Agenda and minutes

Councillor Michael Edwards – personal

Councillor Brian Grocock – other Council business

Councillor Nicola Heaton – personal

Janine Bone – Intu (Nigel Wheatley substituting)

Kathryn Neilson-Davis – Nottingham BID (Jane Wealthall substituting)

Chris Sinclair – Nottingham Means Business

If you need advice on declaring an interest, please contact the Governance Officer above, if possible before the day of the meeting

None

Last meeting held on 23 November 2015 (for confirmation)

The Forum confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 23 November 2015 as a correct record, subject to the following amendments, and they were signed by the Chair:

(a)  listing Kathryn Neilson-Davis as a present member, rather than under colleagues, partners and others in attendance, as she is a BID representative;

(b)  removing Steve Pashley from the absent member list, as he is no longer a member;

(c)  listing Councillor Jim Armstrong as an absent member and recording his apologies.

Presentation by Director of Planning and Transport, Nottm City Council

Steve Hunt, Traffic and Road Safety Manager, gave a presentation on transforming the Broadmarsh area and highlighted the following points:

(a)  it is being done to create a transformed southern gateway to the city, and to boost the local economy by £1.1 billion GVA per annum with:

·  2,900 more jobs, with local training and recruitment;

·  3 million more annual visitors to experience new retail, education, and leisure facilities;

·  a restored city centre profile and reputation;

·  over half the catchment area shopping in Nottingham, up from one third;

·  a £25 million tourism spend benefit per annum;

(b)  via a £250 million co-ordinated programme (Phase 1 2016-20):

·  new buildings will be built and existing buildings will be improved for shopping, leisure and learning;

·  a vibrant daytime and evening economy will be encouraged;

·  the city centre will be improved and top quality public realm will be created;

·  heritage led tourism in the Castle Quarter will expand;

(c)  the transformation also includes:

·  the redevelopment of Intu Broadmarsh;

·  1,150 improved car parking spaces;

·  a new skills hub for 18,750 students;

·  improving the Castle as a national attraction, with over 500,000 visitors per annum;

·  modernised facilities for 20,000 bus passengers each day;

(d)  phase 1 projects include:

·  redevelopment of Intu Broadmarsh to link the station with the city centre;

·  extending the fashion offer on Drury Walk;

·  a refurbished high quality Broadmarsh car park and bus station, with cafés and commercial space;

·  a skills hub;

·  transforming Collin Street with shops, cafés, landscaping, water features, and public art;

·  a new cinema and restaurant offer, with an entrance to the pedestrianised Collin Street and Middle Hill;

·  modernising Carrington Street, with improved an street and frontages;

(e)  to complement the major developments:

·  there will be a co-ordinated programme of works to pedestrianise or provide pedestrian priority in attractive north-south and east-west routes;

·  bus and vehicular traffic will be relocated to appropriate alternatives;

·  transport impacts have been fully and transparently assessed;

·  there will be pedestrian priority junctions;

·  there is potential for a future tram stop;

·  the station hub and the tram/train interchange has been completed;

·  pedestrianising Collin Street will link the Creative Quarter with the Castle Quarter, with landscaping and attractive buildings;

·  there will be improved road crossings at Carrington Street/Canal Street to create a clear, safe and attractive walkway;

·  the Station Street pedestrianisation will create places for cafés, stalls and people;

(f)  with regard to traffic:

·  traffic flows on the Southern Relief Route will increase, but flows on Maid Marian Way will reduce;

·  congestion of the Southern Relief Route will increase at peak time, causing some traffic to redistribute to other roads;

·  the city’s road system will work, although some journey times will increase by a couple of minutes;

·  there will be some initial disruption but this will be minimised by informing drivers of the changes and alternatives;

·  alternatives will include the improved Ring Road;

·  city centre through traffic will reduce as more traffic uses the wider road network, taking different routes, for example, along the Boulevards and the upgraded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Presentation by Head of Parks and Open Spaces, Nottm City Council

Eddie Curry, Head of Parks and Open Spaces, gave a presentation on the Station Street lighting installation and highlighted the following points:

(a)  the Council has appointed Jo Fairfax, who is internationally renowned for his lighting work. It will be his first time working in Nottingham, but he will be creating a bespoke installation in Station Street;

(b)  there will be interactive lighting triggered by the tram crossing over the Station Street bridge, with the projection of a poem under the bridge, with the capacity to change the words regularly, which will:

·  be five word poems selected randomly or programmed;

·  link to the City of Literature – UNESCO status;

·  allow the Council to work with schools for poems to use;

·  enable the use of work by local poets, such as Byron and Lawrence;

·  allow the Council to work with poets from other UNESCO cities;

·  contribute to a feel and sense of place;

(c)  the movement of the tram will activate a gentle ripple of light that connects the 2 bridges together. It’s activated by movement in and out of the station and can be programmed to respond in several ways;

(d)  lace motifs linking to the city’s past industrial heritage will be used on the Canal bridge;

(e)  the work should be installed in April and May 2016, with a lifespan of 10-15 years.

