SEE3 Financial Accounts

[Chris Best]

Joanne you ask three questions about how Tony managed the business support projects.

First on the signage of £20k we split this into the three areas £8k for Sydenham and Forest Hill and £4 for Kirkdale. Lee was commissioned for the Kirkdale project and you can see the results on the SEE3 web site as well as on the walls in Kirkdale. The traders were consulted on what they wanted and were involved in the delivery. We have the drawings for Forest Hill and again the traders have agreed what they want but the trader who has agreed to deliver this has been tied up with his own business. In Sydenham we now have the lamp post banners up and are looking to commission some signage on the wall into Station Approach once the building works are complete.

Second on the £12k for the Christmas calendars and flyers. I led the team on the production this year and we have a larger edition of 20 pages so we reduced the print run to 20,000. We obtained 3 quotes last year the cost for printing is just under £2,500. There is the cost of the door to door delivery to be taken into account as well as the design and typesetting. We have produced the calendar for 3 years and delivered to all of Forest Hill and Sydenham wards and part of Perry Vale. Within this budget we have included several flyers - this year for Valentine's and Easter events. The feedback I have received is very positive and well worth the cost.

Third on the workshops and one to one support for £10k. A number of workshops took place and this year Visual International run 2 workshops attended by some 30 businesses and there was intensive support for 6 businesses as well as online advice. We received a written report on improving the look and feel of the high streets and some of this has been put in place.

I could say far more but now need to review the arrangements for tomorrow.

[Joanne]

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

But you have not justified expenditures.

Why are you spending such an amount on signage? Particularly when it has no need to be permanent?

Lee’s signage on Kirkdale is okay.

Clearly though doesn’t attract footfall does it. You are not doing anything there.

We are in Year 3 – surely banners should be a permanent fixture by now?

What though are we advertising? A pretty depressing market?

Your expenditure hand delivering leaflets is a waste of time.The uptake will be extremely poor – say 1%

You are saying that you’ve provided business support. Can you explain please?

Your own business hub was not sustainable.

What exactly have you advised on and as I asked earlier can we hear from these people.
Existing businesses, have they benefited?

Has graffiti been useful?

Morris Dancers? I was there and it was pretty depressing to the point of embarrassment.

I’ve re read this and I think it sounds abrupt but I really need to do something else so cannot alter.
Possibly I’m right in places and not in others.

[sugahill cafe]

[quote="Chris Best"] and there was intensive support for 6 businesses? Can i ask which 6 businesses received intensive support & in which way?

[Nigel]

This is beginning to read like a vexatious Freedom of Information request.
Incredibly well done to Chris and Lee for keeping your shape and being so helpful but it is painful to read all these attempts to undermine so much good work .
I am sorely tempted to commit Death by Admin i.e. find some tenuous link to a long running middle eastern conflict and therefore compel the honourable gentleman to close the thread with , hopefully, only a nominal sanction against me .
A very good morning
Nigel

[Nigel]

In my rancour I forgot to mention Joanne's attack on the Morris . Joanne it is a revered and much enjoyed part of English culture and I assure you if I had to choose between a lifetime of simple melody and rhythm with dance ranging from the jovial and good humoured to the truly beautiful - and a trip to view your "art" in Dulwich it would not be a hard decision to make .

On the plus side you will find it very easy to analyse the costing as all of the tunes are 16, 32 or 48 bars in length so you will be able to spot any lapses in governance easily , albeit whilst flushing with embarrassment .

Good morning
Nigel

[Tim Lund]

On the plus side you will find it very easy to analyse the costing as all of the tunes are 16, 32 or 48 bars in length

In your enthusiasm for bean counting, are you overlooking Bean Setting?



By my reckoning A.(AB)4 makes this 88 bars in total.

The alternation between 12/8, 6/8 and 9/8 make it one of the more rhythmically complex of English morris tunes.

[youtubes]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s52ELALQfk[/youtubes]

[Nigel]

Tim
Agree fascinating and highly atypical timing .
For the record the bar length of dance tunes is described per repetition - so for instance 4 tines through Lumps of Plum Pudding is still a 32 bar tune not a 128 bar tune.
In practice the total number of repetitions is not wholly predictable but the internal structures , in this case a very typical AA,BB is never varied .
Next week ; half time and the phrasing of Faery Capers sections .

This is a much more agreeable topic than the original post .

A very good afternoon
Nigel

[spark]

I find it peculiar that anyone would have a problem with a valid request for details of SEE3's accounts. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that the details of these accounts should be in the public domain without having to be requested. If there is nothing to hide then what possible objection could there be? The questions asked in previous posts are quite reasonable ones.

And attempts to divert attention away without offering anything of relevance appear more than a little ridiculous.

[Tim Lund]

Spark, I am with you in wanting more transparency. Sorry if you did not appreciate my facetiousness.

[Pally]

I also think it is unfortunate that there is not a published document detailing the accounts - as far as I know. I have looked on the SEE3 site but could not find one. Apologies in advance if I have missed it.

