ROWS of black and green bikes have been sprouting up across Nottingham as the city's 'Boris bike' scheme is extended.

When the cycle hire scheme was launched, bikes were only available from two locations – but new hubs have been cropping up across the city bringing the total to 11.

The bikes are free to use for people with Kangaroo travel cards, while hire costs start from £2 per week for others.

It runs in a similar way to the scheme in London set up by Mayor Boris Johnson.

Jane Parr, a 56-year-old admin worker from Winchester Street, Sherwood, said the scheme helps make Nottingham a green city.

She said: "It's an excellent idea, it's great for health, good to see people cycling around and keeps carbon emissions down.

"It'll keep cars out of the city and help create provision for cyclists that wouldn't be there without it."

Pensioner John Shelton, 76, of Moor's Lane, Bingham, said: "We have to make sure they're safe to use around the city.

"I can't see any available for toddlers or young kids either. That would be ideal for mums taking kids on a day out.

"I think I would still use one though."

New stands for the bikes have been put up at Maid Marian Way at the junction with Friar Gate and at the Holiday Inn on Tollhouse Hill in recent weeks.

Other locations for the stands include Thurland Street, outside the Maudsley Building of Nottingham Trent University on Goldsmith Street and Nottingham Contemporary building in Fletcher Gate.

Previously the bikes were only available from the Broad Marsh bus station and the Tourist Information Centre in Smithy Row.

Hugh McClintock, chairman of Notts cycling campaign group Pedals, said: "We've seen the expansion of the scheme and it's very positive stuff – anything that promotes cycling in the city is good news as far as we're concerned.

"As more bikes are used, the more widely people will see them and the more they will be used. They're a fantastic idea."

At the launch of the scheme, the city council had 100 bikes available for hire with this expected to rise to 250 by the end of next year.

The scheme got off to a rocky start with an average of fewer than one person a day using the bikes between its launch in October and the following March.

However Councillor Jane Urquhart, portfolio holder for Planning and Transportation, said: "Citycard cycles are convenient and great for the environment.

"I'm proud that we have been able to launch this scheme in Nottingham for the summer and hope many people take advantage of the chance to hire a bike.

"The cycles are available for day use and also for longer-term commuter use.

"I'm pleased to say we already have a growing number of people taking advantage of this and the expansion means an even greater number of people will be able to do so."

Among those trying out the cycles yesterday was Lewis Ollendorf, an 18-year-old student visiting from Berlin.

He and his friends had taken a ride across the city and said: "It's been great, we've been down to cycle along the River Trent. They handle pretty well too."

A new scheme allowing people to book a bike using a mobile phone began in May.

The scheme has been funded entirely by the Department for Transport, costing up to £350,000, and is being implemented over two years with plans to add a hub at tourist attractions including Wollaton Park.

The council expects to spend no more than £50,000 per year to keep the scheme running.

THE company behind tram construction work at the Queen's Medical Centre said they were not aware of any "direct link" between their work and a potentially deadly fungal bug found in the hospital's ventilation system.

The bug, known as aspergillus was found on the children's cancer ward at the Queen's Medical Centre last week.

Checks found that the source of the contamination was the air-conditioning system leading to the playroom on ward E39.

Checks were carried out after two children on the ward started to display symptoms of a fungal infection – one of whom is now at home, and the other remains in hospital.

In order to prevent contamination, nine children on ward E39 at the hospital were evacuated to E38.

A statement released by tram builders Taylor Woodrow Alstom, said: "We have not been made aware of any suggestion that the reported ward closure at the QMC is directly linked to the tram construction project.

"And we are therefore unable to comment further.

"Aspergillus has been mention in reports and we would say that transmission of such microbes can be through fungal spores, water droplets, skin scales, mechanical action such as cleaning, demolition, construction or coughing and sneezing."

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust said yesterday that ward E39 remained closed and a date for its reopening had not yet been set.

In 2008, beds were closed because the aspergillus bug was suspected to be on ward E37 of the Queen's Medical Centre.

Where are you based?

Nottingham City Centre, Southwell and Moscow.

Who owns the business?

Myself and my wife.

How long have you been going

14 years.

What does your business do?

We are primarily a creative brand consultancy. We make organisations' brands, packaging, websites and marketing communications look, sound, read and work harder for them.

How many do you employ?

Eight in the UK and three in Russia.

Who are your customers?

Big brands like Unilever, Wilkos, Pets at Home, and Covent Garden Soups, but we're also passionate about small niche brands, even sometimes working for one-man bands which just want to compete on a level with the larger companies.

