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Wisbech, 11 April 2012: Wisbech Town Team held its first post-Portas meeting
With its Portas Pilots bid submitted, Wisbech Town Team met to decide its strategy for the future. A key initiative at this early stage is to raise awareness of the Team and its work, with posters appearing in shops, businesses and community facilities across town – in English, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Russian.
At its Wednesday night meeting, the Town Team identified several key points for its attention. An early attempt to win funding from a source other than the Portas scheme is already underway, while Team members are looking into the problems, possibilities and legislation affecting particular derelict buildings in the town centre. The aim is to seek support and funding from outside organisations to help find a solution. The Town Team is keen to find partner organisations for mutual support and assistance. As a first step it is planning to hold its next meeting at the Wisbech Institute.
Town Team members are concerned that there could be some duplication of effort between themselves and the town’s many existing organisations. Plans are therefore afoot to maximise cooperation with these groups and perhaps pool resources for funding applications and other tasks.
In a very significant step forwards, the Town Team has secured the support and assistance of a local creative communications company and will be working to develop a communications strategy that will put Wisbech townsfolk at the heart of its efforts for the town.
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Wisbech Town Team – Latest news
Wisbech, 30 March 2012: Wisbech Town Team delivers its Portas Pilots bid documents and supporting video
Wisbech Town Team was in the town’s marketplace at 1pm on Friday 30 March, to post its £95,000 Portas Pilots bid. Members of the press (pictures above courtesy of Wisbech Standard and Fenland Citizen) were in attendance as the Team gathered to send the bid on its way and Town Team lead Jaqui Fairfax was able to give her immediate reaction to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. Stephen Barclay MP and Wisbech Mayor Jonathan Farmer were in attendance to lend their support.
The bid required a supporting video and Wisbech Town Team is grateful to the students of the College of West Anglia who created a superb video in record time. It can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVWwNjsEz9k
The event came as a milestone in Wisbech Town Team’s efforts and it now eagerly awaits the outcome of the Portas Pilots initiative. The next Wisbech Town Team meeting is scheduled for 7 pm on Wednesday 11 April 2012,
with venue to be announced.
Press enquiries should be addressed to Paul E Eden, Wisbech Town Team Press Officer, at paule.eden@btinternet.com
23 March 2012: Last night Wisbech Town Team held its final meeting before the submission of its Portas Pilots bid. The Team has compiled the core data required for the bid paperwork and is now working hard to present its vision in the Portas documents With the need to apply its ideas to the strict requirements of the Portas bid, the Team has been forced to refine and focus to provide Wisbech with the best possible chance of success.
The Team still recognises the marketplace; the use, maintenance and regeneration of derelict buildings; and the appointment of a town centre manager as its Portas priorities, and these have been distilled into a single, strong, inclusive scheme for the regeneration of the town centre as a whole.
Among the ideas now being committed to the Portas Pilots bid is the modification of an existing empty retail building for use by local start-up or micro businesses. Each would lease space in the building, providing a platform from which it could showcase its artisan skills and products. The Team would like to hear from local businesses that might be interested in becoming part of the project – expert members of the Town Team will offer help and guidance.
The marketplace remains a cornerstone of the Portas Pilots bid and the Team is proposing new uses for the area that will attract people to the town centre during the daytime and in the evenings, increasing the number of people in the area and creating an environment where townsfolk feel safe and relaxed.
The Team is also including its proposal for a town centre manager in the Portas bid and sees this role as crucial for the regeneration of Wisbech and the management of future schemes and initiatives.
Work is now underway on the Portas Pilots documents – the final bid must be placed by 30 March. Letters from Stephen Barclay MP and Wisbech Town Council are among the many notes of support already received by Wisbech Town Team, but every letter (or email) of support increases the town’s chances of success and the Team asks that anybody wishing to register their support does so by post to Wisbech Town Team, c/o Wisbech Town Council, North Brink, Wisbech, PE13 1JR, or by e-mail to jaqui@wisbechtownteam.org by Wednesday 28 March.
In the meantime, Wisbech Town Team also needs to produce a short amateur video to accompany the Portas Pilots bid and would be delighted to hear from anybody who might be able to help in its production.
Wisbech Town Team will post its final Portas Pilots bid on Friday 30 March, with press photo opportunities and members of the Team available for comment. It will then turn its attention to the wider issues affecting Wisbech and begin seeking funding from alternative sources.
