MINUTES of an OPEN GENERAL MEETING of ST AUSTELL BAY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE held on WEDNESDAY 23rd JULY 2014 at Barclay’s Bank, St. Austell, at 5.45pm.
[Meeting started at: 17.49]
1. Welcome & Apologies from the Chair – David Halton (DH)
Present: Jacky Swain, Mark Lewis, Richard Austin, Jane Hicks, Sonia Bass, Mike Stanford, Susan Ashby, Stephen Nott, Kevin Park, Sean Mitchell, Sally Heard, Mark Torr, Jennifer Burden, Simon Blench, Helen Furneaux, David Avery, Sara Gibson, Tony Cousins, Tony Goodman, Rainer Newton, Ian Chalmers, Jessica Milln.
Also Present: Cllrs Brian Palmer, Malcolm Brown, Jacqui Bull, Anne Double.
Karen Egan, James Vague, Jackie May, Tim Cocks,
Apologies for Absence: James Staughton, Peter Moody, Andrew Robertson, Andy Ward, Chris O’Connell, Dave Watson, Rose Burn, Sam Weller, Shelia Vanloo, Sue Ford, Tessa Claridge, Joy McNeil, Chris Witt,
Apologies sent from invitees: Cllrs Nicky Oxenham, John Keast
Mel Colton-Dyer, Jen Siggs, Stephen Lay, Tony Johnson
Introduction and Welcome of new members to the Chamber – David Halton (DH)
Fran Hanks – Star Leisure Cornwall Ltd
Ian McKend – Mac’s BBQ Ltd
Joy McNeil – Best Western Cliff Head Hotel
Gavin Davis – ALA Architects Ltd
Sean Mitchell - Bishop Fleming
2. Minutes of meeting held on 24th June 2014
Jessica Milln (JM) said that she had received an email from Chris Witt (CW) in reference to item 3, The Business Survey, where it had been recorded that the Chamber had tried to work with BID but they had not been very receptive so we would continue with the Business Survey without their support. CW referred to a meeting the BID board had held on 2nd July where it was agreed that CW would write to the Chamber and invite both parties to sit down and agreed on a business survey that would be mutually beneficial to both parties. The letter has yet to be received, however the email can be taken as an intention.
[DH stated that the Chamber could not accept an adjustment to the minutes. DH stated that Chamber minutes are recorded and so are very accurate, and that the BID decision to invite a meeting came after the Chamber’s own meeting].
It was agreed that these should be APPROVED and signed as a correct record.
3. Brief update from the Chair – Dave Halton
Membership has grown by 33% since the EGM in March = 76 members in total.
Website generated in the last 12mths: £2,016; 10,600 unique visitors; 27,000 page views, just under 5,000 views of news articles; just over 5,000 views of events, nearly 2,500 members viewed. DH asked that members used the website more as it would continue to grow as a result.
[JM said that, for those members who use social media, the more members shared Chamber news and articles on facebook and twitter, the more the views of the website would go up and the better the promotion of their businesses and other businesses in the Chamber.]
It was asked if any members were also members of the Cornwall Chamber and if they saw if as beneficial. The comments were that ‘you would get out a lot if you have the time to put into attending events and so forth.’ It was agreed it would be beneficial on an interactive basis.
A vote, as a show of hands, was taken from members to agree to pay £195 to join the Cornwall CoC and the majority agreed in favour.
It was discussed if the recruitment leaflets could be used as business cards, or if cards would appear more professional when leaving them. Members agreed via a show of hands to approve the printing of business cards.
Cost between £65 - £95 dependant on size, plus some design cost. Members agreed via a show of hands to approve the production of 2 Pop-up banners.
MS gave an update: [Figures obtained this morning for Priory car park]. When asked to look at car parking charges a couple of months ago MS created a list of car parks across Cornwall, what stood out was the charge for the 3 hr rate being much higher than rates for 2 hrs or less and Polkyth car park being much higher than any other in Cornwall. Figures obtained this morning for Priory show the numbers of cars that stayed for 1 hr = 145,000; 2hrs = 109,000; 3hrs drops considerably (at cost £3.90) = 12,000. 4hrs plus (£5.20 - £6.00) = 2,000. This indicates that people are not staying in town for longer than 2 hrs as it is too expensive.
In comparison, Truro for 3 hrs = £3.00.
Every month of the year the percentages are the same. 1hr = 50%, 2hrs = 40%. 3hrs = 4%.