How have you been doing over the last year?

This year has been our biggest ever. Turnover and profit are up and we've purchased and renovated a six-storey office on Nottingham's Friar Lane. We've also launched the Moscow arm of our business, and are in the process of renovating another office in Southwell. We're in the process of launching a health and beauty brand in Russia and are winning new clients for Pure on a monthly basis.

What sort of recession did you have?

If I'm honest, we haven't suffered at all during the recession. We are a cost-focused, streamlined company, with 42 clients globally. We have always been generous with clients' budgets to make them go further, and this has helped us to avoid losing clients. Russia has also helped to make us recession-proof. We've won five major clients there and completed huge projects in the past year. Additionally, we've launched a UK illustration company www.booandbelle.co.uk

How has your business changed since it began?

I started Pure with one simple ethic – my clients are my everything. I ensure they get the best creative, the best service at the best price and with the biggest smile. All of my team buy into this ethos. Testament to this is the fact that I've lost just two clients in 14 years.

What are your plans for the future?

I want to expand my operations in Russia and take a few more brands to market, as this will bring in more revenue steams. I also want to develop Boo and Belle. My next venture will be to open an affordable art gallery. I always have to have something new to concentrate on, keeps my mind creative.

What's the best thing about your business?

It's achieving exactly what I intended it to do, making clients happy. We reinvent ourselves constantly, so we can offer clients that have been with us for ten years a fresh and exciting service. All my co-workers feel part of this company; we have no hierarchy and each and every person, right down the cleaning lady, matters to Pure.

What's your biggest threat?

I won't go as far as to say that we're untouchable, as I've learnt along the way that there are many things around the corner. However, we compete on price with the smaller agencies, we stand our ground with the larger agencies on creativity and I have a client list that is as broad as it can be, making us "effectively" bullet-proof.

And your biggest opportunity?

Creative is ever changing – it's almost throw-away, so each project formula that we work on needs to be reviewed frequently. If we keep our clients happy, we get a constant circle of work. Russia is also a major opportunity. The country is booming with an emerging mid market and burgeoning demand for consumer products.

COMMUTERS stayed on track yesterday as rail replacement coaches mostly ran smoothly on the first working day since Nottingham's train station closed.

Coaches and buses transported passengers to and from a variety of places, including Derby, East Midlands Parkway, Newark and Beeston.

This will be the routine for the next five weeks for the 20,000 passengers who use the station each day.

An East Midlands Trains spokesman said: "The bus replacement operation has been running well over the weekend and today. We would like to thank our customers for their cooperation so far and for the coming weeks ahead."

There have been a few hiccups – pick-up and drop-off points were confused at Langley Mill, where several passengers were not picked up.

A Tweet posted online by @cmillsevans said: "Oh dear. Replacement bus from derby to Nottingham has just toured Derby housing estates for 20 minutes and we've just passed the welcome to Derby sign!"

The East Midlands Trains spokesman added: "With an operation of this scale, there are always individual challenges to overcome, but that is when the years of planning by ourselves, Network Rail and other organisations proves its worth."

Commuters are getting into the swing of things. Supply teacher at Bulwell St Mary's primary school, Paul O'Neill, has been working out his route for the last two days of term as he travels in from Chesterfield. He said: "I've got to be in school before half-eight, because the children are in at quarter to nine, and I've got to get my stuff ready.

"The train usually gets me into Nottingham for 7am, but this adds half-an-hour and I still have to get out to Bulwell – I'm just hoping that we get a good run."

YOU can see its products every time you walk into Boots. And you'll probably catch sight of the odd one if you settle down in front of the TV on a Saturday night and watch Casualty. Even His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent has one.

On top of that, it's a business that turns over around £4 million a year and employs more than 80 people – many of them from families who live nearby.

Not bad for a business that started life in a sub-let portable building in Hucknall after an accountant had warned its founder that it would never make any money.

But the founder in question, John Bancroft, is not one to take no for an answer. An experienced sales and marketing man, he knew the demand was there because would-be customers had asked him, and he worked out a way of making it pay.

His business is Badgemaster and it does pretty much what it says on the tin, supplying two million identity name badges a year to thousands of customers, who range from high street giants like Boots to hotels, banks, office supplies businesses, corporate clothing companies, travel agents, airlines and even the Royal Household. Hence this small business in an old Notts mining village has the "By Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen" Royal Warrant welcoming visitors when they walk through the door.

