Business

Business Council scoops nearly £10m for town

By Karen Bate

Yeovil has secured a £9.75m Future High Street grant to regenerate parts of the town. The grant will give the Yeovil Refresh programme a major boost that will see improvements made to the town’s public spaces and development sites. Changes will be made to Westminster Street, The Borough, upper Middle Street, including Wine Stree), Middle Street (East), Middle Street (West) and The Triangle. Work will see a new square at the Triangle for events and activities will create a new focal point for that part of town. The Borough and High Street will become a shared space and will reduce the dominance of traffic passing through the area. Work to Middle Street will aim to make it easier for pedestrians to navigate by creating connecting spaces. The FHSF grant will also provide funding to attract future developments at the Old Cattle Market and Glovers Walk. Councillor Val Keitch, Leader of South Somerset District Council, said: “When we embarked on this ambitious programme of change for Yeovil, as a council we said that we would deliver exciting projects that will bring positive and lasting change, guided by what local people want to see. I’m really excited to be the leader of a local council that will be delivering local projects for local people through funding of our own and also the Future High Street Fund.” Jan Gamon, director for place and recovery at South Somerset District Council, said: “Yeovil needs to adapt to the changing needs of town centres where more people want to leisure than shop because they can easily do that online. The Future High Street Fund enables the District Council to really deliver on its promises to transform Yeovil and enable it to be a place to live, work, shop, learn and visit.” For more information go to yeovilrefresh.co.uk.

It’s time to concentrate on the world trade outside the EU

One swallow does not a summer make. This maxim alludes to the return of migrating swallows in early summer. It owes its origins to Aesop’s fable The Young Man and the Swallow. The Greek Philosopher Aristotle was first to coin the precise words: “One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy”, The unusual English word order when translated from the Greek may have been influenced by “Stone walls do not a prison make,” written by Richard Lovelace in 1642 when a prisoner during the English Civil War. Turning seamlessly (as one does) to exporting from the Blackmore Vale, the national economic recovery is reflected in our own business with several swallows already. In the international locationbased entertainment industry, 2020 was a market wipeout never seen before – across the world – in living memory. But 90 per cent of the British economy carried on during 2020 much the same. Britain is predominately a service economy. Our first new maze commission of 2021 came from an English couple whose international business was untouched by the pandemic. Private commissions are typically less affected by economic downturns, since accumulated private wealth can ride them out. Marketing and sales efforts should definitely include private clients. Two past clients in France and the Low Countries now want to enhance their mazes; repeat business is often the best, so another message is to maintain contact with past customers, and keep your website enticing for new enquiries. In the United States, a longstanding client is now ready to get underway with a series of themed destinations, to open in spring 2022. Another company is preparing to launch a series of leisure locations, initially in South East Asia. Since we are a service company, there has never been import duty on our fees under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, whether selling into countries like the USA, India or Singapore, or now the EU. One new project is actually being generated by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic, but that is for another time. There is always a lot of work involved rebuilding sales from a total or partial standing start. Now is an excellent time to increase the emphasis towards the 85 per cent of world trade beyond the EU, where the greatest prospects for economic growth can be found. This is not to neglect the EU, whose economy is unlikely to grow so much in the short term. Let our swallows fly and multiply!

n Adrian Fisher OBE is an award-winning maze designer from Durweston