It also seems to me that much of the ongoing discussion about the High St, pop up shops, finance, signage or whatever arises from a sense of "not knowing" because there appears not to be a clearly documented summary and evaluation of what has happened so far. That is not to say that there are not various papers, notes, posts on here etc that give some detail, but those do not provide a joined up overview. This means that individuals will surmise, ask questions and comment, possibly without all the facts!

Joanne has actually acknowledged the hard work of various individuals within a number of her posts both in this thread and others. The fact that there is criticism does not mean that everything she says is wrong.. I think there are some valid points. I agree with Lee that it would be great if she could "move into" the high street and model all her ideas and suggestions.

I am conscious that I am still commenting without getting further involved directly in SEE3 ... which must be annoying to those who are busy working away at it, when I keep popping up in these threads. Unfortunately at the moment I just can't commit the time but hopefully will be able to soon.

[Pally]

I should add that I am aware there is a very basic statement of accounts ... but no more detail, other than things added on this thread in reply to some queries. In my previous post I was not just referring to accounts but to a summary and evaluation f all aspects eg. The Pop up shops ....from the beginning... the strategy, the numbers, what happened to each, which ones resulted in used space, lessons learnt eg re location etc etc. I know this is all done by volunteers but there does seem to be something missing, leaving an opening for conjecture and potential for concern which may well be unfounded because of being uninformed.

[Chris Best]

Yes you are right Pally that volunteers have been putting in the time to develop initiatives and that includes working on future funding. At present we do not have any more funding and the GLA are currently writing up the evaluation of the 3 portas pilots in London. Here is the link to the GLA web site - http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/reg ... d-sydenham from our last report.

We held an open Town Team meeting in October followed up by another in November where we discussed what we had acheived to date and next steps. We have a website that gives a reasonable background of what we have been working on and have published calendars with a short summary of what we are about and achievements in the first couple of pages - set out below are the links
Calendar 2012 - http://www.see3.co.uk/wp-content/upload ... s-List.pdf
Calendar 2013 - http://www.see3.co.uk/wp-content/upload ... r_2013.pdf
Calendar 2014 - http://www.see3.co.uk/wp-content/upload ... 4-web1.pdf

We held a launch meeting in August 2012 to set out our proposals and reported back in August 2013 at one year on. Along with other Directors I gave a presentation to the Portas Pilot group that was well received and have hosted visits from the GLA, Business in The Community etc

I have no problems with openness and transparency - I just don't have time to go over old ground. I don't agree with much of what Joanne has to say. I think Kirkdale has really changed in the past year or so - from the opening of the pop up at 161 to the now popular Wine and Food, the arrival of Fig and Pistachio and Munroe's Upholstery on one side with Grannys Goodies on the other. The gorgeous french bakery now has an attractive window display. Yes there are still changes that need to happen eg The Windmill and the reletting of That's Amore but I think it is a more vibrant parade than it was 2 years ago. There is funding in place for improvements to the pavement and the roundabout. "Kirkdale Village" has an active facebook page and twitter account and more residents are willing to get involved to make where they live a better place.

As Directors we have received reports from our consultants that have been submitted to LB Lewisham and the GLA - each contract contained outputs and milestones and these were monitored regularly. If people want to get involved then let me know - once agreed I will circulate the dates for the Town Team meetings for the start of 2015.

[Nigel]

I must admit that Tim and I have probably been a bit facetious . If I didn't have a tendency to misuse humour I would have said :
Providing unending detail post project eats up time and energy that I for one would prefer Chris and others to spend looking forward .
Some, only some , of the requests for detail come from a cynical place and I think the best course for people who want to know more is to involve themselves in the legwork and elbow grease of delivering such an excellent piece of work .
I say the same regarding the Sydenham Arts Festival - excellent endeavour - those that need the learning from will have taken it and for the rest of us we should be mightily glad that that people bothered.
In my and Tim's defence Joanne did say stupid things about the Morris.
A very good evening
Nigel

[sugahill cafe]

and there was intensive support for 6 businesses? Can i ask which 6 businesses received intensive support & in which way?

Obviously not then, this must be privileged information. As a local business we certainly never knew there was intensive support available via this scheme.

[Chris Best]

Chris the intensive support was part of the package from industry experts Lynda Murray & Phill Hill of International Visual Ltd - http://www.internationalvisual.com. I can see from the email list that you were invited to attend two free master classes. The first master class was on Window Dressing Techniques and the second was on Visual Merchandising. It was from these two sessions that the follow up intensive support was offered. It may be that you didn’t think the topics of the master classes were going to be directly relevant to you. Lynda and Phill worked with the shops who attended the presentation and wanted to consolidate what had been discussed into their own business.

SEE3 also put on a retail masterclass with Rowland Gee - http://www.see3.co.uk/2014/01/retail-ma ... -sydenham/ - again I can't see that Sugahill attended the sessions.