MS makes suggestions that if the parking rate was dropped down to match WRP (1hr = 80p, 2hr = £1.20) and then dropped the 3hr rate to £2.50, MS estimated that we could increase the turnover by encouraging a greater number of visits in the car park that the total income for the car park would raise by about £13,00 per yr.
The advice given is that to get this past Cornwall Council, we have to show that they can still make a profit on the car park. MS promised that he would be working on these figures and proposals a lot more.
Cllr Malcolm Brown (MB) asked to make an observation, stating that he had no council car parks in his division of Bethel Ward. What has happened in the last year is that councillors who represent areas where there are council car parks have been given the chance to put forward proposals to test if charges can be cut and see if income goes up. That is something that Cllr Sandra Haywood would have been involved in. MB advised that the Chamber would really need to speak to her and would get further if you met with her. In Launceston they have done an experiment and income has gone up significantly after the charges were cut.
Mark Lewis (ML) asked if basically the Council would not do anything if it stopped them making money even at the cost of the town making money. MB responded saying that the Council had to save £200 million and so were concerned about undertaking anything that would cost them money. Ian Chalmers (IC) asked if there was evidence that people would wish to stay longer than 2 hrs? Rainer Newton (RN) suggested that an example could be taken from a much cheaper car park at the other end of town where people were staying longer. Cllr Jacqui Bull (JB) offered that Councillors could do a bit of digging by finding out the results of other pilot scheme in other towns.
Deputy Mayor Brian Palmer (BP) commented that one example that could add weight was the fact that Ellandi had reduced parking charges in their own car park and this had had an effect on footfall and in supporting their clients. If the reduced charges could actually show that it could have the effect of increasing revenue through increasing length of stays, that would be the best case to be made.
4. Brief update from the Secretary – Jessica Milln (JM)
1. Junior Chamber / Young Enterprise.
On 26th June – meeting at Penrice School with Dave Watson from Penrice and teachers from Poltair, Fowey and St. Austell College and Lucie Robinson from Young Enterprise (YE). This was to discuss how the Junior Chamber could be moved forward. The teachers from the other schools were concerned that given the time they have, it would be difficult to create a separate Junior Chamber project as well as their YE projects that they are keen to get off the ground. Lucie explained that YE had not been widely taken up by schools in Cornwall and there was a drive to change this. She had come from Manchester where all schools went through this and her own YE project had given her great confidence, as a school highlight, as a result. She explained that she didn’t understand why it hadn’t been happening in Cornwall and she was on a mission to change that.
I suggested that the Chamber would hopefully be able to provide business mentors to be involved in some of those YE projects with the aim of creating a two-way exchange of ideas by inviting the students involved to our meetings and, with the long-term aim of fostering them as ‘young members’ of the Chamber as they start their own careers or businesses in the future.
YE would be 14-19 yrs as the age range and is aimed at the brightest students in the schools and colleges. It is aimed as an additional project for the high-flyers to push them on further.
Becoming involved as a mentor for YE can be very good from the point of view of being able to raise your own business profile. This kind of activity is great for generating stories that the media like to publish. So it should be seen as a two-way benefit.
If members would be interested in assisting, please either contact secretary@staustellchamber.co.uk and I will pass on your details or contact Dave Watson directly.
2. Cornwall College (CC)
JM and Mark Lewis (ML) met Jen Siggs at CC in order to find out how Cornwall College can offer training courses to our members. JM also spoke to Gerald Banks (GB) (Access Training) regarding the free training that is out there, but we are not sure what kind of training businesses want. We need to try to understand the demand and supply of businesses to courses. We have asked for a list of all the courses offered by CC so that we can send it out as part of a survey into training needs. It will be possible, if we have around 8 Chamber members wanting the same kind of training to ask the College or another training provider to put on a specific course for those members.
GB said that a lot of businesses said that they often don’t realise that they need to update their training, e.g. fire safety, food hygiene in order to protect themselves from certain liabilities.
ACTION POINT: JM to distribute a list of Training Courses available to members.
3.Town Council Meeting (21st July 2014)
JM asked if Cllr Brown (MB) could update on the European Funding and the Economic Development Projects. (Cllr Tom French, Cllr Doug Scrafton, Cllr Roy Taylor)
MB explained that in the recent round of European Funding the wider St Austell area came out extremely badly; and Government’s Regional Growth Fund, mostly aimed at transportation, none was for the St. Austell area.
