MINUTES

Largs Matters – BID Steering Group

5.45pm for 6pm, Tuesday 7/2/2012, Woodhouse Hotel, Largs

  1. Present

Peter Valerio (Chair), Willie Wood, Toni Dawson, Stephen Macdonald, Anne Dickie, Susan Craddock, Councillor Alan Hill, Councillor Alex Gallagher, Sunil Varu (Project Manager), Bill Harvey (BIDs Scotland).

  1. Apologies for Absence

Jim Cumming, Councillor Elisabeth Marshall, Alan Nielsen, Ron Muir.

  1. Minutes of Meeting held on 11th January 2012

SV confirmed

  • the Consumer Research (conducted by VECTOR) had now been passed to him by North Ayrshire Council (NAC) and would be used as the basis for the first networking meeting on 6th March 2012
  • he met with Ken Welch (Chair of the Largs Development Trust) who indicated he would favour the Trust activities being transferred to the BID which would act in the overall interest of Largs. Both Toni Dawson and Councillor Hill agreed to raise the matter at the next meeting of the Trust
  • NAC (through Jim Cumming) were working on drawing up the baseline services and operating agreement for the BID company.
  • That, while the administration details for the website had been passed onto him by NS Design, he would not make changes as Ron Muir had been trained to do this.

Stephen Macdonaldsuggested the website be called it was pointed out that currently the website is until the BID achieves a “Yes” vote, after which the new BID company can make the changes in line with any re-branding issues it wishes to tackle.

Peter Valerio commented that while the website had not been made public, it needed to be up to date and with all the information required at the launch on 6th March : Steering group, what’s on, key projects to be undertaken, key timelines on events.

  1. Demonstration Projects –“Create momentum & demonstrate new thinking”

The Steering Group discussed the various demonstration projects which, given the resources available and the key issues emanating from the one-to-one interviews, were designed to “create momentum and demonstrate new thinking”.

Peter Valerio stressed that steady pace of progress over the next few months would help achieve support from businesses. The Networking meetings and the website launch would open up the communications with businesses followed by the newsletters. The other demonstration projects would highlight what the BID could do for the businesses.

Stephen Macdonald enquired whether it was possible to :

  • relocate the charity shops to secondary locations. Alan Hill confirmed NAC would not be able to introduce policies to that effect and unless landlords could be forced then there was little hope.
  • organise a major annual event/festival such as “Festival of Fire” in Orkneys. Sunil Varu stated that was a possibility for the BID to develop once the ballot was a success.

Sunil Varu:

  • confirmed Jim Cumming had agreed to fund the vacant shops project as a partnership project with NAC and would also help part-fund the town event to be organised by the BID in conjunction with the major sailing event being held at the Marina between 25th June and July 4th.
  • explained that a town-wide event would continue to build the “believability” factor for the support of the BID for the broad range of business sectors.

It was agreed that the projects would go ahead with the exception of attending the Chamber Dinner while Stephen Macdonald agreed to speak to taxi drivers about the need for the taxi marshals at the height of the summer.

  1. Draft Year Planner

The Draft Planner was noted but with the above changes to be made.

  1. Project Groups

A number of subgroups were formed to enable more detailed planning:

  • Summer Event :Alan Hill, Stephen Macdonald, Willie Wood
  • Networking Meetings : Anne Dickie
  • Website :Toni Dawson, Ron Muir
  • Clean & Safe :Susan Craddock (with Inspector Andy Clark)
  1. AOCB

Alan Hill updated the meeting with developments at NAC:

  • Following the demolition Stevenson Institute building, a paid car park will be constructed the proceeds from which will be used to fund other car parking solutions in and for Largs.
  • NAC have recognised the need to establish a long term vision for Largs and will want to work closely with the BID group as well as other community groups such as the Development Trust (possible asset transfer), community council.
  • Area Committee will want to organise meetings on this issue

Stephen Macdonald raised the issue of the lack of any sense of a welcome or colour at the railway station and agreed to contact Alan Hill separately to try and deal with it.

  1. Date of Next Meeting – Tuesday 20th March 2012

Time and venue TBA.