Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Sue Anderson, Councillor Simon Williams, Pat Carvalho, Mark Pullen, Gary Stevenson, Kunjal Sutaria, and Anthony Wood.

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 26 April 2012

To agree the informal notes of the meeting held on 26 July 2012

AGREED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 26 April 2012 be taken as read and signed as a correct record and that the notes of the informal meeting held on 26 July 2012 be agreed.

To consider any matters arising from the minutes of the last meeting.

A member of the Forum stated that he had met with Rev Bob Gardiner’s replacement, Rev Barry Hingston at Churches Together in Harrow.  Rev Hingston had indicated that he would be the new representative of Churches Together in Harrow and the Forum member undertook to liaise with Rev Hingston.

AGREED: That Rev Barry Hingston be appointed as the Churches Together in Harrow representative to the Harrow Town Centre Forum.

A member of the Forum requested that if the police representative from the Greenhill Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) was unable to attend future meetings, then he should be requested to submit a written update report to the Forum.  He also requested that the police representative provide a report about plans for policing Harrow Town Centre (HTC). He added that the Borough Commander had indicated his willingness to attend a future meeting of the Forum and should be invited to attend the next meeting. The Chairman stated that he would forward these requests to the police representative.

AGREED: That

(1)   the Borough Commander be invited to a future meeting of the Forum;

(1)   the Police representative be requested to provide a written report to future meetings of the Forum if unable to attend in person.

The Forum viewed the 4 minute version of the promotional DVD, Invest in Harrow.  Copies of the 15 minute version of the DVD were distributed to all those present. Following questions from members of the Forum, an officer advised that:

·                     the main intention of the DVD had been to promote Harrow as a brand and encourage investment in the area;

·                     the shorter version of the DVD had been aired on Star TV on several occasions at no cost and the DVD had been made using OLF1 funding. The DVD had been distributed to organisations such as the University of Westminister and via Harrow in Business to local businesses;

·                     Land Securities, who would be undertaking £300m redevelopment in Wealdstone were keen that the commercial spaces in Wealdstone be utilised;

·                     the lack of step-free access at stations such as Harrow on the Hill and Stanmore continued to be an issue and that the Council, the GLA Member and residents had been lobbying Transport for London and the Mayor of London about this issue for a number of years and would continue to do so.

The Chairman stated that Harrow did not promote itself enough, for instance it had the 9^th largest shopping mall in London and that there should be greater marketing and promotion of Harrow.

AGREED: That the DVD, Invest in Harrow, be noted.

a)     Lowlands Road Urban Park

b)     Car Park Indicator Signs

c)      Legible London signage

d)     St Ann’s Road public realm

e)     Events held since the last meeting and forthcoming

Officers provided verbal updates on the various projects and forthcoming events which were supported by Round 2 of the Outer London Fund.

St Ann’s Road/Havelock Place

A detailed design comprising the following elements was recently presented to the Council’s Public Realms Project Board:

·                     granite paving adjacent to Katie’s statue would continue along St Ann’s Road;

·                     a central strip, also paved in granite, where performance areas, trading activities, trees and street furniture would be located;

·                     a cantenary lighting system in which lanterns would be suspended from cables across the street and fixed to adjacent buildings;

·                     raised planters, steps and canopy to the entrance to the mall would be replaced by a continuous ramp;

·                     measures to restrict vehicle access to the western end of St Ann’s Road would be implemented;

·                     the number of BT telephone boxes had been reduced from 12 to 8 but it would not be possible to eliminate these altogether as BT used these as advertising space;

·                     a cost appraisal was being undertaken and adjustments may be made to ensure the scheme remained in budget with works expected to begin in February 2013;

·                     the plans for the cantenary lighting system had caused some delays.  Any building owner that agreed to the installation of cables for the suspension of this lighting would have this written into a contract and this would be apply in case of change of ownership of the building.

Kymberley Road/College Road

A feasibility study had been carried out by consultants and three options for the one way gyratory system at Kymberly Road/College Road/Headstone Road were likely to be proposed:

·                     minimal change with a focus on public realm and pedestrian access improvements in Kymberley Road/Headstone Road and additional bus standing capacity;

·                     as above, with entry/exit to St Ann’s car park reversed;

·                     two-way working on College Road;

·                     reversing the entry/exit points to St Ann’s car parkwould lead to confusion amongst motorists and may lead to accidents and delays along Kymberley Road.  It was important that delivery vehicles on Kymberley Road not be delayed as a consequence and that most landlords at St Ann’s centre would agree with this view;

·                     signage in the car parks needed to be improved and the ramps needed to be widened.  Other local authorities such as Manchester, which were in a similar process of improving their town centres may be willing to share ideas and successes and should be invited to future discussions.

Lowlands Recreation Ground

The consultant team had been engaging with a wide range of interest groups across the borough and a concept design and a design workshop with the local community was expected to be completed by December/January.  A package of initial ‘quick wins’ was being developed to raise the profile of the project and build relationships with interested groups and test design ideas for the site.

