portas application

7/31/2019 Portas Application

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PORTAS REVIEW PILOTS APPLICATION FORM

Please ensure you fill in ALL sections of this form.

Guidance on completing this form can be found at

www.communities.gov.uk/publications/regeneration/portaspilotsprospectus

SECTION ONEOrganisational details

The Department will only conor a consortium with a singleaccountability and communic

sider applications from elead bidder. This is to etion.

ither local partnershipssure clear lines of

1.1 Organisation name(in whose name theapplication is being made if a partnership/consortium/BID, state the lead)

Weston super Mare C.O.G Town Team

1.2 Contact name and mainrole

Steve Townsend Town Centre Manager

1.3 AddressWinter Gardens, RoyalMare, BS23 1AQ

arade, Weston super

1.4 Telephone number(a) organisation(b) contact

(a) 01934 642 404 (b)

1.5 Email address of contact [email protected]

1.6 Website address (if any) http://www.wsmtcp.co.u


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SECTION TTown Team/

Oartnership

2.1 Who will lead the pilot

Weston sup r Mare Town Centre Partnership

2.2 Who will be the Accountable Body (Please attac a confirmation letter)?

Weston sup r Mare Town Council

2.3 Please in

Please add f

dicate the ot

rther rows if

er partners involved in yo

required

ur application.

Organisation name Organisation address andcontact details

Main activities and role

Weston sup

Centre Partn

r Mare Town

ership

Steve Townsend

Weston super Mare TownCentre PartnershipThe Winter GardensRoyal ParadeWeston super MareBS23 1AQTel: 01934 642404Email:[email protected]

Development of the Town

Centre, support fortraders and providing asafe, friendly and livelyplace for people to workand shop in.

North SomerEconomic D

Team

set Councilvelopment

Simon GregoryEconomic Development

Service ManagerEconomic DevelopmentService

North Somerset CouncilSomerset House,Oxford Street,Weston-Super-Mare,BS23 1TG

Economic development,community regeneration,

employment skills andtraining.Willact asfirst point ofcontact for businesssupport, planning relatedand data enquiries,employment, skills,training andapprenticeships, facilitatemeetings and helpwithbusiness planningand fundraising

North SomerEnterprise A

setency

Angela HicksChief ExecutiveNorth SomersetEnterprise AgencyThe Link Centre,Oldmixon Crescent,Weston-super-Mare,BS24 9AYTel: 01934 418 118

Email: [email protected]

Business and socialenterprise support
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Samantha Maher Community voice.

Interested in local foodnetworks and theengagement of the

community through food,sense of place, OpenData and participatorydemocracy. Experiencedin social media, eventplanning and projectmanagement. Part timecafe supervisor at aCommunity InterestCompany cafe workingwith people with learningdisabilities and runs ownbusiness as a virtualassistant.

Dr Rebecca ondron Community voice andschool governor.

Founder of Weston superMum, a network forparents with over 1000members, and home-

schooler. Interested incommunity networking,gathering resources tohelp families make themost of living in andvisiting Weston andengaging the communitythrough educational andcultural events.

Mark Bradshaw Community voice.

Works with the Avon andSomerset Police inElectronic PerformanceSupport and eLearningDevelopment. Interestedin sustainability, greeningthe community andcommunity growingprojects.


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Dr Virginia Gould Community voice.

Researcher at BristolUniversity and selfemployed provider of

services. Has run a publicengagement programmecalled Science For All.Experienced in fundingapplications and outcomequestionnaire design,evaluation and analysis.Interested in communityengagement throughscience.

Keith Ramsey Community voice.

Local photographer.Interested in running aprogramme of publicengagement withscience.

Holly Young Community voice,TownCouncillor and schoolgovernor.

Works at the WestonCentral Children's Centreand is interested inengaging with familieswho wouldnt access anofficial service by setting

up a PEEP childdevelopment trainingprogramme. Alsointerested in providinguniversal access to playfacilities.


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Gareth Donovan Community voice.

Project manager withDHL. Most recent projectwas the transition of

Morrisons South Westlogistics operations totheir new regional facilityin Bridgwater.Undertaking PRINCE 2training this year.Interested in engagingthe community throughoutward bound activities.

