Agenda item

The Head of Town Centre Management and Business Support gave an update on progress across the main Partnership themes of Town Centre Management and Business Support in Quarter 4 2013/14.

In Quarter 4 2013/14, the Town Centre Management and Business Support Service had worked to deliver a number of events in town centres including the ‘Love your Local High Street’ event in Beckenham and two town-wide business meetings in Bromley with a focus on the future of the town and the potential to introduce a Business Improvement District (BID).  Environmental audits continued to be undertaken in town centres across the Borough, with community clean up days organised in partnership with business volunteers in Beckenham.  Environmental monitoring in Bromley town centre had also been carried out to ensure that the Bromley North Village works were being carried out in a way that minimised the impact on the shopping environment as far as possible.

The Local Authority continued to maintain direct contact with the Orpington 1^st BID Company through the attendance of non-voting members, Councillor William Huntington-Thresher and Martin Pinnell.  Discussions had been ongoing between the BID, Town Centre Management and Liberata about arrangements for the BID levy collection in 2014/15, and the BID was currently setting its budget and activity programme for the new financial year.  The BID had taken over the running of the Orpington Walnuts public conveniences and, with a Local Authority grant, had refurbished the facilities to a high standard.  Following a feasibility study undertaken around further BIDs being established in other town centres across the Borough, recommendations for action were reported to the meeting of the Council’s Executive on 15^th January 2014, and the Council’s Executive had endorsed the setting aside of £110k from reserves to fund a project to introduce a BID to Bromley town centre. 

The Bromley Town Business Growth Club had its final workshop in January 2014, and Officers had been undertaken a survey of programme users to help understand the impact of the programme on participating businesses.  Officers had been working closely with other organisations to organise and host joint support events including a Start Up Loans event in January 2014 and a Financial Fitness for Business workshop in January 2014, co-hosted with Metrobank and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

The Bromley North Village improvement works commenced in late July 2013 and were expected to run until November 2014.  The works in Market Square had commenced in January 2014 and were expected to continue until Summer 2014.  The Town Centre Manager for Bromley had been working closely with the Bromley North Village project team to help minimise disruption during the works and provide information to business owners and members of the public around the scheme, which included a weekly project status e-bulletin. 

Future activities for the Town Centre Management and Business Support Service included engaging more with local businesses and town centre stakeholders, such as the Orpington 1^st BID Company, the Beckenham Town Centre Team and the recently re-convened Beckenham Town Centre Working Group, as well as working closely with the forming Bromley BID Task Group to help engage with a wide cross-section of the town’s businesses. 

An events and activities programme for the managed town centres during 2014/15 would also be developed, and work would also be undertaken with partner organisations to develop a programme of support workshops and seminars for local businesses.  Subject to Member approval, Officers would also commission procurement of Christmas lights services for the 2014 festive season in Bromley, Beckenham and Penge, and would make arrangements to transfer ownership of the Orpington lights to the Orpington 1^st BID Company.

Other activities would include maintaining regular business communications channels and publications, including the business e-bulletin.  Work with an external partner would also be undertaken to arrange for publication of the Bromley Business Guide for future years.

Members of the Partnership were advised that an opportunity was currently available through the ‘Superconnected Cities’ project, which offered businesses in London the opportunity to apply for up to £3k towards high-speed broadband until March 2015.  Schemes were also running to support businesses affected by the recent floods, which could include a three month rebate on business rates as well as funding for flood resilience measures.

The Bromley Business Expo 2014 would be held on 18^th June 2014 at Bromley Civic Centre and all members of the Partnership were invited to attend.

Sharon Baldwin, Orpington 1^st BID Company outlined work currently being undertaken across Orpington Town Centre.  The four themes of the Orpington 1^st BID Company were Customers, Businesses, Access and Environment.  A project was also in development to encourage young entrepreneurs who would be able to use 10 newly reconditioned offices in the town centre to establish their own businesses.  It was also expected that the start date for development works at The Walnuts would be announced by the end of April 2014 which was hoped to encourage additional investment to the town centre. 

RESOLVED that:

1)  Recent work around Town Centre Management and Business Support in the 4^th Quarter of 2013/14 be noted; and

2)  The plans for Town Centre Management and Business Support activity for the 1^st Quarter of 2014/15 be noted.