Winter Talks - TrustNews Mar 12
The first of the Trust's Winter Talks took place on 16" February. The Executive Director of the Winchester Improvement District (BID). Professor Chris Turner, gave a stimulating talk about business activities in Winchester. BID has a budget of about C0.5m which is raised from a supplementary business rate on City Centre Businesses. This is used to fund initiatives specifically to help the business community. Amongst the organisation's initiatives are plans to rationalise rubbish collection and further improvements to street cleaning and signing. BID has been widely publicising the city's unique appeal and this has been reflected in significant increases in visitors and spending. Winchester is retaining its place as one of the most successful cities for retailers with no empty shops in its High Street at the end of 2011. In recent weeks four shops did close but all have been quickly snapped up by new tenants.
The next Winter Talk takes place at the Heritage Centre on Thursday 15th March. This takes the form of a discussion entitled "Chain store massacre or independent retailers for Winchester" introduced by Trust Council Members.
The final talk will be on Thursday 19th April, continuing the theme "Minding your own business". The speaker is yet to be confirmed.
Talks take place at the Heritage Centre, 32 Upper Brook Street, starting at 7.00pm.
Suggested donation of £2.50 per person. Tea & Coffee will be available.
For more information please contact the secretary on 01962 851664 or e-mail secretary@cityofwinchestertrust.co.uk