MARCH ���6
BIDNEWS
ZONE
I AM VERY PLEASED TO INTRODUCE YOU TO OUR FIRST NEWSLETTER OF
So much has happened over the past few months and it’s great to share with you my hopes and enthusiasm for the upcoming year. We are now over half way through our BID 5 year term and have conducted our Mid-term Review. I am so grateful to those of you who contributed to this research, it has been tremendously helpful to us as we embark on this fourth year. As always your responses to our annual survey have been fundamental to our planning for the next financial year. We are keen to share with you upcoming developments, dates for your diaries, and some progress on key initiatives which I trust you will read with interest. The BID team is working very hard to make Southend a safer, more appealing and successful destination town for businesses and visitors alike. I hope our enthusiasm is evident. We have introduced a new committee member to our Board. Dawn, our Chair, and I are delighted that Alan will be sharing his knowledge and love for Southend with us. In fact, the support of the Board in general is so valuable to us for the delivery of what I anticipate to be another productive and successful year for Southend.
SOUTHEND BID signs up to DISC DISC - Database & Intranet For Safer Communities DISC is the most widely used system for business crime reduction partnerships in the UK. It helps organisations to reduce crime by sharing valuable information among their members efficiently, effectively and securely, and encourages member-participation and engagement. We will be launching the system in phases over the coming weeks and would encourage businesses to sign up to the scheme. For more information, please email hello@southendbid.com
www.southendbid.com
You may also be interested to read a brief summary of YOOHOPP, our online shopping platform, which is growing in success and popularity daily. Thank you for your continued support and encouragement. I very much look forward to working with you and for you this year. Yours sincerely,
Alison Dewey BID Manager
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We are very pleased to have acquired the DISC system for Southend. This will help to reduce crime making Southend a safer place to be. Alison Dewey, BID Manager
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In the meantime you can read more about DISC by visiting www.littoralis.com According to our Annual Survey; 89% of you value our efforts to make our town safer. 2016 will see us invest even further to improve town safety
thesouthendbid
Southend_BID
MARCH ���6
TEAM TALK
We are delighted to welcome Alan Bacon to our Board.
Alan is the most recent member of our committee to become a Director. Alan is a Director at BTMK and specialises in Personal Injury & Clinical Negligence. Admitted as a solicitor in 1982 and a member of The Law Society Personal Injury Panel since 1994, Alan practices exclusively in the
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field of personal injury litigation and has over 25 year’s experience in personal injury and clinical negligence work, specialising in ‘catastrophic’ injury claims. BTMK is an established Essex legal firm with extensive experience and expertise in all areas of the law.
The committee are delighted to offer a very warm welcome to Alan. As a local, he brings with him a wealth of knowledge and we are very pleased to have him on board.
Alan Bacon
Alison Dewey, BID Manager
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is our exciting new shopping website, which allows users to shop Southend high street in one place. As well as big name national retailers, YOOHOPP is home to a number of local independent shops, helping visitors to the site to uncover those hidden gems they didn’t even know were in our town centre. Since launching in November 2015 we have had around 14,000 page views. Predominantly for women (69%) aged between 25 & 34 (22%), 35 & 44 (24%) and 45 to 54 (21%)
Work is currently underway to increase traffic to this site, ultimately increasing visitors to Southend. We will keep you updated as this site grows in popularity and profile.
14,000 Page vi ew s
We know how much you love our Rangers We are pleased to announce, we are currently recruiting a new Ranger to join our team. If you know of any suitable candidates please encourage them to register their interest by emailing their CV to hello@southendbid.com
BUNTING
& BANNERS
If you’ve ventured down our high street and some of the side streets recently, you have no doubt welcomed the return of the colourful bunting and banners. We hope you’ll agree how bright and vibrant the town centre looks now the banners and bunting are back in place.
ANNUAL SURVEy Thanks to all of you who responded to the Southend BID Annual Survey in Oct/Nov 2015. Over 55% of you responded . This feedback is extremely valuable and is used to help guide budgeting and planning for the next financial year.
Here are just some of the things we are adding to our delivery this year based on your feedback: 1. Increased lobbying on issues that matter to business 2. An additional Street Ranger 3. A new and improved visitor information platform (website and printed material) in conjunction with Southend Borough Council 4. Increased floral coverage for the town
www.southendbid.com
5. Introduction of DISC – a business crime reduction partnership database 6. New additions to Southend events calendar 7. Increased child Safety Scheme – doubling the size
Our A Survey nnual what w confirms e alread y knew ;
90% of you va Street R lue our angers
8. Networking events for BID businesses 9. Continued support of the Southend Film Festival 10. Inclusion of 4D Light Show in Christmas activity
The BID will provide more information on these projects at the beginning of the new financial year.
Child Safety Scheme As spring emerges and the crowds start flocking back to our town, it’s time to turn our attention once again to our much loved Child Safety Scheme. We now have over 20 sites offering these wrist bands for parents
to write their mobile number on and attach to their child’s wrist. If you would like to offer these bands to your customers please email us at hello@southendbid.com and one of our Rangers will gladly bring a supply down to you.
thesouthendbid
Southend_BID
MARCH ���6
Dates
for your diary
The Italian Festival... will be returning to Southend high street on Saturday 3rd September 2016 and will be even bigger and better than last year.
OUTDOOR Sing-a-long Cinema... returns to the Forum Southend on Sea. Delivered by The White Bus Company and brought to you by OnSouthend. This year’s film, Mamma Mia will be shown on Sunday 22nd May 2016. This event is free to attend.
WEBSITE REVAMP Look out for our new look website. This site is the result of much work between Southend BID and the Southend Tourism Partnership. The new site is hosted by Southend BID. This site combines all the relevant information from the previous sites for OnSouthend and Visit Southend. The new site will be launched in April. We’ll keep you informed as this project progresses.
We k Annual now, from our Survey that at least of you are kee n for us t o events repeat the Itali su Sing-a- an Festival an ch as long Ou d the tdoor C inema. We’re c urrently working on their delivery .
56%
Southend-on-Sea Central Area Action Plan As you are no doubt aware, Southend-OnSea Borough Council recently released its Central Area Action Plan (SCAAP) for public consultation. Any changes to the Central Area are clearly of importance to our BID members and therefore, following consultation with you all, we submitted a BID response: The BID believes these areas need further consideration: • Transport, access and parking • Highway Infrastructure
(SCAAP)
The BID wholly supports: • Improvements to the public realm • Enhancement and retention of key views • Vastly improved connectivity from the car parks to the seafront,car parks to the high street and the creation of active public spaces in an otherwise linear high street. • The view that spatially the high street and connections to the seafront are inappropriate configuration for regeneration and commercial vitality.
The BID most strongly opposes the Fossetts Farm proposals and any movement of retail away from the SCAAP area and Town Centre. The proposed redevelopment of Roots Hall Stadium is predicated on the Football Club relocating to Fossetts Farm with a significant volume of retail use. Whilst the redevelopment and relocation of the Stadium to this site is supported, the BID does not support the proposal to include a considerable retail offering at Fossets Farm, this would see the end of the high street as a retail offer. The BID will keep you updated.
GET IN TOUCH WITH THE BID BY EMAILING: HELLO@SOUTHENDBID.COM
thesouthendbid
Southend_BID