And John himself has a particularly special badge of his own: an MBE. Not a badge he wears to work but one he's nevertheless immensely proud of.

"When we were notified that I was being recommended – and I always say 'we' because as far as I'm concerned it's a joint effort from everyone here – it came completely out of the blue.

"It means a lot to us because there are two things I'm proud of – we're a Notts business employing Notts people. All the people we employ are from the area, most from the immediate vicinity, and the majority ex-mining families. Many of the girls once used to work in textiles, which is another industry that's largely gone.

"What gives us all enormous pride is that when we go out shopping, go to the bank, go on holiday or watch programmes like Casualty they see people wearing name badges that have nearly always been made here."

John Bancroft has been wearing the badge with pride for exactly 21 years this month. As the national sales manager of Sketchley's corporate clothing and workwear division, he had seen increasing numbers of clients asking for name badges to go with uniforms.

These are tiny products but every single one is different, and businesses were struggling to find efficient ways of sourcing them. John knew the demand was there and reckoned he knew how to meet it quickly, efficiently and cheaply.

While he was full of enthusiasm, professional advisers weren't, telling John that raising an invoice would cost more than he could sell the product for. John was having none of it: "Someone once told me that you should get the best possible professional advice, take it on board, and then follow your heart. Not one, single solitary adviser that I approached thought it was a good idea."

His accountant also pointed out that he'd need to find premises and would have to sign up for a lease that might lumber him with big bills for years.

So he started out letting part of a portable building, with wife Vicky helping out when she wasn't working full time in a medical centre.

It was a hand-to-mouth existence to start with, the business turning over £38,000 in its first year. "I used to brew my own beer instead of going to the pub," says John. "I gave up smoking and I even repaired my shoes with the glue we used to stick pins on the badges. It got quite tough."

But his contacts in corporate clothing and his wife's in healthcare gave them a way in to some influential customers. The result? The business began to take off, attracting customers like Boots and Raleigh. Inevitably, it outgrew its portable building.

It moved just up the road to Newstead, the mining village that had been hit hard by the decline of the pits and textiles. There, the council had built 10 small industrial units in the hope of providing local employment and Badgemaster took one of them.

"When we put all our stuff down inside it, we looked lost," recalls John. "I really thought we'd taken on something way too big. But within a year, it was crammed to the gills and we were sharing desks."

A decade on, Badgemaster occupies all 10 units. Ranged in two terraces either side of a yard, they are set up like a production line, with design and manufacture in one terrace and the dispatching and office functions in the other.

John doesn't pretend there's any dark secret to the firm's success: "We've just stayed focused on our vision that every customer's badge is designed specifically for them so that it is projecting their brand and their corporate image as well as enabling their staff, customers, visitors and guests to recognise them by name."

Badgemaster today has all the normal business processes – accounts, order processing, dispatching, invoice chasing, etc. But there is also a graphic design team and specialist printers and engravers operating hi-tech machinery in which Badgemaster has invested hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The investment has paid dividends. The business has 20,000 individual accounts, of which more than half will have placed orders within the past six months. Around a third of production (which totals around 10,000 badges a day) will go to badge re-sellers in the stationery trade and the workwear industry – a major growth area for the business.

John admits it hasn't all been plain sailing. While the business enjoyed near-continuous growth between 1992 and 2008, the financial crisis saw sales fall 15 per cent as industries like retail, travel and hospitality recruited fewer people. Some good customers – among them the likes of Focus and Woolworths – simply disappeared. John said: "We had to make half-a-dozen people redundant and that was a horrible experience because we love our people – we've got fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives working here."

When business picked up again in 2011-12, the first thing John did was contact the people who had been made redundant and take some of them back on again.

It isn't just the Royal Crest that gives John a sense of pride. The business holds two key industrial standards – ISO 9001 for quality and ISO 14001 for environmental practice – which open doors with customers. And, like many family-owned enterprises, it is financially conservative.

"We have never, ever borrowed a penny," John says emphatically. "Beyond the buildings, where we have a very good landlord in Gedling Borough Council, nothing here is leased or on credit. My wife and I are old-fashioned folk from St Ann's and if you can't afford it, you do without and if you need it, you wait until you have got the money."

They also take an uncomplicated approach to the business's future: "We've never asked ourselves where we want to be in five years. We try to provide the customer service, care and attention that ensures we don't lose customers, and we market ourselves hard to get new ones.

"We have a consistent and manageable level of growth and that has enabled us to reinvest our profits in new equipment, new technology, systems and procedures."

