w/c 1st February 2021
Our Southend BID committee includes representatives from a wide range of businesses and organisations in the town including those in the retail, hospitality, leisure, services, accommodation, fitness and education sectors alongside officers from the council and Essex Police.
Last week we held our first Committee Meeting of the year in which we came together (virtually) to discuss the activities that Southend BID have been involved in throughout the last quarter. It also gives the committee members a chance to ask questions and raise recommendations to ensure the needs of the town and their sectors are being heard and understood.
At the meeting Dennis expressed his intention to step down as Chair, which was formalised at our Directors Meeting wherein Mark Bartrip, franchisee of both McDonald’s premises on Southend High Street, was appointed to the role this week. Mark has been a Director of Southend BID since it was first established and both his local knowledge and passion for the town makes him well placed to continue leading the team on the delivery of the business plan.
One item the committee are also excited about is our upcoming ‘Future of the High Street’ session. After the dramatic changes to life as we knew it over the last year we felt it was an appropriate time to bring the committee together to discuss trends across the country, review recent research reports into the topic and jointly plan what action should be taken to drive positive changes here.
This plan will add to the projects we continue to collaborate on with other partners including promoting independent businesses, improving wayfinding, setting a new place branding strategy, tackling instances of crime, the installation of footfall cameras, and more.
The next few months are filled with hope but until the vaccine programme is fully rolled out we must continue to be cautious by encouraging regular COVID tests for those employees that cannot work from home, continuing to wear face coverings as required and keeping our distance from those not in our household. Let us all keep protecting each other to make this hope a reality and get our businesses and town fully open again soon.