SEE3 also promoted the support for businesses that the borough has in place through The Business Advisory Service for Lewisham and Southwark (BASLS) - free confidential, impartial advice and support is on offer to individuals, business owners and sole traders operating within Lewisham.

[Tim Lund]

The company chosen to do the evaluation for the GLA is Regeneris

The GLA has appointed Regeneris to evaluate the performance of the Forest Hill, Kirkdale and Sydenham; Tower Hamlets and Waterloo Portas Pilot areas. Regeneris will provide a robust evaluation of the economic impact of the programme and identify key lessons learned as part of a coherent set of informed conclusions that will help inform future funding programmes.
For more information on this project or our wider evaluation services please contact Margaret Collins (0207 608 7200).
- See more at: http://regeneris.co.uk/latest/news/entr ... 0sC7t.dpuf

Source here

I would guess they will be be doing the sort of analysis I suggested commercial letting agents would do as a matter of course here

I'd be interested to know where Sydenham Road lies on a spectrum of High Street success, taking into account where they are and the demographics. I suspect large commercial letting agents, who will be the main advisors for the sort of landlords who just see a shop as a financial asset, will have some model of average income in an area, proximity to train station and some other stats which can be obtained from the ONS or London data store, and a calculation which says what rent they should be asking for. If we could find other High streets with similar profiles on such mechanical views, and compare vacancy rates and tenant churn, then we could say whether Sydenham Road is doing well or not - at least on this measure.

and use it to assess what beneficial impact SEE3 has had, factoring out the background economics.

[sugahill cafe]

Thanks for replying Chris honestly can not remember being invited or why i chose not to attend if invited,but my original question remains unanswered. But i'll leave it there would have been interesting to know which 6 businesses did attend receive the intensive support & how it benefited them. Chris

[leenewham]

Sugahill have been, organically, doing exactly what SEE3 has set out to do, which is work with other local areas (I know they have linked with Sugar Mountain, which is brilliant).

I think SEE3 could be criticised of not supporting this sort of activity more, seeking out existing initiatives by shops and offering support and asking them how they can support them and make them happen or expanding on them to make them bigger and better. Sugar Mountain are really proactive in Forest Hill. If this sort of thing is supported, it can only be a good thing and possibly encourage other businesses to follow suit and be masters of their own destiny.

I hope this is something that improves in the future. High streets are better when change comes from the traders and they are engaged and part of the process. This is difficult to do as sadly, many businesses are more focussed on their own business or just don't have the time and as such don't appear (which may or may not be true) to care about the high street or to work with other general. I've been to some of the traders meetings, but hardly any traders were there.

This is one of the issues with SEE3. If traders are not being engaged, if they aren't being part of SEE3, then how can they change this? Is there something a shop/business wants to do and SEE3 can make it easier to happen, so therefore making it easier for a business or businesses to do something with the limited time and resources they have. This may simply be introducing them to people that can make things happen.

[Chris Best]

Quite agree Lee and this is what Tony Buckley set out to do. He visited all the traders and carried out a survey on what help they wanted. As you know we had a meeting for Sydenham traders where we discussed signage, window presentation and working collectively. We followed up with workshops and have generally tried to encourage traders to get together and work for each other. I have examples where Fresh'n'Fruity and Billings supply local restaurants. We have held a couple of meetings this year and have our SEE3 Christmas drinks tomorrow evening - traders where we have contact details have been invited and I will PM you with the details. If anyone else wants to join us tomorrow evening from 6.30pm the please let me know. We really do want to make a difference to our local high streets and need people with some free time to come and help turn some great ideas into action.

Chris I will go back to the report and PM you - and hope to see you tomorrow evening.

[Joanne]

I also think it is unfortunate that there is not a published document detailing the accounts - as far as I know. I have looked on the SEE3 site but could not find one. Apologies in advance if I have missed it.

It also seems to me that much of the ongoing discussion about the High St, pop up shops, finance, signage or whatever arises from a sense of "not knowing" because there appears not to be a clearly documented summary and evaluation of what has happened so far. That is not to say that there are not various papers, notes, posts on here etc that give some detail, but those do not provide a joined up overview. This means that individuals will surmise, ask questions and comment, possibly without all the facts!

Joanne has actually acknowledged the hard work of various individuals within a number of her posts both in this thread and others. The fact that there is criticism does not mean that everything she says is wrong.. I think there are some valid points. I agree with Lee that it would be great if she could "move into" the high street and model all her ideas and suggestions.

I am conscious that I am still commenting without getting further involved directly in SEE3 ... which must be annoying to those who are busy working away at it, when I keep popping up in these threads. Unfortunately at the moment I just can't commit the time but hopefully will be able to soon.

Unfortunately but as I’ve already tried to explain we will not be currently able to open up a Gallery in SE26 (or Kirkdale, or Forest Hill).
Since the time we did offer to do so, around 3 years ago, our business has developed a direction which would not suit these locations.
We would not be serving the locals well, our artists and established client base (region No: 4000)