The conclusion is that we need to get much earlier into the game with the next round of European Funding. An idea that has been put to Councillors is to pay the Cornwall Development Company to look at all the projects (public and private sector schemes) and as specialists they would try to assess which projects might be successful in getting European Funding if they were worked up and which wouldn’t. Funding is being worked up for this piece of work to be done. Town Council, Par Big Local and the Environment Agency have so far agreed to put money in. This is a Cornwall led project to which St. Blazey will be putting in more money than St. Austell. Helen Nicholson (HN) will coordinate this.
MB suggested that the Chamber may wish to write to HN and say we would like to get involved and the members to have the opportunity to put forward proposals to be considered under this work and ask to be involved in any way.
The Chamber may wish to put forward our own scheme and proposal to be considered in the future. At the moment it is about raising funds for the work to be done.
JM asked how the Chamber would like to be involved in. MB said it could be anything e.g. from the development at Carlyon Bay, any Town Centre investment, road improvements, proposals to build factories, proposals for training initiatives as a large proportion of European Funding goes on training.
MB stressed that it was important for the Chamber to engage as partners first in the process.
Initially the idea for the Survey came from the Councillors at the SPC meeting in January saying how could they make decisions without up to date information about the town. However, the need for a business survey of town traders was identified in a Chamber meeting as long ago as 19th September 2013 where it was minuted as needing to be a joint Chamber and BID initiative. However this was not progressed.
4. Business Survey
The survey had been ready for launch in May, however after meeting Guy Thomas from Cornwall Council, it was advised that we should be involving BID if possible to avoid conflict.
JM bought the survey to the BID board in early June to ask for their additional input to the questions, however a misunderstanding occurred where they thought they were being asked to endorse it. The BID directors appeared to make objections to certain questions relating to planning, particularly because the words ‘Coyte Farm’ had been included. The Chamber had included these as being information sought by the County Councillors.
CW sent an email on 8th July to say that BID was now ready to sit down with the Chamber to discuss the survey. Unfortunately, as JM was on holiday it was not received until 17th July.
JM stated to the Chamber that, the survey had already taken a great deal of personal time to put together, and would require a huge amount of voluntary time to distribute the survey, input the data and assess the results. However, the survey was to be of no specific benefit for the Chamber, the aim had been to help inform the Town Council and the Town Centre. JM asked if, in fact it was time to draw a line under the whole subject of the survey and leave it; or to even to go the other way and ask for the Town Council and BID to help fund it, as it would be of most value to them.
Cllr Brown (MB) advised that as part of the work on the (Town Framework Plan) TFP, Cornwall Council are already doing surveys on retail sector across Cornwall by the Council’s usual consultants GVA, but that the Chamber should get on with it, because if spend too long trying to please everyone we will miss the boat. MB said that the Survey would be useful to inform the TFP. Mike Stanford (MS) said that if the purpose was to inform the TFP then it did not need the involvement of BID. Most of the area’s business tended to centre on the town centre, so this would inevitably need to be the area that was focused on, but it would also include other areas around St. Austell. JM said that BID were able to commission a survey for their own needs. Rainer Newton (RN) pointed out that the BID remit was for just the town centre only whereas the Chamber also included the wider area, and said that we should sit down with BID to discuss it. DH said that this had been tried and that was what had delayed it. Tony Goodman (TG) stated that BID would only delay it further especially as it would only take up more of JM’s voluntary time and, as it would only be an argument about the questions that Mike Coles considered acceptable, it would be a waste of time and that the Chamber should now get on with it. Sara Gibson (SG) stated that the BID directors were being very blinkered and needed to understand that they are not in charge and needed to start listening to other people including BID levy payers and the outlying area who are all effected by the Town even if not from within the BID boundary.
JM said that the BID had invited the meeting with representatives of the Chamber and asked: ‘does anyone want to meet with BID? Or do we carry on, as the survey has already been delayed through waiting for BID to respond to the initial invitation to contribute?
JM said she personally had no desire to meet with the BID board but was perfectly happy for other members of the Chamber to meet BID and discuss the survey.
JM said that “either I need to answer CW and say that ‘no’ the Chamber does not want to meet with BID or say ‘yes’, these are the representatives and here are some possible dates” *
DH proposed a vote from the Chamber to carry on with the survey now without BID. Members voted in Favour. (APPROVED)
*SG, RN and MS agreed that they were willing to meet with BID in respect of CW’s request. Mark Lewis (ML) and MS said it would have to be within the next few days or not at all in order to complete results for the survey in September. SG stated that it was an opportunity for BID to see and hear what was going on, but if they chose to reject or ignore it, the Chamber should continue. JM would propose some dates to BID no later than a week from this meeting and that would be the DEADLINE. DH said that BID needed to know that the Chamber Members had voted to progress with the survey without BID and that the meeting was now a concession to enable their input if they desired it.