As a Royal Warrant holder, Badgemaster is part of a select group of businesses whose calling card says something special. Along with other members of the Royal Warrant Holders' Association, John found himself manning a stand about his business at Buckingham Palace only a few days ago for the Coronation Festival.

"I was a Sunday morning and the stand was quiet for about an hour. And as I was standing there, I realised that it was the first time in 21 years that time had dragged in business.

"But I'm not complaining – I'm a lucky man. And after that, of course, it got very busy and all hell broke loose!"

AN ICE CREAM van driver was stabbed and killed by his son after an argument in his car, a court heard.

Italian Giuseppe Difina was allegedly stabbed twice by Vito Difina.

Yesterday, Vito, 40, of Cavendish Road, Carlton, went on trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

He is accused of his father's murder on September 10 last year and the alternative charge of manslaughter.

The court heard that an argument started between them after Vito, who pleads not guilty and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, allegedly wanted his father to take him home.

His mother found Giuseppe, also known as Joe, alone and injured in the kitchen saying he had been stabbed.

Emergency services attended their home in Cliff Road, Carlton, and Giuseppe was taken to the intensive care unit at the Queen's Medical Centre.

He told a doctor, who asked him what happened, that his son had "done it", the court heard.

Giuseppe was said to have been attacked shortly after he arrived home in his Mitsubishi car.

Paul Mann QC, prosecuting, said: "He was stabbed at least twice and the weapon penetrated his chest."

His condition deteriorated and he died.

"The prosecution submit his killer, sadly, was his own son, Vito," said Mr Mann.

A neighbour allegedly heard Vito's voice that night saying he wanted his father to take him home, followed by an argument, shouting and bangs.

There were no eyewitnesses to the killing, so the prosecution is unable to say precisely where 68-year-old Giuseppe was when he was stabbed.

"However, when police looked at the Mitsubishi on the driveway they found drips of Joe's blood on the bottom of the driver's door sill and a smudge mark on the driver's seat," said Mr Mann.

"The car door was shut after the stabbing. It had been left unlocked and an expert is satisfied the blood could only have dripped on to the sill whilst the car door was open."

The case continues.

NEIGHBOURS are worried extra lanes on Nottingham's ring road will make them feel they are "living on a motorway".

Work on the £16.2 million project began earlier this month.

Part of it will see the northbound carriageway between the Crown Island and Nuthall Road widened from two to three lanes.

This has led some residents in Western Boulevard to express concerns and they are considering a protest by not paying council tax.

Michelle Lowe, 51, fears the project will increase traffic levels rather than help ease congestion as planned.

She said: "It will be like living on a motorway.

"It is already difficult to get my car out onto the road. This will make it even worse.

"Then there are issues like pollution and noise from the traffic."

Gurcharan Kandola, 65, also has major concerns.

He said: "I don't see how they can say it will make it much better. It will just get busier.

"I have lived on this road for many years now and it just seems to get worse every year."

Work on the ring road junction with Aspley Lane started yesterday.

The project will see the roundabout replaced by traffic signals, which the city council believes helps traffic flow quicker.

At the same time, the widening work will take place, while there will also be improved pedestrian and cyclist crossing facilities.

A consultation meeting was held last week for nearby residents at Bluecoat Academy.

But Mrs Lowe said they had not been told about it.

"We never had anything to tell us about the event," she said.

"It feels like this whole area has been neglected. Why should we pay our rates when this happens? They don't seem to be bothered."

Marilyn Lee, 60, also of Western Boulevard, added: "It is going to be really bad. The whole issue is very upsetting."

The road is one of Nottingham's busiest and is currently used by 50,000 vehicles a day.

The improvement work will take place on roads between the junctions with Mansfield Road and Derby Road.

A city council spokesman said: "We have put in a lot of effort to keep people informed about these projects.

"We have sent out leaflets to residents about the works and about the drop-in, plus there have been posters at community centres, Twitter and Facebook postings and substantial press coverage.

"The improvement works on Aspley Lane began yesterday and end in December to make the road safer for cyclists and help traffic flow around the city."

THERE were more than a few eyebrows raised last week when Nottingham Forest made a bid to bring Kelvin Wilson back to the City Ground.

Not because he lacks quality. Wilson has proved, without doubt, in the past that he has the ability to flourish in the Championship.

Not even because of the manner in which he departed Nottingham two years ago.

Even if they were disappointed to see him leave most fans would understand the logic of a player wanting to accept the chance to play for one of the best supported clubs in Britain – and the lure of European football.