Karen Blake Community voice.

Local artist interested inengaging the communitythrough the arts andestablishing a strongcultural centre for NorthSomerset in Westonsuper Mare.

2.4 Please edecisions ma(maximum 3

plain how yde, and outc0 words).

u will ensure informationme of the projects, is ma

bout the use of the grant,e publicly available


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Weston supgroup of resiother key paparticipationpossible, the

open meetinkey decision

A dedicatedupdated blogbe richly augFlickr and YoThese channinteracting wisubscriptiondigests to be

Meeting mindownload onused in trackmade availathe Ordnancto reporting,friendly way.

Local and re

as a means

r Mare C.O.ents who wiltners to formin the develoefore we will

s where theand strategi

ebsite will b. Polls couldmented withuTube but alels will give tth the projectncouraged isent out on

tes and all kthe websiteing the efficale in an opeSurvey coulllowing the

ional media

f reporting o

s Portas application hasl be working with the Towa wider Town Team. It isment of our strategy shobe inviting all interested p

Town Team will be availabes will be discussed and v

set up, the main part ofbe administered through tocial media channels - pro LinkedIn for a more bue public multiple means

. An email newsletter willa prominent position onweekly basis.

y documentation will bend paper copies could bey of the project, and all edata format, such as CS

d also be utilised to providublic to engage with the i

- television, radio and new

and encouraging particip

been developed by aCentre Partnership and

ur intention thatld be as wide asarties to attend monthly

le to take questions andoted upon.

hich will be a regularlyis medium. The site will

imarily Facebook, Twitter,iness focussed stream.f keeping up to date andlso be set up, withhe website, to allow

ade openly available forrequested. Any key datapenditure reports, will be. Geographic data frome a mapping componentformation in a user

spaper - will all be utilised

ation in the project.

2.5 Please e(maximum 3

plain how y0 words).

u will monitor and evaluat the impact of the grant


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We will decidbelow. The Cto make sureconstantly uwill be to est

starting up in

These are eto measure.basis.

Outcome 1:Indicators:Quantify -- people atte- people sign- people sign- people visiti- people visiti

Outcome 2:Indicators:Quantify -- people sign- people atte- people sign

- people visitiinvolvement/Create a bus

Outcome 3: Iand social eIndicators:Quantify -- start ups as- existing bu- social enter

Outcome 4:arts space inIndicators:Lease premiQuantify peo

e desirable oommunity Cwe generatedating theseblish baselin

business, to

amples of ouata will be c

trong public

ding meetined up to socied up to theng the web sng the premi

enerate a st

ed up to a skding busine

ed up to soci

ng the premiusiness res

iness hub we

ncreased coterprises

a result of ninesses repoprises formin

uild a Centra prominent

es in the tople visiting th

utcomes for the project, sG wants to agree thosestrong grassroots involvein lines with local prioritiee figures for outcomes su

n optimism, understandi

tcomes we have currentlyollected continuously and

engagement with the Port

sl media streams and inte-newsletter

itees

rong community and smal

ills registers networking and skills wl media streams and inte

es/web site enquiring aburces and advicebsite and mobile phone m

fidence amongst indepen

w enterprise hubrting increased confidencg in the town

of Gravity - a communitytown centre position

n centree premises

me of which are outlinedutcomes with the publicment, so we will be. One of our first tasksh as confidence in

g of social enterprise etc.

identified and indicatorsreported on a monthly

as Pilot projects

action on those sites

l business network

rkshopsaction on those sites

ut community

arketing app

ent business, start ups

/profits

enterprise hub/events/


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SECTION FOUR

Criterion Two: Strong Leadership

4.1 Please detail your vision for your high street, and describe how you havebegun to secure local support and how you will build on this to make it areality (maximum 300 words).

