Promoting excellence on the coast
, Monday, 18 February 2008
In the last two years, there has been a small revolution rippling across the Sussex Coast. Business Parks and Industrial estates are being taken to a new level by a concerted action between the West Sussex Economic Partnership and Arun District Council.
From this joint effort, a Business Parks Co-ordinator role for Arun has been created. Chris Shephard has the responsibility for working on the ground with business park and industrial estate businesses to bring them together in a culture of partnership working. This means arranging and hosting meetings informally to discuss shared initiatives, shared solutions and sharing expertise and learning. This post also entails working with partners such as the Police, Fire Service, and various departments of the County and District Councils to be a catalyst for change.
There are two main elements to the Coastal Business Parks Project. First, there is a need to share best practice across the South Coast region.
Secondly, the project aims to make any group or association fully sustainable. In the short term, administrative support is provided by Pam Barton of Arun Office Services, from Rustington. In the long term however, the solution for some estates may well be a fast growing initiative, called Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) – there is a feature on this within this edition of ‘The Magazine’.
In November, Southern Cross Industrial Estate in Bognor Regis will have an opportunity to vote for their estate to become what would be the first Business Improvement District on an Industrial Estate in the South East (outside of London). This would mean that the estate could benefit from regular security patrols and other security initiatives, regular image enhancements, and a maintenance charter. A group of businesses located on Southern Cross Industrial Estate have been working together with Arun’s head of Economic and Cultural Development, Richard McMann, and in more detail recently with Chris, to reach this significant milestone.
In the ten months that Chris has been in post, he has also set up four business park associations, all of which are at different stages of development and more on these can be found on your Business Partnership Website.
There are two main elements to the Coastal Business Parks Project. First, there is a need to share best practice across the South Coast region.
Secondly, the project aims to make any group or association fully sustainable. In the short term, administrative support is provided by Pam Barton of Arun Office Services, from Rustington. In the long term however, the solution for some estates may well be a fast growing initiative, called Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) – there is a feature on this within this edition of ‘The Magazine’.
In November, Southern Cross Industrial Estate in Bognor Regis will have an opportunity to vote for their estate to become what would be the first Business Improvement District on an Industrial Estate in the South East (outside of London). This would mean that the estate could benefit from regular security patrols and other security initiatives, regular image enhancements, and a maintenance charter. A group of businesses located on Southern Cross Industrial Estate have been working together with Arun’s head of Economic and Cultural Development, Richard McMann, and in more detail recently with Chris, to reach this significant milestone.
In the ten months that Chris has been in post, he has also set up four business park associations, all of which are at different stages of development and more on these can be found on your Business Partnership Website.
