Agenda item

Lesley Crisp presented the item.

-Dacorum continues to outperform the County and National 5 year new business survival rate at 46.5%.

-We have secured funding from Regional European Development Fund which allows us to work with businesses under 3 years and offer them free training and free workshops. 66 new signups and 64 new jobs have been created in the last year through that programme alone.

-518 visits with established businesses in the area to ensure they have what they need from Dacorum.

- New business centre opens at Kylna Court in January hosting 8 serviced offices of which we have filled 7 already.

- We have run 57 workshops in the past year to upskill businesses and their staff on sub-skills and that has brought in just over £29,000 with a profit of just over £4,000.

-Breakdown of investment can be circulated to everyone.

-Town Centre events have been put on eg: Halloween event and the Christmas Lights switch on.

Cllr Birnie asked who is funding the Dacorum Ambassadors.

L Crisp replied that it is self- funding although the Council has contributed to get the team going. It was only ever temporary.

Cllr Birnie said that we claim we are above the average for new businesses but he knows that St Albans over a five year period had a better percentage than ours – is there anything we can learn from them?

L Crisp responded that we work quite closely with them so she is happy to speak to them to find if we are ‘missing a trick’.

Cllr Hicks asked how much of spend for events, functions and subsidised offices was used outside Hemel Hempstead itself.

L Crisp said that all areas are covered and there are often visits to rural businesses as well but events tend to be in Hemel Hempstead Town Centre.

Cllr Matthews asked if studies had been done on start- up and mid- range accommodation for growing businesses and whether we had the right mix.

L Crisp explained that a regular business survey was done and there is a gap between the 1500 square foot and the 3000 square foot space. Work is being done to improve this.  Kylna Court is aimed specifically at move on businesses so these offices are for 6-12 people.

Cllr Anderson asked if we are able to do something about this using the local planning process.

J Doe said that there were actually 2 strands – the business survey and the employment land study across SW Herts and that informs us how much new space we need and we will be addressing this as we move through the local plan between now and Summer next year.

Cllr Ransley remarked that we had lost a lot of space which was used for start-up businesses and small business to re-development for housing and asked where the priority is.

J Doe replied that it was a problem particularly in Tring, and that although space was being added through the extension to the Icknield Way employment scheme that was really for the larger business need. We are intending to introduce through  an article 4 direction which will cover a lot of Maylands,  Icknield Way and the two sites in Berkhamsted River Park and Northbridge Road which would take away those permitted development rights and save further losses through the permitted development route for residential.

L Crisp was asked whether the Chamber of Commerce Meetings in Berkhamsted and the Business Smart in Tring are attended and she replied that they were.

Cllr Birnie said that he was concerned about retailers, in particular the Old Town where the rents are now high.

Cllr Anderson asked whether the rent increases were a result of the business rate valuations.

J Doe was unsure of the answer to this, but he confirmed that most of the Old Town was in private ownership with the council only owning a few properties.

Cllr Birnie said that he felt whether or not we own the properties we need to do something to support the area. He added that one of the complaints he has had is regarding the lack of public transport, and the distance from the car parks to the shops.

J Doe confirmed that public transport has been looked into in the past there is a limited service now.  He added that there is provision for parking on the street. 

Cllr Anderson remarked that the reason Homebase left the town was the rent.

Cllr Harden asked about Dacorum sub-contracting to Visit Herts. They have not met the SLA’s, so what mechanisms are we putting in place to make sure that we can deliver on the action plan of better tourism for our borough, due to concerns with Visit Herts.

J Doe said that we meet regularly with Visit Herts and have raised our concerns. He added that it was something he would be taking up with Cllr Sutton as portfolio holder to see what our approach would be for tourism for the next year. 

Cllr Sutton said that at present negotiations are going on for a new contract with the market which is in the town centre and we are trying to involve that operator to be more active in the Old High Street and that will be one of the conditions that is in the contract.  He felt that we have seen the Old High Street become more of a night time economy, which has made the premises more desirable for Restaurants and that type of trade rather than the niche businesses. As far as parking is concerned – it has been the same for many years.  He added that Dacorum should be amazingly proud of what has been achieved, we have a thriving business community thanks to having a proactive team that have developed that.

Cllr Marshall made an observation on buses – she said that she was very keen on the extension of services, but for the time being the distance between the bus stops at the end of Queensway and the Old High Street is about equal to the distance from the bus station in The Marlowes to the end of The Marlowes. She said that pamphlets in a stand in Asda, the Sports Centre and other locations are not representative of this borough but all about other areas that Visit Herts promote.

Cllr Ransley said they have had to reproduce leaflets in Tring as the demand for them had been so high.  Cllr Matthews added that there is a huge amount of information available, someone should gather it.

Cllr Anderson spoke to the meeting about Destination Dacorum which was updated when we had a tourism officer and went down the digital route which is more economical.

J Doe said that Visit Herts was asked as part of their remit to handle information going out.  We could not sustain the resource of a Tourism Officer, it was only a temporary initiative to promote the Borough through the Dacorum Look No Further programme.

Cllr Marshall suggested that it was because Visit Herts may not have the material to put out.

AP – L Crisp to go back to Visit Herts and see what they have and what they need.

Cllr Harden said that in the action plan it say between 2017 and 2020 you are going to increase the value and volume of tourism in Dacorum by £25 million – queried whether we are looking in the next three years to double the amount of tourism into Dacorum and where the figures have come from.

L Crisp answered that according to Visit Herts this was doable but the plan was written when we still had a tourism officer in place. The figure has come from Visit Herts, we need to have talks with them.

Cllr Birnie asked how much the contract has cost Dacorum and was told it was £26,000 a year, other boroughs are paying £5,000 for some tourism cover which is probably what we would choose for the future so that we are in line with the other boroughs.

Cllr’s Timmis and Anderson discussed the naming and perception of Dacorum and Hemel Hempstead.

Cllr Hicks spoke about Tring and mentioned that Visit the Chilterns did some work on their tourism, he also felt that leaflets have to be carefully considered as 8 out of 10 will end up in the bin, especially if they are just in a stand in a hotel or another business rather than somewhere people have gone specifically to find information for the area. He suggested an electronic stand illustrating what we have available.

Cllr Sutton expressed concern that he has been underwhelmed at the Visit Herts meetings he has attended by the representation that has been put forward for Dacorum. They have pushed Knebworth and Harry Potter World but very little that happens in Dacorum. He said that together with James and the team he will discuss this to look for a solution.

Cllr Silwal asked how many members were in the Hemel Hempstead Business Ambassadors scheme and L Crisp replied that there were 71. 

Cllr Anderson proposed that the team were congratulated and the report was approved.  It was agreed by the Committee.