We want to compliment the work already being undertaken in large scaleregeneration projects, and by the Town Centre Partnership as part of theirnew B.I.D status, by tackling at a grassroots level the problem of a lack ofidentity in our town. We want our streets to be a place of exploration anddiscovery, where you want to turn the corner so you dont miss somethingexciting. We want you to be able to find delicious local produce in vibrantmarkets, for our cafes to be alive and buzzing. Opportunities for experiences

would be easy to find in this Weston, on the High Street and online. Want toservice your bike? Find out who needs volunteers? To grab a life drawing oryoga class? Learn photography, presentation skills, take a street dance class,get start-up support, increase your computer literacy? It should all be at yourfingertips. You should be spoiled for choice.

The Centre of Gravity would help to achieve this by acting as a hub. It wouldencourage new start ups and provide low risk, low cost enterprise, arts,events and retail space. It would be supported by strong links to the artisticand creative communities, marketing and technical expertise and localbusiness support networks. The C.O.G would be a space for the community

to generate its own sense of excitement by encouraging ownership,participation, innovative thinking and the willingness to have a go.

We have the enthusiastic support of Weston Town Council, North SomersetCouncil, the Town Centre Partnership and a committed core of residents. Ournext step, already underway, is to spread the word and massively widenparticipation to include other key partners, local business and, mostimportantly, all of Westons residents. Well accomplish this using all of themechanisms outlined in section 2.4.


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SECTION FIVE

Criterion Three: Commitment

5.1 Please attach any supporting letters (from those organisations andindividuals who make up your pilot), detail of proposed match funding, andany other relevant information, including detail of the percentage of landlordsand businesses signed up to the pilot (maximum 300 words).

Weston super Mare Town Centre Partnership is our lead applicantrepresenting our Business Improvement District and hundreds of town centrebusinesses. North Somerset Councils Economic Development team arewilling to continue their considerable assistance with a conservative estimateof 3 days per month direct support, equating to 4905 in kind funding over a

year. In addition, North Somerset Local Enterprise Agency have agreedfunding of 1000 for business and social enterprise support.

In a very short space of time we have gathered letters of support from:

Weston Chamber of Commerce, with over 80 members

Bob Snow, chief executive of Volunteer Action North Somerset

Becky Condron, founder of Weston super Mum with a membership of 1005local parents and child related businesses

Deborah Matthews, local resident and owner of Successful Stays

Tean Kirby, on behalf of North Somerset Arts, a body representing over 300artists

Jessica Harper, on behalf of Sustainable Weston

And momentum is gathering all of the time with only minimal social media andpress exposure to this point.

Our experience so far shows that there is considerable goodwill andenthusiasm for this in the community, generating a great deal of support in theform of time, skills and services volunteered. People have providedchargeable services for free: photography, videography and editing; webbuilding skills, copywriting and editing, project management and PR support.Theyre paid travel expenses and undertaken days of training on legalstructures, the Localism Act, accessing funding and making local food work.Theyve taken meetings and they wrote this bid. We dont know how to startputting a price on this expression of the Big Society in action. In some waysthe positivity, optimism and enthusiasm such willingness generates is

priceless. We only anticipate this will grow as we spread the word and widenparticipation.


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SECTION SIX

Criterion Four: Potential for improvement

We will be awarding funding on a value for money basis. It is important,therefore, that your bid can demonstrate the potential for improvement in yourarea.

6.1 Please set out what you consider to be the key challenges facing yourhigh street (including current vacancy rates) and why your high street has thepotential to improve (maximum 300 words).

Weston is a commuter satellite to Bristol. While many people move here for

the quality of life, they tend to work and spend their leisure time elsewhere.Our retail centre is secondary to developments at Cribbs Causeway andCabots Circus in Bristol, both of which exert a huge sphere of influence in theretail landscape. We cannot compete on breadth of choice and convenienceand yet we have no point of difference that would make us attractive inanother way. The Local Data Company reported a vacancy rate in Weston of15.4% in 2010, a number that had increased to 18.6% by Feb 2012, a rate farin excess of the national average of 14.3%.

Large developments, such as those at Dolphin Square and the proposed newLeisuredome, will attract a lot of media attention and make Weston a regional

destination for leisure. The towns new B.I.D status will deal with some nutsand bolts issues in the town centre while also delivering a programme ofevents. We believe the third key pillar supporting the reinvigoration of townseconomy is the encouragement and empowerment of residents to own theirtown again and participate in firmly establishing its identity as the vibrant,creative, kitsch and quirky seaside town it really is.

