Topic ID 961
For Darryl as promised. The Hertford Town Partnership will most probably start being mentioned a bit more and more around town. It is the change of name from the Hertford Town Centre Management Board. The latter was made up of politicians from Town and District, mainly because the grant came from East Herts. The rest of the Board was made up of representatives from other organisations such as Chamber of Commerce and Civic Society and some businesses. However that last sector dwindled and the Board became more of a talking shop than one that did anything. The grant was still awarded but it went on things like Fun Day, Medieval Night, Christmas Lights and Hertford in Bloom. In my own opinion it doesn’t take a group of people to sit around a table handing out funds when it could be done just as easily from District – where it started anyway. The grant is still in place but it is tied into a Service Level Agreement between East Herts and the Partnership. District say you can have this money but this is what we would like you to do with it. The emphasis is switched to supporting businesses in town, gathering economic and social data and looking at ways to promote Hertford to the neighbouring rural areas and also much wider. This is my remit as Town Centre Manager and the grant is salary orientated. If we want to organise events etc then the funds have to be found elsewhere from sponsorship, core funding and further grant aid. The one big success story has been Hertford Town Watch – the town centre radio link to CCTV. Having meetings during the working day is difficult for working people so we decided on a breakfast meeting. Waitrose supply the food, Michell and her staff at the Waterside cook it and host the meeting and it is paid for by one of the partners. However, more and more business people think this is a good idea to chat informally with other traders and discuss things that concern everybody so the meetings have got a bit bigger. It has also led to rethinking of the old Board in that more people now want a say in how the Partnership is shaped and this has become a steering group. In many ways I am still working this through but there is a core group of business people who have the drive to want to direct things and a whole raft of people who are interested enough to come to a meeting and talk over things. There were a few things that had to be sorted as regards Town Watch but now I think the early morning meetings can be further expanded which is why I have started inviting other people outside of Town Watch. So, Darryl I think I will get round to just about everybody eventually – I am working on an initial newsletter which probably look a lot like this post. I also wanted to drop the 'centre' bit because i feel that the industrial areas on the fringes of town, including Mill Road and Foxholes are as much a part of a new busines partnership as anything else.