Minutes:
Ms Tina Powley, Nugent Shopping Park informed members that a lot of CSR work had been undertaken. Children from local schools had been visiting, and helping out at, a conservation area which had proved to be very successful. ‘Knowledge Trees’ had been created at their schools, allowing the children to take back what they had learned and gave them a sense of pride. More than 3,000 books had also been donated to local schools.
The Dementia Action Group had been working with the stores at the Shopping Park, to improve the awareness of Dementia, and share tips and hints for when serving customers. Three staff members per store had taken part in training sessions, and had provided training sessions for local Councillors and community groups.
Christmas events at the Shopping Park in partnership with Talking Box Events had gone well, and it was currently a busy time for the Shopping Park.
Ms Louise Wolsey, London South East Colleges introduced her colleague, Neil Coates, Head of Business Development, LSEC. Work was continuing with London Biggin Hill Airport to develop the London Aerospace and Technical College. A public consultation had taken place in September 2018, and feedback had been pretty positive. The scheme had been redesigned with the support of London Biggin Hill Airport, and another consultation would take place in February, before a planning application was submitted in March 2019.
During that week, in collaboration with Mytime Active, ‘twilight sessions’ would be taking place at the College between 4.00pm-6.00pm. These were intended to reduce the number of gang incidents, and would provide after school sports and activities.
A Bromley Open Event would be taking place on Wednesday 6th March 2019, 4.30pm-7.00pm, which would provide businesses an opportunity to meet potential apprentices.
Mr John Coupland, South East London Business Network (SELBN) requested that an additional item be added to future agendas for ‘Business to Business updates’.
Mr Chandra Sharma attended the meeting representing the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The FSB now had almost 500 members in the London Borough of Bromley, which had increased by 40 since the last meeting of the Partnership. Meetings had taken place with: BID Managers from Your Bromley BID Company and Beckenham Together to discuss how the FSB could support them; members of the FSB Development Team from the Greater London Region had met with the Leader of the Council and Councillor Morgan; and Ellie Reeves MP for Penge and Lewisham West.
Work had been undertaken to promote various small businesses, their owners and the Small Business Saturday event, with Bob Neill MP and Jo Johnson MP via social media, as well as accompanying Jo Johnson MP on his visit to businesses in Orpington. All Bromley Councillors had been emailed in advance of Small Business Saturday, encouraging them to visit small businesses in the week leading up to the event. The FSB strongly encouraged Bromley to have the Small Business Saturday bus visit the Borough during 2019.
Over 37 local businesses had attended a very successful lunchtime networking event, at which Jo Johnson MP had been the guest speaker, and the next event would be taking place in Orpington on Wednesday 13th February. The Bromley lunchtime networking event, in partnership with Your Bromley BID Company, would be launched at the Cow and Pig, East Street on Friday 15th February.
The FSB were working with officers to improve the business section of the Bromley Council website, and had requested that deadline and publication dates for the Bromley Business e-bulletin, and the listing of the FSB and South East London Chamber of Commerce as support organisations, be added to the site.
There were just under eight weeks to go for applications to be submitted for the FSB awards, which were open to all businesses, whether they were a member or not. An India-Britain Trade Expo would also be taking place on 12th March 2019 at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, which would provide an opportunity for networking with key decision-makers and a platform for all those wishing to do business in India.
Mr Alex Henderson, Henderson Biomedical said that business was going well, and advised members about a European Union funded initiative called the Building Legacies Fund. Its funding had been approved for the next two years, and offered small businesses access to free workshops and business support. Further information could be obtained from https://buildinglegacies.co.uk/.
Members were informed that the site which housed the former Beckenham Gym, Gambado and Goals, had been purchased by Crystal Palace Football Club. Gambado and Goals would be closing shortly, and the site would be used by the Crystal Palace Football Club Youth Team.