Love Hastings Newsletter – January 2018

Happy New Year!

As we welcome the New Year in, we also welcome new BID Manager John Bownas to the team. Rob Woods, who has been Town Centre Manager for over 12 years, will be retiring from the role next Friday, 26th January. We would like to wish him a relaxing and enjoyable retirement, and also thank him for all his hard work in the Town Centre over the years.

Scrap Your Old Toyota and Save Up To £4,000
Last few days left to order your new Toyota – limited stock available

You could make the move to a cleaner car with the Toyota Scrappage Scheme at SLM Toyota Hastings and Uckfield. The scheme is open to cars over seven years old and has been registered to the current owner for over six months.

If your car qualifies for the scrappage scheme, you could receive up to £4,000 savings on a new Toyota if ordered and registered before 31st January. The offer is applicable to almost every car in the Toyota range.

SLM Toyota will ensure that your old car is safely scrapped, removing the pollutants and retrieving any usable parts of the vehicle before scrapping and recovering the vehicle for future use. This process means they will be meeting the legal requirements to recycle a minimum 95% of the vehicle’s weight.

With such a great offer available to you, book a test drive today!

Cost-saving Initiatives
The Board of Directors has agreed to work with Meercat Associates to provide cost-saving advice and plans for businesses in the BID area. We are currently collating business contact details, and hope the process will start in the next month or two. You should soon be receiving an email with details of the scheme, please read this carefully and get back to us if you want to know more. This service is free of charge to all BID levy payers.

BCRP (Business Crime Reduction Partnership)
2018 saw a great start to the BCRP, with Debenhams hosting the Shopwatch AGM and Intelligence Meeting on Wednesday 10th January.

This is a new format allowing more time to discuss repeat offenders, the work being done by partners and businesses, and how we can all reduce crime and anti-social behaviour effectively.

Nominations for Committee members were strong this year. Andy Tolhurst of Cash Generator remains as chair, with Pat Horwill of Gifts and Giggles agreeing to be vice-chair.

The new Operations Manager of Priory Meadow, Nick Gillam was also voted on, as was Damien Green from Tesco Express. Other nominations who unfortunately were not available to be formally recognised are Co-op St Leonards, Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and South East Trains.

Future dates
Wednesday 14^th March 2018
Wednesday 13^th June 2018
Wednesday 12^th September 2018
Wednesday 14^th November 2018

The regular Monthly Barwatch meeting was held on Tuesday 16^th January at Pissarros – thank you so much to the wonderful staff who went out of their way to look after everyone.

A good attendance, with most reporting a pretty quiet (incident -wise) Christmas and New Year. Thank you to Nat Turner from The Palace, who has taken up the role of Secretary on the committee.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday 27^th February at The Pump House in the Old Town. So thank you to Jo and the team for volunteering the venue.

Events taking place in January and February

A small selection of events taking place in Hastings Town Centre this January and February. A full list is available on our website. If your event is not listed, please contact us.

Roger Carey – Friday 26th January, Pissarro’s

Book Reading of The Leveller Revolution with John Rees – Tuesday 30th January, Printed Matter Bookshop

The Hastings & Fermentory Workshop – Wednesday 31st January, Printworks

Stand-up History Hastings – Wednesday 31st January, Brass Monkey
Sam Calver – Thursday 1st February, The Palace
Swing Street Orchestra – Saturday 3rd February, Opus Theatre
Jailbreak – Saturday 10th to Sunday 18th February, True Crime Museum
Cirque Enchantment – Wednesday 14th February, The White Rock Theatre

BID Projects in progress
Town Centre Ambassadors
DISC security software – training has begun
Business money saving initiatives
Completion of the Love Hastings website
Heritage Action Zone
Business development of the White Rock area.

Further information will be available soon.