02/07/2008 - Forum Minutes 19th June 2008 |
Forum Meeting
Thursday 19th June 2008
Held at Earl Shilton Constitutional Club,
Station Road, Earl Shilton
1. Introduction by Robert Phelps Specnet Ltd and committee member
Robert welcomed everyone to the meeting and expressed delight at so many people attending. He explained the purpose of the Forum was to help promote businesses in Earl Shilton, to offer advice and support to local businesses and emphasise that we are not working alone. He then asked everyone to introduce themselves.
Andy Colver the Flower Shop. Forum committee member.
Steve Hardy Hardy & Draper Carpets. Forum committee member.
Ernie Francis Handy Locals.com. on-line directory for local businesses. Forum Committee member.
Janice Richards HBBC and representing her daughter from Beauty at Constance Woods.
Tim Underwood Business Link - business support adviser.
Andrew Sime Moncur Charles & Co. small business financial adviser.
Ian Sasse Agents of Change Forum committee member
Frank Tipper Deputy Mayor of Earl Shilton
Roger Ellis Mayor of Earl Shilton
Howard Crane link between local action team and Town Centre Partnership
Keith, Mavis Leeman Hinckley Times
Robert Taylor The Barber Shop
Geoff Waters Best of Hinckley
Sandy Bansal epropertyshop.com - selling property on line
Nikki & Steve Gamble Funky Lux specialist lighting shop
Andy Edwards Nat West Bank Hinckley
Gary Hollis-Rathbone SGP Computing Ltd
2. Town Centre Signage Steve Hardy With the coming of the ring road there is a great deal of concern that people will by-pass Earl Shilton without realising what it has to offer. With this in mind Steve has been looking into what is available by way of Signs to point people towards the town. He had a meeting with a representative from the Highways Agency two weeks ago and was advised that signs available come under government restrictions. Signs indicating car parking facilities are also limited and we cannot have large signs. Brown signs indicating special features are not provided for free and are expensive. There is a hope that the by-pass will not take all traffic away from the town. Hopefully heavy vehicles that do not need to go into the town will take advantage of it while smaller vehicles will take the opportunity to avoid this traffic and carry on coming through the town. In which case it is important to make people aware that parking is available and there are shops and services making it worthwhile stopping here.
3. Town Centre Partnership - Improvement to CCTV is needed along with improved access to the Wood Street car park. Parking is considered quite good for a small town, but you have to know the town well to know where the car parks are. The parking restrictions that were put in to place while the by-pass is under construction will cease when the work has finished. Restrictions will return to what they were before work started but there is no time scale as to when this will be done.
4. Small Business Rate Relief And Marketing Grant Ernie Francis - The first question people ask is Whats in it for us? With this in mind Ernie told the Forum about these grants that are available from local government. You can find information about the Small Business Rate relief on the Blaby Council Website and Leicester City council web site. This information is not available on the Hinckley & Bosworth council website. As the grant has been available since 2005 it is surprising that it is not on the site, maybe it should be. You have to ask for this information, it is not automatically sent to you. Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council will send you a copy of the details of the grant and how to apply. Brief details are also on the ESBF website on the News page. Marketing Grant 25th July deadline. Funding made available for Marketing Mentoring. Alistair Campbell has offered to come to a Forum meeting and do a marketing presentation. Andy Edwards said there are other grants available, Rural Micro Business Grants. Worth looking at. Also available grants for larger companies for management training.
5. Website Robert Phelps - Earl Shilton Business Forum has a website with a business directory. Enhanced listing available where you can upload images and give information about yourself. News section with lots of information on it. Please feel free to give us any information you might think is helpful to others.
6. Newspaper Advertising Steve Hardy initiative to collate all local businesses to advertise together to promote Earl Shilton and your business. By doing it this way we get a better rate. 2nd advertisement went out today (19th June). Next one is due on 18th September if you are thinking of advertising, think of doing it this way. Sally-Ann from Hinckley Times will be contacting people. Steve Hardy will give her a list of businesses.
7. Funding Ian Sasse - Ian reported that we have been very lucky in funding so far to start us of. We have at least £8000 in the bank. Please let Ian have feed back on what we have used this money for. We thought joining up with chamber of commerce would be useful but that never happened - £700 put by for this Large figure for training some coaching programmes have been run but we have £5000 to spend on training, - could be spent on any sort of training. Let Ian know what you need. £2300 for equipment not spent anything yet. Little bit left for refreshments. Andy suggested buying equipment that could be loaned out to others although there could be problems with breakages etc . Please pass any ideas to Ian.
8. Shopping Directory Andy Colver/Robert Phelps - A couple of years ago the County Council produced a shopping guide for Earl Shilton, containing all retail businesses, clubs, etc. this was given out free of charge. The format was an A3 size linear map through the town showing where shops etc are situated. Around the map are spaces to advertise. However, it was only done once and it was felt something similar would be worth doing again. A new directory has been started in a similar style. It was thought that this could be funded by money in the forum plus advertising, prices not certain yet. Any comments are welcome and let us know what you think.
9. AOB
Roger Ellis thanked the committee for his invitation to the meeting and said he thought it was very worthwhile. With this is mind please spread the word and bring some more members in.
Roger Ellis also informed us that plans are underway for a community radio station in Earl Shilton, there will be space on there to advertise. It is hoped to be up and running by the November. It will be based at the new community house, Peggs Close.
Next Forum Meeting
Thursday 21st August 2008, 12pm until 2pm. Venue TBA
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