5. New Constitution – David Halton
There has been a 28 day consultation period and a few comments have been received.
Only paying members of the Chamber are able to vote in a new constitution. All 20 members present voted to approve it.
6. Chamber Finance update – Ian Chalmers (IC)
Financial update - 30th June (9mths into year ending September)
£3,485 in General Account, including £2,570 in subscriptions (already slightly more than Chamber had in the year prior).
The net number of Chamber subscriptions is increasing.
No other income or donations coming in to that account, and not much on networking income.
Costs and expenses have been much reduced on last year, the administration costs in particular. No secretarial or office expenses apply at the moment.
Trading surplus is looking healthier, last year we had £263 in the surplus, we have £1,300 surplus now.
A cheque for £540 under the Discovery Map had been written in 2012 and never presented by the recipient (not sure why as before IC’s time) or was duplicated. It has had to be written off as an amount in this period, so a chunk of the Chamber profit for this period is down to that.
£2,557 in Project Account, used to have various donations coming in from St. Austell Town Council and others. We were spending money on Christmas lights that we no longer have the responsibility for. Were a lot of transactions in this account last year and nothing this year. The only thing we have done is pay money out to Colvase Estates, who had donated money in previous years and they asked for it back.
7. Breakfast Meeting 11th of July – Tony Cousins (TC)
28 people came, representing 16 different organisations. Alan Leather Architects rejoined as a result and Cliff Head Hotel joined as new members.
TC thanked Tony Goodman (TG) for arranging the venue, collecting the monies and time keeping which made the meeting very successful from the feedback received.
Good to see Steve and Anne Double attend after their long charity walk.
Feedback for improvement included a Question time, as we had questions but time was tight so there was no time to do that. Suggestion was to charge £1.50 extra for breakfast and hold a raffle and the winner gets a free breakfast. The Britannia was a great venue and their timing was superb. The Cliff Head has agreed to make the same price offer for Breakfast meetings. Next meeting will be at the Britannia on the 12th September and then to perhaps try other venues to move it around. Also to hopefully get a guest speaker from time to time.
The idea is to help us improve our own businesses as well as to promote the Chamber.
DH asked if we should charge £6 for the breakfast meeting so that the Chamber makes a £1. This was agreed.
MAYOR’S CHARITY
DH reminded that the format of the networking meetings at the Gurkha had been to promote the Mayor’s Charity. £10 to attend and eat as much as you want from the buffet, £5 went to the Gurkha and £5 went to the Mayor’s Charity. Members were asked if they still wanted to support this or make some money for the Chamber? TG asked if it always should be at the same venue. The members agreed that it was unlikely to be able to find such a good deal elsewhere and that the Chamber should continue to donate to the Mayor’s charity.
The Gurkha asked if the numbers were low if they could take £7.50. SG suggested that payment for the Gurkha networking should be made up-front so that it was possible to have knowledge of the numbers in advance. JSw commented that if the numbers were very low then the networking event wasn’t actually working for the Chamber.
JM said we need the facility for pre-payment on the website for this and the breakfast meetings. DH said he would add it to his to do list.
8. Carlyon Bay Progress – Richard Austin (RA)
RA represented the Chamber at the opening presentation evening on Thursday 17th July 2014 of the new plans and latest developments for the Beach Project, and as a local resident of Carlyon Bay. RA also attended on Friday to gauge the public’s opinions on the plans. Generally the opinion was very positive. The team was very informative and the architects, directors of Ampersand were there to answer questions. It was expected that the mood from the public might be more confrontational, but the mood seems to be to now get on and do something at last after 10 years of doom and gloom of ‘will it won’t it’. Even from people who were a bit sceptical, they felt that their questions were being answered and went away positively.
The plans show that it is going to be open to the public; it is not closed to the public. There will be a swimming pool, cafés, restaurants and promenade along the front. There will be a slipway to launch boats.
Plan to put to the council at the end of the year in 2 sections. Shorthorn Beach is phase 1 and then Crinnis following. 511 residential apartments over the two beaches.
DH commented that it would be nearly 1,000 jobs during the build and afterwards just over 300 jobs in the operation with the intention of using as many local trades as possible. RA said that the developers appear to be listening to the public.