Confidence can be built, achievable in part by identifying training needs andproviding low cost or free access to courses, mentoring and resources. A gapin internet and social media marketing skills, which makes Weston a digitaldesert and allows trade to be lost to stronger centres, can be plugged. Wecan enable people to have a go and build their confidence by trying, andbolster existing independent traders by building and supporting a strong,resilient network, exploring opportunities for collaborative marketing andexploiting economies of scale through collective purchasing.


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SECTION SEVEN

Criterion Five: Innovation

7.1 Please set out how you will test the Town Team approach, what yourpriorities are likely to be, and whether there are particular recommendationsin the Portas Review you want to test. We are particularly looking forinnovative ideas (maximum 300 words).

We want to see what happens when the community is given a stronger role ina town centres management. Our priority is to use this opportunity to shiftsome of the focus back on to the people who live here and fill derelict space.As a resident, it feels as though a lot of the time our towns efforts andresources are directed towards or by outside influences - the tourists, bigbusinesses, the council. What if some of that was directed towards finding out

what the people who live here really want, what theyre prepared to do to helpget it and what help they need to do it for themselves? Were talking nothingless than a revolution in community engagement and participatorydemocracy!

Our first priorities would be to:(1) Create a big splash by taking premises on the High Street and

establishing a lively and engaging presence online. While we would seekto take on larger premises in the long term, our initial space would bemore modest to start testing the idea and gathering information about thewants and needs of the community.

(2) Create community engagement across the spectrum and build thepresumption that people do have a say and they can and should have animpact. We want to knock down the idea that the local authorities arent onthe side of the community by showing that we are all working together tocreate something for and of the community.

(3) Build a database of skills, interests and knowledge within the community.This will help us to understand what events and classes would be ofgeneral interest, who could run them and what other skills the town has todraw on for a wide range of projects that could fall out of the C.O.Gsinfluence.


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SECTION EIGHT

Expenditure

8.1 Please set out how you much you are bidding for, (maximum 100,000),and how you propose to use it. Please explain how the pilot will be innovativeand deliver additional impact. Please also provide detail of other Governmentfunding your partnership currently receives (maximum 300 words).

We are bidding for the maximum amount of 100,000.

We anticipate that up to half of that amount will be allocated to theincorporation of a social enterprise tasked with the opening and running of asmaller Centre of Gravity for the period of one year. This would include rent,rates and running costs.

The rest of the budget would be allocated to developing a viable businessplan for the opening of a larger Centre of Gravity, with all of the possibilitiesthat encompasses. Market research would be undertaken to find out what thecommunity wanted the space to be and funding streams would be identified.These could include:- Rentals of enterprise, office and retail space in the building- Revenues from studio, exhibition and arts spaces- Possible membership revenues if it was decided that a co-operative modelwas desirable- Possible income from a community share offer

- Additional pots of funding from partner organisations (e.g. grants from ArtsCouncil, BIG Lottery, Food for Life, Weston College)

We would aim to provide additional impact by strongly supporting thosepeople who showed an interest in starting up new businesses or socialenterprises. We would seek to draw links between the town centre and therural hinterland, by strengthening our local food networks and linkingsuppliers up with local authority partners and town centre businesses. Wewould also seek to explore how business, volunteer networks, charities andnew forms of social enterprise can be brought together to provide servicesand support for, and these are just a few examples, children, people withdisabilities, the un- and underemployed, those with issues around mentalhealth and addiction, deprivation and social exclusion. The widest possibleparticipation needs to encompass all and engender a co-operative attitudetowards all of the problems we face without stigma.


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VIDEO SUBMISSION

Please upload your video to YouTube (www.youtube.com).

If you do not already have an account you will need to go to the website anduse the Create Account option.

Please include the URL (link) below. You should not include the video itselfwith your application.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t179Zg_QW_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t179Zg_QW_ohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t179Zg_QW_ohttp://www.youtube.com/http://www.youtube.com/

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