Presentation by BID Manager, Nottingham BID

Lee Walker, Nottingham BID, gave a presentation on the Nottingham BID five year business plan and highlighted the following points:

(a)  there has been a BID in Nottingham for the last 7 years. There was originally a leisure BID and a retail BID, but these combined in 2012;

(b)  in the first 5 years the BID delivered in 3 key areas:

·  licensing – Best Bar None Awards, taxi marshalling, street pastors, etc;

·  place management – wicker sculptures, street ambassadors, keeping toilets open late, etc;

·  place marketing – Winder Wonderland, 48 hours of fashion, food and drink events, etc;

(c)  the BID 2 2016-2020 has expanded to take in the office and student sector, as well as retail and leisure, and will be working in 4 key areas:

·  promoted city:

o  working with partners and putting businesses at the heart of marketing the city;

o  joined up working to make the offer clear for consumers;

o  increasing food and drink events;

o  joined up marketing for Christmas and later night shopping;

·  managed city:

o  ensuring that it is a clean, safe, tidy and welcoming place during the day and night;

o  improving the Best Bar None Awards to create a hallmark of standards;

o  maintaining the Purple Flag status;

o  increasing the funding for street pastors;

o  continuing taxi marshalling and other transport promotions;

o  continuing street ambassadors at key events and times;

o  a retail scheme during the say to ban offenders from all stores;

·  working city:

o  involving the student and office sector;

o  looking at employee retention within the office sector and the possibility of bespoke reward schemes for working in the city;

o  parking and transport facilities;

·  independent city:

o  setting up an advisory group to look at funding for the independent sector and how it is managed.

Presentation by Chief Executive Officer, Creative Quarter Company

Kathy McArdle, Creative Quarter, gave a presentation on the achievements of the Creative Quarter and highlighted the following points:

(a)  the mission is to make Nottingham a great environment in which enterprise can flourish, and in which to start, grow and sustain a creative innovative business;

(b)  in 2.5 years the Creative Quarter has:

·  supported 850 businesses;

·  been involved in the creation of 650 jobs;

·  gave 35 Creative Quarter business loans;

·  enabled £4.8 million direct investments in SMEs;

·  helped create 83 apprenticeships;

·  enabled 20 businesses to benefit from Vacant Shops Grant;

·  transformed the streetscape in Hockley;

·  attracted new businesses into the area;

·  helped enable and promote the development of Cobden Chambers;

·  widened the pavements in Broad Street;

·  helped 37 businesses with digital connectivity improvements for high speed broadband;

·  been involved in the promotion and marketing of Sneinton Market, and will be moving into a unit in the market;

·  attracted 110,000 visitors to the area through the CQ events programme, with a £3.72 million visitor expenditure;

(c)  the Creative Quarter has a strong brand and identity, and has produced and ‘Explorers Guide to the Creative Quarter’ which has been very popular;

(d)  in October 2015 the Creative Quarter won an Enterprising Britain Award for Improving Business Environments, which led to a nomination for European Enterprise Promotion Award, which it won in November 2015;

(e)  the Creative Quarter won the European Enterprise Promotion Award for Improving the Business Environment due to:

·  imaginative policy changes and use of policy instruments;

·  grass roots and practical initiatives to support entrepreneurs;

·  evidenced vision;

·  strategic use of European funds for sustainable development;

·  a people focussed creative approach to urban innovation;

·  public/private sector partnership;

(f)  the next steps for the Creative Quarter include:

·  consolidating the events programme;

·  establishing a BID subgroup for independents;

·  producing a three year report;

·  inward investment with the PMO;

·  a property action plan;

·  D2N2 sector support for creative digital industries;

·  a Social Enterprise Place;

·  a cultural framework and cultural education partnership;

·  to pedestrianise Hockley;

(g)  challenges include:

·  anti-social behaviour;

·  building a national and international reputation;

·  listed buildings requiring major investment and imagination;

·  more investment is required is soft infrastructure – articulture.

The following comments were made during the discussion:

(h)  there are ongoing discussions with the owners of some of the listed buildings in the city to bring them back into use, and a bid is being submitted to possibly establish a CQ Action Fund to help refurbish some buildings;

(i)  loyalty schemes across independent shops could be investigated to attract customers;

(j)  there is ambition to make the area greener and a voluntary scheme to achieve this is being developed.