Nor should the events of his final few months at the club, when he was ostracised from the squad and made to train on his own, be allowed to reflect too badly on the player, who was left in a difficult situation once he had agreed a pre-contract with another club.

No, the only reason that the news caused a ripple of surprise was because the bid for Wilson was the second offer made for a former Reds defender in the matter of weeks.

And, rather than being a case of either or when it comes to Wilson and Wes Morgan, Forest clearly want to sign both men.

Despite already having added genuine quality in the form of Jack Hobbs, the former Leicester and Hull City man, Billy Davies hopes to add another two central defenders to his squad.

Whether they land either player will, in many ways, be a significant barometer of – if you will forgive the blatant lifting of a phrase from a previous era and a different regime – how serious the club are about promotion.

Neither Leicester or Celtic are in a particular rush to sell and, if Forest are therefore to succeed in their pursuit of either man, they are going to have to make the kind of offer that cannot be refused.

In Leicester's case, it may come down to how stubbornly they are willing to fight to keep their current player of the season.

Morgan may be out of contract at the end of the coming season, but the Foxes are clearly willing to play hardball. Because an offer of £1.5m is nothing to be sniffed at.

If Forest, as was anticipated last week, do raise the bar to £2m, then that would surely give their East Midlands rivals some serious thinking to do, given that the 29-year-old only has one season left on his current deal.

The decision, at that point, boils down to whether Leicester want to take £2m for Morgan now, less for him in January, or risk getting nothing at all next summer, when he could, in theory, leave on a Bosman.

While Celtic rejected the £1.5m bid for Wilson, Neil Lennon's response was more a hint that the offer was not big enough, rather than an outright 'the player is not for sale'. His response intimated that there may be a deal to be done, if Forest are willing to up their offer.

The Reds could yet end up with both players – but may have to shell out between £4m and £5m to finance the deals.

If they were to do that, it would be a clear, black and white demonstration of their ambition – given that, in the space of just two transfers, the club would make it remarkably difficult for themselves to fall within the new Financial Fair Play parameters.

At the same time, it would also provide a clear signal that Davies regards the back four as being a priority as he looks to build a squad for the coming campaign.

That, in itself, should not be a shock. That is typical Davies.

Forest, under his guidance, played an entertaining brand of counter attacking football.

The 3-1 victory at West Brom, in January 2010, was the perfect personification of Forest at their best, under the Scotsman. Goals from Dexter Blackstock, Radi Majewski and Chris Cohen capped off a fine display of fluid passing football.

But the central defensive partnership that day? Wilson and Morgan.

The defence has always been the starting point for Davies. Forest's priority, during his first spell in charge, was to keep a clean sheet.

And to say they were good at it would be an understatement.

In that season, when Forest were edged into third place, they kept 19 clean sheets in the Championship. That is a remarkable figure.

When they did concede a goal, it was rarely more than a single, solitary strike from the opposition. Right up until mid-March, in fact, only three teams managed to score more than once against Forest all season.

By the end of the campaign, it had still only happened in eight matches.

The following season Forest's clean sheet quota was 14, which is still an impressive figure.

But clean sheets, not unsurprisingly, have often been the cornerstone for success in the Championship.

In 2009/10, Swansea kept 24 and somehow still managed to only finish seventh. But Newcastle (22) and WBA (15) kept things tight as they finished in the top two.

In 2010/11 the leading pair kept the most clean sheets, with QPR (25) and Swansea (21) winning promotion.

The 2011/12 campaign was the same story, with Reading (20) and Southampton (18) making the step up.

Last season title-winning Cardiff shut out the opposition 18 times and Hull 16. Brighton's 17 clean sheets helped them to a play-off place.

Forest may still make a landmark signing; a statement addition that says 'we mean business' when it comes to the array of strikers and wingers they are chasing.

But Davies will know that the most important investment this summer could prove to be in the form of Morgan and Wilson. If even one of the duo were to return, it would leave Forest with a host of options in the heart of defence, with not only Hobbs but also Danny Collins, Greg Halford and Jamaal Lascelles at the club.

That would leave Davies with a headache when it comes to keeping everyone happy. Indeed, in such an event it might be better for Lascelles to go out on loan to gain regular football – and much needed experience – elsewhere.

Halford's versatility will ensure that there will be numerous potential roles for him to play in the squad. While Collins, in theory, could be one of four experienced defenders fighting it out for a place in the back four.

Personal frustration aside, that can be no bad thing for any club. Because, as Davies knows as well as anyone, clean sheets, in this division, are the most important commodity of all.