Agenda item

6.1

The Committee received a report of the Executive Director, Place, on the City Council’s plans to maintain and grow a vibrant City Centre.  The report contained details on the Vibrancy Model, an update on the progress made in terms of the steps taken to maintain the vibrancy of the City Centre and information on footfall, overnight visitors, spend by overnight visitors, retail rankings, hotel occupancy and visitor attractions.

6.2

The report was supported by a presentation by Richard Eyre, Head of City Centre Management and Major Events. With regard to the proposed future development of the City Centre, as well as the planned events for 2014, Mr Eyre reported on the work of the City Centre Business Improvement District (BID), which was being progressed by a Steering Group comprising representatives from the City Centre’s public sector, and the retail, leisure, education and office sectors, as well as the night-time economy, and which aimed to deliver a wide range of initiatives, focusing on making the City Centre a better place to visit, work and live.  Mr Eyre stated that a BID was a defined area which, in this case comprised the City Centre, within which business with a rateable value of over £30,000 would, subject to a majority vote in a ballot, pay a levy that was 1% of their rateable value. This would bring in additional money which would be used to fund projects within the City Centre.  The BID, which was being led by the private sector, with support from the City Council, would be funded primarily through the levy, but could also draw on other public and private funding streams.  A ballot of 640 businesses and retailers in the City Centre was expected in November 2014 and, if successful, the BID could generate in excess of £800,000 additional funding per year.

6.3

Members of the Committee raised questions and the following responses were provided:-

·                The footfall was measured by monitoring people walking to and from specific points in the City Centre by CCTV.  The cameras were in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  The method of measuring footfall, which was operated by a company called Spring Board, was comparative with methods used by other major cities.

·                In comparison to most other key cities, hotels in Sheffield had a lower rack rate and the City had a low spend to visit ratio. The City still lacked some top end hotels, as compared with other key cities, such as Leeds and Newcastle.

·                It was hoped that a majority vote for the BID would be achieved as part of the ballot as this would provide funding for improvements to the trading environment in the City Centre, which would hopefully encourage the establishment of more businesses.  The Council was also working with Paul Lancaster Estates and other property agents to look at offering premises at low rents for small businesses.  The City Centre Management Team was working closely with colleagues in Creative Sheffield to put pressure on landlords to make vacant premises available for small businesses, either rent free or at very low rates.

·                As part of the first stage of scoping, to see if a BID was needed, approximately 230 City Centre businesses and retailers, including both independent and multiples, had been surveyed and asked whether they had any issues and if so, what could be done to resolve them.

·                The social media was deemed a very useful and effective method of communicating and marketing events in the City Centre. This was presently managed by the City Centre Management Team, but if the BID was successful, responsibility would be transferred to the BID Company. The Team had received nearly 7,000 “likes”, up from 105 at the same time last year.

6.4

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       notes the contents of the report now submitted, the information reported as part of the presentation now made and the responses to the questions raised; and

(b)       requests the Policy and Improvement Officer to make arrangements for a walkabout in the City Centre, to provide an opportunity for Members of this Committee, relevant Council officers and representatives from the business and retail sector, to raise any issues in connection with the City Centre, and for such issues to be discussed at a meeting of the Committee to be held during the Municipal Year 2014/15.