Welcome

Tuesday 25th May 2010

A £600,000 investment has been made in an exciting new hair and beauty salon, which will help boost the status of Bedford High Street.

BROOKS will be a showcase for the talent of thousands of young people who will undertake a wide range of courses in hair and beauty  at the centre in the future.

As well as a professional training environment, BROOKS will pioneer many new styling and spa treatments which clients can enjoy at special student rates. Those same students will then be able to use those skills among the salons and studios in which they work across the county.

“We want to put Bedford on the style map, to be known as a national centre for excellence for hair and beauty skills. That begins with top training in a professional environment here at the BROOKS,” said Alison Barradell, Assistant Director of the Arts (Hair and Beauty) at Bedford College.

The outstanding work of Bedford College students will be on display at the sell-out Hair and Beauty Show which is staged each year at the Bedford Corn Exchange. On Thursday May 27th,  there will be a colourful and creative catwalk show which every year combines daring design with outstanding skills.

Joining the opening of BROOKS was Executive Director of BedfordBID, Mo Aswat. He said: “Any face lift for any property in the High Street is very welcome . We are always pushing for investments which will help give the town centre a complete make-over.”

BedfordBID, which supports 800 businesses,  recognises the valuable contribution made to the local economy by hair and beauty outlets through its annual ‘Be Beautiful in Bedford’ campaign. Under this project,  a glossy guide to salons and studios is produced and distributed to nearly 100,000, supported by press and radio advertising.

“All the style businesses are working hard to make the people in Bedford beautiful, while we at BedfordBID are constantly pushing for the fabric of the town to be made more attractive. BedfordBID backed the recent campaign to try and win Heritage Lottery money towards make-over of the High Street. We hope that BROOKS is just the beginning of something beautiful.”

Ian Pryce, Chief Executive of the award-winning Bedford College and Principal of the 16,000 students, who are based on the riverside campus and other sites, said: “We want Bedford College to contribute in every way it can to the local economy, through training people into employment and by reinvesting money where we can. Moving our hair and beauty training centre off campus and into the High Street means students have a real life experience of working in a professional salon, and one High Street property has been improved beyond measure.”

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