St Leonard's
Business Association.
South Coast Enterprise.
The January 2009 Newsletter is published week starting 12/1/2009.
The Chairman’s report Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
A Member’s letter Page 5
Page 6
Local Small Business development Page 7
Page 8
Chairman’s Report
Another year has past by. We won the issue over the parking meters, with the support of all the S.B.A. members and the committee to which the S.B.A. was formed. If only our Council had listen to us in the first place, not only would they have saved all the money on consultancies, they would have built up a better trust between us and them..
We have been actively involved this year with well over 20 meetings over the regeneration; we have helped members with specific problems over fly tippers and licensing problems. Monitoring the implications of the parking plans as they are imposed. We have been attending meetings with Council Officials to support the Kings Road businesses, and having discussion over the implementations of the regeneration fiasco for Kings Road. Vic my (Vice Chairman) although retired from his business last year has stayed actively involved in all aspects of the S.B.A. attending meetings with me or standing in for me on some occasions, he has been actively involved in producing the yearly news letter, we have both had a very busy year but I would personally like to thank Vic and the rest of the committee members for their hard work this year. Thanks for the support of Ten Sixty Six Enterprise the Chamber of Commerce, practically Linda Williams who is also our Treasurer and Secretary
I would like to congratulate all the businesses in and around central St Leonards on Sea for taking part in the best dressed window display. Feed back from the public has been positive and complimentary.
With regards to the cup put up by the S.B.A. for the best dressed window; this was introduced as a bit of fun to encourage you all to make an effort; this would have appeared to work by the look all your window displays.
We understand that the judges of the competition had a very difficult job in separating the window displays; it took them three to four days to decide this year’s winner, (congratulations to the winner).Let’s hope this has been treated as a little bit of camaraderie between all of you. Well done every one lets make it even bigger next year.
The S.B.A. Membership is growing and getting stronger each year, the more members we have the greater force we will have in deciding the future of St Leonards on Sea.
We are still running voluntarily and free to all members so introduce your fellow businesses to the S.B.A. and get them to join.
Bill Orton Chairman
Page 3
Page 4
Well what a year we have had, the regeneration work seems to be on going, with Silchester Road running weeks over time, and then road alterations having to be dug up and replaced within a short time owing to loose stones causing problems. The road works at Marina had to be altered as there appeared to be an over sight in not allowing parking facilities for vehicles to load and unload whilst delivering to the shops and Hotels. The new paving is split and looks if it has been there for years.
The S.B.A. has been involved in trying to get lighting erected in St Leonards on Sea for the Christmas period. The old lighting display appears to have gone past its sell by date. We where told there were no funds available from H.B.C to replace them. We had severally meetings to try to replace them but the cost was out of reach even though the H.B.C. offered to help with 50% of the cost.
Neighbourhood Co-ordinator Terry Drinkwater managed to acquired some Christmas lighting at a subsidised price of just a £1.00 a set, hoping to encourage the shops to decorate there windows and to entice shoppers to the area. Perhaps not surprisingly these were very quickly snapped up, those who managed to obtain them please keep them safe and try to add to them ready for a even better display from everyone next year. A street market was organized on the 6th December followed by late night opening on the 19th December both events were reasonably supported but it would have been nice to have seen more people there.
A big thank you to Terry Drinkwater and his team for all their efforts in organizing the lights, market day, and the late night opening, with out them none of this would have happened.
The S.B.A. put up a cup for the best dressed window display to encourage shops to decorate their windows, this was judged by the Father Tim of Christchurch and Sylvia Bennett (Chair Gensing & St Leonards Forum) their decision was that Solo Hair & Beauty of Silchester Road was the winner of the cup, the runner up was Shaw’s Hair Dressers Norman road, this was presented at the late night shopping on the 19th December, Peridot Jewellers Ltd of London Road kindly sponsored the cup.
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The new parking restrictions are at this moment being implemented with echelon parking in Warrior Square and a one zone parking restriction in London Rd, Kings Rd, and Norman Rd will follow. We all hope this will help the parking for shoppers to shop in the area. The regeneration of Kings Road is about to start but some businesses are worried that with the recession on us all that it could have an adverse effect.
We would like to thank the following businesses for their support with sponsoring prizes to the public, as an enticement to get them to visit and shop in the area on the days of the events.
