With over 30 exhibitors, 7 seminars and an official opening by the Mayor, this event would appear to have been quite a success. At least the exhibitors seemed to think so, and all reported that they had done good business, or had made useful contacts, were very pleased with how it went, and hoped we would repeat the event again next year.

There was a real mix of businesses represented including financial services and IT, representatives from the business parks, hotels and venues and some retail, and with the seminars spanning the day with a variety of topics from general interest items like “the revitalisation of the town centre” to serious business issues such as mediation and business survival strategies - there was something happening all day.

The footfall kept the halls active, and the Executive Committee has quickly decided that we have learned enough to do the same again next year, but both better and hopefully bigger.

Issues taken forward at the meeting on 7th July included:

Car Parking: the fall-off in car park usage since the severe uplift in car park charges in April combined with the severe impact of the recession is seriously hurting retail business in the town, and the “Retail Section” asked for matters to be taken up with MSDC ahead of next year. It was agreed to approach Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath business associations to understand if these concerns are shared, and if so agree to a common approach towards finding a way of working with the Council.

Loyalty Card: final planning for the launch of the Loyalty card was discussed and a programme was agreed for the launch to take place on Monday 27th July. This is an initiative co-sponsored with the Association by our Town Council and the Observer Newspaper and is a real part of our Mayor, Councillor Lee Marmara’s theme for his year in office.

Events Programme: planning for the programme from October to March was further advanced and the new Events Folder is scheduled to be distributed in the first week of September. A black tie charity event is hoped to be a new inclusion in the programme.

Traffic Congestion: the Association is seeking dialogue with the County Council in an attempt to work towards finding a solution now that the “relief road” option, supported by funding through a major housing development, is no longer viable.

The next members meeting is a breakfast meeting at the Ashdown Park Hotel in Wych Cross from 7.00am to 9am. The speaker is John Jory from MSDC. 
There will be a full English breakfast or Continental breakfast available, plus networking and a speaker. The cost is £10.00 for members and £15.00 for non-members. .

This should be an interesting and valuable meeting and in superb facilities. We hope that you will be able to attend and support this event. As we need to know numbers for catering, could you please let me know by return if you will be attending this meeting.
 

We are now working on our programme from October to March and will again produce a leaflet that will be mailed out to everyone. We are trying to minimise our costs and make it self funding and have therefore 6 possible spaces for advertisers on this at only £70.00 each. We will endeavour to have just one type of business per programme, so if you are interested in advertising in this issue, please let me know as soon as possible . Call Caroll on 01342 324353 or email caroll.everest@egba.co.uk

We will have 500 copies produced which will be mailed to all members and distributed via various outlets in the town.
 

The retail section are producing a loyalty card which will be distributed hopefully by the end of July from outside Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, as well as from the participating retail outlets. The cards will be free to customers and it is hoped will encourage people to shop locally and support local businesses. Shops will be able to make individual offers which will be listed on posters in their windows or on the premises. Customers will then show their card to obtain the offer.
Details of the offers will also be posted appear on Town Council website.
 

To see the results of our Chairman’s “Local Business Survey” which will give businesses and others some insight into the impact of the current recession within Mid Sussex click here.