Wisbech Town Team Wisbech, 15 March 2012: BBC journalists were back in Wisbech again yesterday, interviewing members of Wisbech Town Team for the Sunday Politics programme broadcast on Sunday, 18 March, on BBC 1. Click here to catch up with the programme on the BBC iPlayer
Wisbech Town Team continues to spark media interest and BBC journalists were in town again on Wednesday, interviewing Town Team members about the Portas Pilots scheme and their ongoing vision for the town’s regeneration. Mariam Issimdar interviewed Town Team leader Jaqui Fairfax, who was keen to emphasise that the Portas bid is merely a catalyst for change and the beginning of the Town Team’s effort. They discussed the Team’s plans to seek funding from alternative sources, as well as its vision for a reinvigorated Wisbech, including proposed new parking restrictions for the marketplace. Jaqui also stressed the town’s existing qualities, especially its fine architecture and magnificent heritage, which she hoped might be used to attract more tourists to Wisbech.
Anne-Marie Waterston of Lillymays Florist on the High Street was among the other Town Team members interviewed. She discussed the potential for regeneration of the High Street, the Portas Pilots bid and her concerns as the owner of a small business in the current economic climate.
Wisbech, 7 March 2012: At its third meeting, Wisbech Town Team acknowledged the extensive support it is receiving from the media and local organisations, as it continues its work towards making a Portas Pilots bid and on its plans for the future regeneration of Wisbech.
Interest in the team and its ambitions remains strong, with in excess of 30 people attending this third meeting at Wisbech Council Chambers, including a number of new faces. The Team’s three groups have been working hard on their individual ideas, refining these before uniting them into a single, three-strand Portas Pilots initiative.
The Team has received huge support from the media, local organisations and politicians. Fenland District Council and the Local Enterprise Partnership have pledged support and active assistance, while Steve Barclay, MP for North East Cambridgeshire, is also lending his support.
The Team’s flexible strategy continues along its three primary themes of marketplace regeneration; ensuring the use, maintenance and regeneration of derelict buildings; and the appointment of a town centre manager and the creation of new events, as well as the improved coordination, promotion and exploitation of those already well established.
The Portas Pilots bid remains the Team’s focus until the final documentation – and video – are submitted, by 30 March.
For the immediate future, a potential breakthrough into the town’s thriving Eastern European community is imminent, with Town Team members planning to meet with members of the community during the second week in March. The Team is also working on plans for a dedicated website, promoting its work, raising awareness and improving communication with local people.
Given its longer-term plans beyond the Portas bid, the Team has continued to investigate possible funding sources. It is also keen to hear from small businesses or individuals involved in arts and crafts-type activities, and with speculative interest in taking space within a larger, tourism-based retail unit.
The individual Wisbech Town Team groups are also meeting during the second week of March to further refine their Portas innovations, while the next full meeting is scheduled for Thursday 22 March at Wisbech Council Chambers.
Wisbech, 8 March 2012: Wisbech Town Team leader Jaqui Fairfax was out and about in Wisbech with BBC Radio Cambridgshire on Thursday, as the station recorded the first in a series of interviews following the fortunes of Wisbech Town Team.
Reflecting the strong interest that Wisbech Town Team has generated in the media, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Sue Dougan visited the town on Thursday morning to discuss the Portas Pilots initiative, as well as the Town Team’s ongoing vision for the town’s regeneration.
She and Jaqui strolled around the marketplace and Crescent, before walking across to North Brink and back into the town centre via High Street, taking in the town’s highlights as well as some of its more forgotten aspects.
Forming the first in a series of reports on Town Team, the interview is tentatively scheduled for broadcast during the afternoon of Tuesday 20 March.
The next Town Team meeting is at Wisbech Council Chambers on Thursday 22 March.
What is Wisbech Town Team? The Team is a group of Wisbech residents, traders, businesspeople and councillors. It was formed to make a bid for a share in the £1,000,000 available to improve the town centres of 12 towns under the Portas Pilots initiative. It has since broadened the scope of its aims and is seeking to continue its work to improve Wisbech, regardless of the outcome of the Portas bid. For the time being, the team can be contacted c/o Wisbech Town Council, North Brink, Wisbech, PE13 1JR or by e-mail through wisbechc@aol.com
What is Portas Pilots? In the wake of the Portas Review, Mary Portas and Grant Shapps MP, Minister of State for Housing and Planning, are leading the search for pilot high street regeneration projects through the Town Team concept. Portas Pilots is: “…looking to support twelve pilots with funding of up to £100,000 for each, depending on the amount sought by and our assessment of individual bids. They will be awarded to partnerships in England that demonstrate the best fit with the selection criteria.’
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