To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public including:
1. Hitchin BID;
2. Letchworth Garden City BID.
Decision:
Audio Recording – Start of Item – Session 1 - 5 minutes 6 seconds
Councillor David Levett Declared a Disclosable Interest in that he was a Board Member of Letchworth Business Improvement District and had been involved in the preparation of the documents due to be considered late on the agenda. He stated that he believed it was in order for him to listen to the presentation, however he would leave the room for the duration of the Item regarding the Hitchin and Letchworth Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) Renewal (Minute 41 refers).
Hitchin BID Renewal
The Chairman thanked Mr Hardy for his presentation.
Letchworth (BID) Renewal
Mrs Patricia Saunders, Letchworth BID Manager and the representative from Partnership for Better Business, thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address Cabinet in respect of the Letchworth Business Improvement District (BID) Renewal.
The Chairman thanked Mrs Saunders and the representative from Partnership for Better Business for their presentation.
Minutes:
Audio Recording – Start of Item – Session 1 - 5 minutes 6 seconds
Councillor David Levett Declared a Disclosable Interest in that he was a Board Member of Letchworth Business Improvement District and had been involved in the preparation of the documents due to be considered late on the agenda. He stated that he believed it was in order for him to listen to the presentation, however he would leave the room for the duration of the Item regarding the Hitchin and Letchworth Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) Renewal (Minute 41 refers).
Hitchin BID Renewal
· The BID renewal had to include all businesses and every business had been consulted;
· Opinions and ideas of those businesses had been gathered though surveys, workshops and the newly created BID renewal group;
· A 5-year Business Plan had been developed;
· Many of the activities and events already provided by the BID had been retained;
· There were four key elements to the Business Plan:
VIBRANT – Keeping the town a vibrant place to visit by providing floral displays, Christmas lights, events and promotions;
PROMOTING THE TOWN – Developing a tourism strategy and promoting the town to a wider area
CLEAN AND SAFE – Considering how to provide additional methods of cleaning the town and ensuing that the night time economy is kept safe by use of night time security and day time Rangers.
SAVE AND SUPPORT – Considering mass procurement initiatives and being a voice for the businesses in the town.
· There had been a small extension to the BID area.
Mr Hardy concluded by thanking the Council for the support over the last 5 years and the ongoing support provided though the renewal process.
The Chairman thanked Mr Hardy for his presentation.
Letchworth (BID) Renewal
Mrs Patricia Saunders, Letchworth BID Manager and the representative from Partnership for Better Business, thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address Cabinet in respect of the Letchworth Business Improvement District (BID) Renewal as follows:
· Business in Letchworth voted in favour of setting up the Letchworth BID in October 2013;
· Reasons for setting up the BID included having a cohesive voice, a lack of activities for the public and a dependency on NHDC and Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation;
· The BID had now established a respected events programme which generated additional footfall and repeat visits, generated commercial revenue from events and helped improve access and signage into and around the town.
· The BID provided training for businesses, introduced network events, customer service excellence award schemes and promoted businesses to a wider audience;
· The public facing brand “Love Letchworth” had been developed and now not only promoted businesses but promoted charitable activities and initiatives and was the place that people actively turned to find out what was happening in the town centre;
· The amount of traffic on the Love Letchworth social media sites demonstrated how vibrant the town is and how much pride people had in the town.
The representative from Partnership for Better Business informed Members that:
· The new Business Plan and BID proposal had started by reviewing what the current BID had achieved;
· They were grateful for the support provided by NHDC throughout the process, in particular the support provided by Councillor David Levett;
· An essential part of the process was to ensure that all the businesses had an opportunity to contribute to the development of the Business Plan;
· All business had received a 4-page survey as well as ebulletins and newsletters and many had received a personal visit to discuss the BID;
· There have been a number of events to which businesses were invited including the launch event, vision, objective and budget workshops;
· Overarching strategies such as NHDC’s Economic Development Strategy had been taken account of in order to ensure that the Business Plan complimented and supported them;
· Objectives 1 and 2 of the Business Plan took account of and supported NHDC’s Economic Development Strategy;
· Objectives 1 and 4 of the Strategy were particularly important as it recognised that investment was necessary to ensure that Town Centre are competitive and attractive for modern day use, which in turn increased vitality and made them desirable places to be;
· The Strategy also aimed to strengthen links between NHDC and the business in Letchworth;
· The new BID proposal also took account of and complimented the new Local Plan 2016 – 2031, in particular SP4 regarding the vitality and viability of all town centres;
· The approach to the Business Plan had been to take into account the uncertain times and economic challenges faced by towns.
He concluded by stating that the only way of creating an economically stable and vibrant place with a sense of community was for everyone to work together collaboratively. A successful BID could not wok on its own and need to wok with stakeholders including NHDC, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation and the County Council. He asked that the Cabinet accept and support the Letchworth BID proposal.
The Chairman thanked Mrs Saunders and the representative from Partnership for Better Business for their presentation.