Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Howard Room, Parkside, Chart Way, Horsham

Contact: Email: committeeservices@horsham.gov.uk  Direct Line: 01403 215465

Items
No. Item

18.

Notes of previous meeting

To receive the notes of the meeting held on 19 December 2019 (to follow)

Minutes:

The Group received the notes of the meeting held on the 19th December 2019.

19.

Business Improvement District (BID) for Horsham Town Centre

To update the Group on the Business Improvement District project, following the Cabinet decision on 24 January to agree the £70,500 funding required to progress the BID to the ballot stage

Minutes:

The Head of Economic Development provided the Group with an update on the BID for Horsham Town Centre.

 

The proposal for a BID had been approved by Cabinet. The next steps were to make progress in the procurement process with the Economic Development team drafting the relevant tender.

 

The ballot stage should begin in 2020.

 

The Group were pleased with this outcome and the progress being made.

20.

Christmas Parking in Horsham Town Centre

To present to the Group details of parking performance in the Town Centre car parks and how they coped with demand over the Christmas period

Minutes:

The Head of Parking Services presented a summary review of Parking in the town centre throughout the Christmas period.

 

Various concerns were raised in the lead up to the Christmas period that included; the reduction of parking spaces due the closure of Piries Place; severe weather; equipment reliability; Christmas related events being held in the town; and a spike in vandalism before the Christmas period, especially relating to car park lifts.

 

The Parking Services team tried to negate these concerns by; providing additional spaces in the town centre, opening more parking spaces in the Swan Walk car park; Hurst Road car park had re-opened after having a re-design to provide more spaces; Dukes Square and Parkside car parks were opened to the public during evenings and weekends; leaflets were sent to businesses, posters were put up, posts were made to social media, a press release was put out, and there was staff on site throughout the period to inform the public of where they could park. The staff that were on site could help members of the public, take payments via tablet and provide equipment maintenance.

 

 

21.

Christmas in Horsham Town Centre

To brief the Group on business activity and footfall in the Town Centre during Christmas 2018, and to look ahead to Christmas 2019  

Minutes:

The Town Centres & Events Manager summarised a report on the footfall in Horsham Town Centre during the 2018 Christmas period.

 

It was reported that footfall in the town centre held up well even with the closure of Piries Place car park, severe weather and the current redevelopment sites.

 

Looking to next year’s Christmas period the new Piries Place car park will be open, other redevelopment sites will have been completed and there will be new shops and trading opportunities in Swan Walk. The Town Centre & Events team will be looking to develop existing Christmas events, look again at a cabin-based market to run during the period, re-use well received events and ideas provided in the Year of Culture and also continue the Window Wonderland shop windows and displays campaign.

22.

Julia Donaldson Experience

To present to the Group a proposal to bring a visitor attraction opportunity to Horsham from 2020, based on local author Julia Donaldson’s books

Minutes:

The Town Centre & Events Manager reported that the Economic Development team are currently looking to see if a new permanent visitor attraction based on the works of Julia Donaldson would be feasible from 2020.

 

The Group were in favour of exploring this idea.

23.

Town Centre Entry Signs

To brief the Group on a proposal to refresh the town entry signs on the approaches to Horsham Town Centre.  The existing signs were installed 14 years ago and improvements will include larger, better presented signs

Minutes:

The Town Centre & Events Manager presented the case for refreshing the Town Centre Entry Signs around the town.

 

The new signs would be larger and the locations will be altered to improve and aid visibility.

 

The new signs would be visually updated to incorporate the District Visitor Economy branding and the latest HDC logo and Year of Culture logo during 2019. The signs would also display a ‘Thank you for visiting’ message on their reverse and the graphics would be easily changeable due to their design.

24.

Forward Plan Extract for the Local Economy Portfolio pdf icon PDF 106 KB

To note the Forward Plan extract for the Local Economy Portfolio

Minutes:

The group noted the relevant item appearing on the Forward Plan.