimney. Our new name would be… EG. Short, simple, memorable – with the added bonus that it’s what you all call us anyway! Should anyone else out there be looking for rebranding advice, EG can offer its services for a reasonable fee. We promise to state the obvious, quickly, after which you’ll find us in the pub.
What’ll happen next?
While the Midlands might be presenting a united front with a combined presence at MIPIM this year, it’s good to know a bit of healthy competition remains between east and west. Bragging rights will be at stake when they go up against each other in a Question of Sport-style event. Chris Bell and Nick De Luca, rugby stars from Coventry-based Wasps, will be pitched against former Leicester Tigers player Will Johnson and ex-Leicester City centre half Matt Elliott in an event that will test their sporting knowledge – and also, apparently, their acting skills. If you’re heading to MIPIM, be at the UK Midlands Pavilion (stand C16.B) on Thursday at 5.15pm to catch what history will no doubt record as the “Melee of the Midlands”.
At twit’s end
Surfing the rebrand wave, our Legal and Professional section (formerly known as Practice & Law) has seized on the opportunity to boost its social media presence with a dedicated Twitter account. Surely securing a suitably snappy handle should be straightforward, with no rivals likely to have claimed the logical names. Well, the good news is, no rival has. But the actions of random individuals are far harder to predict. The first choice, @eglegal is already bagged by Lynn Marie Mallery, general counsel at, of all places, Eagle Golf, a Dallas-based golf course management firm. As for the second option, @legaleg, the language barrier prevents us from knowing why that appealed to a Japanese Twitter user. Thank heavens for the underscore, which gives us @legal_eg – the new social media source for EG Legal. After all their efforts, give them a follow, and maybe tweet them a quick hello – if you get a konichiwa back, you’ve picked the wrong one.
South Coast superpower?
Conservative Portsmouth City Council leader Donna Jones and Simon Letts, the Labour leader of Southampton City Council, may seem the most unlikely of bedfellows, but speculation continues to raise the prospect of a combined authority. And attendees at EG’s recent Southampton Question Time were told not to give up hope. “Southampton and Portsmouth are completely and utterly joined at the hip,” said Southampton City Council chief executive Dawn Baxendale. “Our leaders, you can’t see a cigarette paper between them. They are like an old married couple.” But is a tie-up on the horizon? Apparently it remains a question for the secretary of state.
And an otter thing
Too often, developers are seen as the enemies of the natural world – with conventional wisdom being that the merest sight of a bat or, worse still, a great crested newt, is enough to drive them into furious rage. Bravo, then, to Countryside, which got in touch to express its delight at the arrival of otters at its Great Kneighton development in Trumpington, on the southern fringe of Cambridge. The playful creatures have made a home for themselves at Hobson’s Brook in the heart of the development’s country park, prompting Andrew Carrington, managing director of strategic land, to say: “The discovery of otters is such exciting news for us.” Fingers crossed all new residents at Great Kneighton are welcomed so warmly.