More information can be learned on the Chamber website, including video link http://www.staustellchamber.co.uk/news/290/carlyon_bay_development
9. Cornwall School of Social Entrepreneurs SSE – Sally Heard (SH)
SSE has been delivering programmes in Cornwall since 2008. For a while Cornwall Development Company http://www.cornwalldevelopmentcompany.co.uk/ provided us with a home. In 2011 we incorporated as a CIC and were based in Lostwithiel and in Nov 2012 we moved into Tregonissey house that has become the SSE Cornwall Hub. What we are looking to create is a really vibrant hub supporting enterprises that are based there. Our Core Business is that we support people who want to develop a social enterprise hence the Social Entrepreneurs. We are part of a National Network with 9 schools across the UK and a further 2 globally in Australia and Canada. We have franchise agreement with SSE London to make a really strong and vibrant relationship.
Our flagship programme is our Lloyds Bank Social Entrepreneurs Programme. This enables us to offer a super and robust programme for up to 20 social entrepreneurs who come to us in the very early stages of an idea. It is robust recruitment to select 20, a year long programme, and part of what they receive from us is a £4,000 start up grant with business training which we’ve learned makes a real difference.
The move to Tregonissey was incredibly important to bring this kind or regeneration to St. Austell. We have offices to let and meeting rooms to hire and want to be able to make that a great little hub for local people.
SH introduced Tim Cox (TCx) who has graduated from the programme as a way of explaining what we do.
Tim Cox said he had joined the army at 16 and left at 18 to join the Fire Service in Falmouth.
“I wasn’t the best Fire Fighter being famous for being only one of two to not pass the qualifications for driving the Fire Engines. After 25 yrs of not being the best Fire Fighter I joined the Phoenix Project helping people on the verge of exclusion running boot camps at fire stations. After 2 years I became the manager and developed it for 10 yrs. It got me thinking that using Fire fighters as role models worked because young people would listen to them more than they would to the police, parents, social workers or anyone else.
“I managed to win a contract from DWP in helping young people into employment. I was passionate about working with communities, older people as well as young people. However they immediately wanted to know my company name, my business plan, my articles of association and so forth. All things I knew nothing about having never needed to do them before. Luckily I’d met Sally through some of the work with the Phoenix Project, who said don’t worry we can help you do it all. I set up and CIC called Active Plus that meant I could accept a £5,000 grant to help people over 50 get back into employment.
“The idea of using role models became difficult as retired Firemen and Policemen had other things they wanted to do. So I hit upon using Military Veterans who either had physical or mental health issues but as they had a great amount of skills and credibility people trust them. I thought I might be able to train them up to deliver some courses.
“The original grant was to run three courses, from that I got a contract from the DMP to deliver every course in Cornwall and from that 30% of the people went into employment which was a better result than any other National Organisation who were training in employment skills.
“Military Veterans are often all at extremely low points in their lives, experiencing poverty, family breakdowns, relying on charities and sometimes contemplating suicide and yet they can inspire others and benefited in self-esteem too.
“We had a veteran who used to run spy rings whose skills meant he could teach about people perceptions and first impressions, i.e. how to present yourself to give a good first impression. Another used to interrogate Iraqi prisoners who were able to teach interview techniques.
“We have now run courses to help around 1,000 people and we are now running courses to help people who are lonely and isolated and to teach them about how to be safer in their own homes and how not to be a victim.
“We are now delivering courses in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire. Recently I have been asked to go to Exeter, Taunton and London to talk to Public Health England about how to talk to people with Mental Health Issues.
“Just got a contract with Mulberry Handbags to teach leadership skills to their junior management. From small things great things can happen.
SH added that we have people coming through the SSE door, people with Tim’s level of enthusiasm and skills, we step in to give them business acumen skills to make those ideas and aspirations into a sustainable business. We push forward that social enterprise is about making a profit and it is what they do with that profit to plough it back into the enterprise.
10. Any Other Business
Please contact Mark Lewis (ML) mark@staustellchamber.co.uk if you are interested in being a Business Mentor for small start up businesses. This is already off the ground and has already had mentors help businesses with their business plans etc.
ML also advised that we should be helping and supporting traders in the town preferably via BID with plans in the run up to Christmas. Our next meeting is in September that puts it right in the time when plans for Christmas should be right under way.
If anyone would be interested in forming a sub-committee with ML to assist traders and hospitality with this, please get in touch.
11. Date of next Chamber meeting plus any other diary dates – David Halton
No Chamber meeting for August, next date: 24th September 2014 – venue to be decided.
[Meeting ended at: 19.25]
