Items on the agenda will be:
Chair’s report
Treasurer’s report
Elections
Any other business

Points that will be discussed are; Christmas past and future, the Portas report, the Olympic torch visit and St Leonards Festival, new initiatives for traders, subscriptions.

Despite all these things we hope it will be a friendly, informative and short meeting and would really value your company.

If there is anything that you, as a member, would like raised please contact someone on the committee, (http://csba.co.uk/membership/committee/), preferably Carol or Matthew. Also if you want to be on committee, (and we would welcome new blood and new viewpoints), please try and let us know.

 We believe that one way of achieving this is to co-ordinate a local Student Discount Scheme. 

 The purpose is to bring together all the local offers that are available and promote them to our local student population.

 If you already offer a discount and would like to participate in this co-ordinated scheme just fill in the enclosed form with details of your current offer and return to us.

 If you don’t offer any student discount at the moment and would like to take part just fill in the enclosed form with details of the offer you would like to make.  A student discount can be a way of bringing in new customers and keeping them coming back for more. 

 About our local students

There is a growing number of students in Hastings and St Leonards.

• We have 3300 students at Sussex Coast College aged over 16.
• We have 1000 students at Brighton University in Hastings aged 18 upwards.
• We have 35,000 Language Students visiting Hastings throughout the year of all ages. 
• We also have a number of Sixth Form students studying at local schools.

DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE DOCUMENT HERE

Anyway, the St Leonards Portas Pilot bid is in. There are lots of ‘we want to‘ bits but very few ‘this is how we will do it‘ bits, which seems a shame. But the SBA endorsed it anyway, because they listened to us. They might have shrunk our ideas down to 4 words, but they are important words, (sadly without any ‘how to’ bits.)

Grow sustainable new independents

Which I’m sure will do the trick, win the bid, make the donkey face the right direction etc etc.

Now we wait until late May.

SBA position is that we are not overwhelmed but are not going to kibosh anything. Please go along and have your say.

“ENVIRONMENTAL lobby groups are urging the Government not to approve the Bexhill Link road in the next few days claiming it could be the most damaging scheme in England. The Campaign for Better Transport, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Greenpeace UK, Friends of the Earth, Hastings Alliance, Sussex Wildlife Trust and Sussex Countryside Trust have written to the Secretary of State Justine Greening urging her not to approve the scheme….”

Many think the lack of a link road actively hurts business, keeping St Leonards semi isolated. Over the next few days we’ll see if the governments priorities lie with regeneration, job creation and business, or in other areas.

There are going to be 12 trial schemes called ‘Portas Pilots’, and St Leonards on Sea is going to bid to be one of them.

There are various criteria to be met, and the deadline is 30th March 2012, which is very soon.

The scheme is been proposed by Councillor Birch, and HBC contacts are Pranesh Datta and Terry Drinkwater.

If you would like to lend a hand please contact them directly or one of the SBA committee members.

“A third of London’s small businesses now sell their products exclusively online, according to a survey.

Some 34 per cent of small firms in the capital operate without a physical presence on the high street, PeoplePerHour’s annual Small Business Survey found.

Even small businesses which do not trade exclusively online are finding that ecommerce is key to the success of their firm. Six out of 10 (61 per cent) of London’s small businesses now make more than half of their sales online, the survey found.”

Are you online? Are you using the web as a marketing tool? A selling tool, even a sales channel? Because many of your competitors are, and when the overall spend is down competing for the trade that is there, is crucial.

There are lots of local web designers with very different skills from the arty to the businesslike: check Hastings Creatives for a list.

Just a quick update on the state of play for SBA members and all St Leonards Traders.

• In the next financial year Council spending will be 50%, (read it again, 50%) down on a couple of years ago.
• There will be no money for traders, no money for regeneration schemes, no money to help the private sector, (which includes artists as well as businesses), no money at all.
• Parking and Roads will be moving to East Sussex County Council. They are more likely to say “who” rather than “how can I help” when we ring them about parking issues.
• It looks like we are odds on for a double dip recession, beginning when Greece goes toes up.
• No-one in St Leonards seems to give a patootie about future marketing or any plans to try and bring visitors and money into the area.

On the bright side we have:

• Olympic torch coming through
• Olympics
• Jubilee

Sadly no-one got in contact with any ideas for these.

To compete we need a plan, a strategy, some idea of how we are going to market St Leonards.

If you go on the internet a Google around a bit you will see that lots, LOTS, of other small towns are further down the road with this.

They have planned, they have put those plans into action. And they are getting the trade we want.

We cannot rely on external funding for this. With money extremely short the council will support local essential services not private sector shops.

So what do we do?

First we see who wants to help, to contribute ideas, to get this moving.

Then the group starts work.

Interested? Please email Matthew on info@sba-online.co.uk and we can arrange a chat.

• No super large pubs, or high concentration of pubs
• Water: by the sea, or a river, or a lake.

St Leonards is by the sea, and most of the pubs have closed down.

So, no excuses eh?

While we are on water, so as to speak, good luck to The Lido plan which should hear about funding very soon. Great plans, great project.