Minutes:
Lorraine McQuillan, LBB Town Centres & BID Development Manager informed Members that work was continuing on the West Wickham BID. Officers had met with local business before Christmas, and the ballot was expected to take place in summer 2020.
In terms of business support, upcoming events included Successful Mums events in January and February 2020; a Business Doctors event in February 2020 and a Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) ‘Meet the Buyer’ event in March 2020.
Members were encouraged to sign up to the Bromley Business pages, and provide any information on news, upcoming events and opportunities for inclusion in the Bromley e-Bulletin, which was sent out every two months.
Mrs Zoe Carr, Beckenham Together & Penge SE20 informed Members that recent events had included Halloween trails, in both town centres, and ‘Pengefest’ which had been organised by community volunteers.
Successful Christmas festivities had taken place in both town centres. The “Pengemas” Christmas event had taken place on Saturday 30th November, and had included a Christmas market, dancing, music and Santa and his elves. In Beckenham there had been a parade and Christmas Lights switch-on, and an ice rink was installed on Market Green, along with a Christmas market, over the festive period. The ice rink had been a great success, with around 5,000 people taking part. It was hoped that an extended run of dates could be secured for 2020.
In Penge town centre, tourniquet kits had been provided to traders, and they had successfully bid for funding towards defibrillators. Training was being provided to a group of traders by a local NHS volunteer, with the intention that they would then train other traders. Work was also being undertaken to analyse areas of the High Street that were not covered by CCTV, and consider how this could be managed.
Upcoming events included ‘Screen on the Green’ in Beckenham during Wimbledon and Euro 2020, and both town centres would be involved in ‘Purple Tuesday’ which focused on changing the customer experience for disabled people.
Ms Frances Forrest, Your Bromley BID Company informed Members that the Christmas events in the town centre had been well received, and the lights, rides and Christmas market had really animated the High Street.
Upcoming events in the town centre included a ‘Health and Fitness’ day on 31st January 2020, which would take place in the promotional space between Pret a Manger and H&M. Work was also underway in relation to planning for summer events such as Wimbledon and the Film Festival that took place in the Queen’s Gardens.
Operation Gemini had taken place in the town centre during December and over the school holidays, for which the BID funded additional police officers at peak periods. The main focuses were on preventing shop lifting and the street population, including begging and street sleeping. It was noted that during one operation, over £4k worth of stolen stock had been returned.
Ms Sharon Baldwin, Orpington 1st BID Company informed Members that recent events had included a scarecrow trail during half term; the Christmas Lights switch-on which had been expanded and went particularly well; and the Santa Dash which had seen a 26% increase in numbers to over 400 participants.
A project to combat isolation and loneliness had also been taking place in the town centre. Five restaurants had ‘Chat Chairs’, which indicated where people were happy to be joined by others to sit and talk. Work was now being undertaken to look at extending this initiative in different languages. A lanyard scheme had also been introduced for people with disabilities, and staff across the town centre had been trained in showing more tolerance when dealing with these customers.
Members were advised that the town centre vacancy rate was currently 8%, which was well below the national average of 12.5%, however there was still a quick churn rate of occupants. New businesses that had opened in the High Street included a hairdressers and dry cleaners. The old Post Office unit had been taken over by Frampton’s, which following a 12-week fit-out, would open in April 2020. It was noted that the sale of The Walnuts Shopping Centre to Areli Real Estate, would bring significant changes in the town centre. The first consultation event would be taking place at the beginning of March 2020.
RESOLVED that the recent work around Business Improvement Districts and Business Support in the 3rd quarter of 2019/20 be noted.