Adams & Jarrett’s Retail Ltd (46” Television)
Alpha Café (Luxury Hamper)
Essence Beauty Parlour (Luxury pamper day)
Hair De-zign (Cut & Blow Dry)
Hairzone (£20 voucher)
The Royal Hotel (Sunday lunch for two)
C Orton Butchers (Meat Vouchers)
Vic Homewood (Vice Chairman)
Members Letter
By now you would have all seen that the work has started on the echelon parking scheme in Warrior Square.
This work will increase the parking capacity by at least another 20 cars, which in my view has got to be good! (It’s just a pity the council did not do it 15 to 20 years ago when it was first suggested by Bill Orton!)
I suppose the only worry is that the work will take forever with delay after delay (like Silchester Road) and cause problems with customers parking to shop in the area. Lets hope the contractors get on with it and finish the job ASAP.
On that note, if the Kings Road project is going ahead, the council and contractors must realise that it must be done as fast as possible, with the least amount of inconvenience to business and customers. The consequences of long delays do not bear thinking about for our members in Kings Road.
I understand discussions are still in progress with East Sussex County Council and Hastings Borough Council to get them to reconsider certain aspects of the project, such as the proposed closure of Cross Street, whether anything will come of this time will tell.
As we all go into the biggest recession for 50years, I think we can all be proud of what we have all achieved in fighting off the proposed parking meters.
If we had not won this battle, and the area was now covered with parking meters and traffic wardens, I think we would have all have been facing an even more difficult future.
R E Tailer S.B.A. Member
Below a report from the E R T Magazine
BUSINESS rate supplements could add £160 million a year to the tax bills of retailers who are already paying more than any other sector for business rates.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) was unhappy with the power assigned to local authorities in the Business Rate Supplementary (BRS) Bill announced after last week’s Queen’s Speech.
The Bill gives councils the right to raise taxes directly from local businesses for the first time in nearly 20 years.
This Bill gives local authorities the power to clobber businesses with a hefty new stealth tax,” said BRC director-general Stephen Robertson.
“Retailers already pay £5 billion a year in business rates— more than any other sector
— and BRS would see them forking out an extra £ 160m a year. When you combine this with other property cost increases, including the 2010 Rates Revaluation and the end of Empty Property Rate Relief, this is another burden retailers can ill afford,” he said.
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Page 6
St Leonard’s Small Business – A Catalyst to Local Development
Should I say unless you have been living on planet Mars or Jupiter for the last few months, surely you would have heard of that familiar phrase ‘Credit Crunch’.
Business has been very slow and cash flow constraint has been a big headache for most businesses. So, how do we as members of SBA (St Leonard Business Association) weather the storm, so to speak?
Just a few suggestions to keep momentum going for Christmas and beyond…
• Members must continue to pursue relentlessly with the Local Authority the right to have a fair and unbridled parking control system that will encourage and ensure good business and survival of existing small business.
• Reduce overhead cost by cutting down on waste and non essentials.
• Give full support to the Local Council initiative for return of street market trading in St Leonards. This will not only improve sales but expose existing businesses to non local customers and to healthy competition.
• We should imbibe the spirit of doing more business and trading amongst ourselves. For example; If Bits’n’Bits needs a pack of A4 size printing papers, Kings Stationers in Kings Road should be the first port of call and not W. H. Smith in Hastings. Similarly, for any basket ware products, Bits ‘n’ Bits offers a variety.
• Let us make it our responsibility to comply with existing parking controls and provide more parking space for customers. It is no use for traders to park their cars all day at the expense of customers. If customers do not have parking facility, we will have no business.
Wishing all members and customers a very warm prosperous New Year. Please keep up the old spirit.
Solomon Ezobi Bits’n’ Bits S.B.A Member
S.B.A. Committee members
Mr Bill Orton , Chairman, Norman Rd
Mr Vic Homewood, Vice Chairman
Mrs Linda Williams, Treasurer
Mrs Linda Williams, Secretary
Mr Nick Bridger , Norman Rd
Mr Mark Rogers, London Rd
Mr Solomon Ezobi, Kings Rd
Mr Graham King, Kings Rd
Miss Emma Lincoln, Kings Rd
Mr John Greenhalf Marina
Mr Terry Dalton Gensing Rd
Mr Andy Wilder St Johns Rd
Mr Will Redford Silchester Rd
Mrs Carol Redmond Silchester Rd
Mr Andrew Harpere Resident
Mrs Ruth Adams Resident
The S.B.A. would like to thank the members who contributed their letters and veiws in this years news letter