Signage

·                     the new programme of works and designs agreed as part of the Legible London Signage Scheme was on track;

·                     there were plans for bespoke  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

a)     Retail Group operator survey report back

b)     Report on further survey work carried out by Harrow BID team

c)      BID levy modelling and discussions with business rates

d)     BID task force and champions required

e)     Next steps

Officers made the following presentations to members of the Forum.  The first of these set out the findings of the Business consultation questionnaire formulated by the Harrow BID team. 67 retailers had responded. Officers anticipated that the results would help to identify the key areas for future improvements through a BID.  The findings of the questionnaire were summarised as follows:

·                     the most prevalent perceived strength of the town was its clean environment;  the good variety of people that visited, secure environment and good variety of shops;

·                     the most prevalent weakness of the town, was the level of anti social behaviour; the second was both needing a better variety of shops, parking facilities and improvement in the evening and weekend cleaning;

·                     the areas that needed the most priority within the Town Centre were more events and activities to draw people in; action against crime affecting businesses and marketing and promotion of the town centre;

·                     averages for the following features in Harrow Town Centre (where 1 was poor and 5 was good):

·                     shopping facilities = 3.5

·                     retail mix / offer = 3.3

·                     parking provision = 2.7

·                     destination stores = 3.2

·                      customer experience = 3.2

·                      ease of use = 3.7

·                      promotional activity = 2.5

·                     45% of the retailers, stated that there were no factors that prevented

           customers from choosing Harrow Town centre as a place to shop or visit;

·                     55% of the retailers thought that there were factors preventing customers from choosing Harrow Town Centre as a place to shop or visit;

·                     15% indicated that they knew about the work of Business Improvement Districts in other Town or City Centres;

·                     the most popular reasons for people choosing Harrow Town Centre were  convenience, good car parks, to meet friends, shopper facilities.

Following questions and comments from Forum members, an officer advised that further surveys of other business sectors would be undertaken.  A follow-up programme of action was planned and a business plan would be developed to deal with key concerns highlighted in the survey, such as security, better signage, parking and marketing.

The second presentation was the Retail Group’s Retail Operator report, the findings of which were as follows:

·                     an overwelmingly high number of respondents did not know what BID’s were achieving/doing in other town centres;

·                     over two thirds of respondents had stated that three following core areas should be focussed on the reduction in the number of ‘chuggers’, better security/ safety, improved hygiene standards; 

·                     almost three quarters of all respondents considered there to be some factors that prevent shoppers from choosing Harrow;

·                     35% had said the choice of shops was an issue; 31% stated parking needed to be improved; 21% felt the town had not undergone enough regeneraion;

·                     14% said security issues needed addressing;

·                     a regular/local shopper base (95%) dominated and that they were also successfully attracting  families. Local workers were only mentioned by two thirds of respondents which was a level lower than expected;

·                     shoppers were overwhelmingly considered to be ‘value seekers’ and ‘on a budget’. Harrow’s retailers recognised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Marketing / Communications

An officer advised that the Communications team at the Council would support the BID by promoting and explaining it to the wider community, promote forthcoming events related to the BID and flag up improvements and changes that had already been carried out to the Town Centre.  She added that her team had supported the consultation on the St Ann’s Road design proposals and the proposed development of Lowlands Recreation Ground.  She would aim to share the results of a recent survey of residents views’ regarding the Town Centre, which had revealed that the level of resident satisfaction with the Council and the Town Centre was at 60%.

The representative from Harrow College stated that:

·                     student enrolment figures for September had been good and similar to those in January;

·                     the college was focussing on apprenticeships and vocational training and was in discussions with local businesses about these;

·                     the college would be holding an Industry week at the end of November and a Winter Fair, where arts and crafts students would have stalls at either an indoor/outdoor venue where they could promote and showcase their work.  These events would be publicised shortly.

The representative from North West London Chamber of Commerce stated that:

·                     the NWLC would be moving offices shortly and Harrow in Business would be moving to offices at Harrow College.

The representative from St George’s shopping mall stated that:

·                     phase 1 of refreshing St George’s mall had been completed with phase 2 underway;

·                     there were four new tenants and a comparatively low void rate;

·                     footfall was down on last year and down during the last quarter;

·                     he would be happy to provide a more detailed overview of this to Council officers at a future date, along with information about which retailers and leisure operators are looking for new premises in Harrow.

The Chairman stated that St Ann’s Shopping mall:

·                     had a very low void rate;

·                     new doors and mats and new car parking equipment had been installed recently, which should reduce the incidence of breakdowns and complaints;

·                     although footfall was lower than usual, traders reported that they were generally doing well;

·                     he had concerns about competition from the new Wembley Park retail unit due to open shortly and felt that the shopping facilities in Harrow Town Centre should be promoted to the residents of Wembley.

AGREED: That the updates be noted.

Which the Chairman has decided is urgent and cannot otherwise be dealt with.

An officer reported that a feasibility study into the use of a Smart card/loyalty card specific to Harrow which would provide discounts for parking meters and could be used for shopping, was being carried out.  A member of the Forum suggested that the use of apps on smartphones would be an alternative way of providing this service.

To agree the next meeting date of the Forum.

4.00 pm on Thursday 29 January 2013.