Kelso Chamber of Trade – Committee Meeting

25th April 2017 at 5.45pm

Ednam House Hotel, Kelso

Present :Alan Livingstone (Chair)

Caroline Townsend

Brian Townsend

Brian Campbell

Steve Fletcher

Nikki Allman

Apologies:Alistair Innes, Mark Hay

Minutes of Previous Meeting :The Committee confirmed the minutes from the previous meeting were a correct and accurate account of the meeting.

Matters arising :

No matters arising from previous meeting of 7th March 2017.

Update from Chair :

  • Kelso Chamber of Trade have been successful in securing SBC Community Grant funding for new hanging baskets to the value of £3,286.00 with a 10% contribution by KCT. This is a great opportunity to replace all the damaged baskets. Karen Hume has ordered the baskets and is liaising with the businesses for a very quick turnaround, as we where late in sending out letters as the final decision was only received on Monday 24th April.
  • Visit Kelso are now up and running with the LEADER funding project. First action was to advertise for a Marketing Officer which has now been filled with two people Nikki Allman and Emily McGowan. Nikki will continue to oversee the Social media, general marketing and Emily will be there to assist in looking at Visit Kelso moving forward and looking at new opportunities on a strategic level. Emily will be working 4 hours per week and Nikki will work 11 hours per week for Visit Kelso. It was felt this was a better outcome to maximize on the opportunity of the funding. Emily comes from a Strategic Sales & Marketing background from LIVE Borders with a great deal of experience and contacts to help build and grow Visit Kelso.
  • Visit Kelso were unsuccessful in the funding application for match funding for a new website through the Fallago Fund.
  • The Visit Kelso group over the coming months are holding their meetings at other businesses within the town with meetings taking place at The Cobbles, The Cross Keys and The Queens taking them up to the end of June and talking to other businesses also currently.
  • Visit Kelso Website revamp – initial presentations taken place from website providers – group currently reviewing proposals.
  • Annual subscriptions are due in the coming months and plans are underway on how to continue and grow current subscription.

Update on Finances/Expenditure

Cash Balance in Bank @ 23rd April 19, 2017=£4,283.49

Expenditure / Invoices paid to 23.04.17

Facebook=£ 10.00

Honorarium – Nikki Allman= £ 750.00

Website expenses – Domain Name= £ 35.00

Job Advert – Marketing Officer *=£ 429.67

Other Expenses

Room Hire for AGM Ednam House=£ 23.50

Total expenditure=£1,248.17

NA advised budgeted expenditure in May will be the start of the LEADER Funding drawdown. Additional income will be received following claim form LEADER in April for 60% contribution for the Job advert. NA advised expenditure will continue to be monitored closely in coming months to ensure it will meet all the necessary needs for promoting and marketing Kelso.

Hanging Basket Update

NAadvised letters have been distributed to local business and clarified the point on the booking form. £50 new basket payment is only applicable to businesses who have not had hanging baskets previously. Given the uptake last year, which was 64 businesses an order for 65 baskets has been placed to cover this. In addition there are approximately 10 baskets which are in good condition to use from previous years. It is anticipated that the funding will cover all businesses to have new hanging baskets.

Any other Business :

Sunday Opening – This was highlighted with the forthcoming weekend when the Kelpies, The Floors Horse Trials and the Western Weekend being held at BUAS on the weekend of the 12th May. This is an ideal opportunity for shops and cafes’ to be opened on the Sunday. Caroline’s Coffee Shop and Seasons’s confirmed that they will be open. NA advised this is an item on the Agenda at the Visit Kelso Meeting on the 26th April and will be communicated to businesses in the coming week through email.

Dog Fouling – Concerns were raised on increased level of Dog Fouling within the town, which seems to have been on the increase in the last 6 months. Concerns on lack of signage for dog fouling penalties and to be raised with Dean Weatherston as a concern for businesses currently.

Date of next meeting – NA to arrange meeting for early – mid August.