I thought I'd separate this from the George Proctor post.
Apparently shop front improvement grants are available:
http://www.chrisbest.labour.co.uk/?location_id=30
http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres ... dAudit.pdf
http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/NR/exeres/D5 ... CFDA77.htm
I have enquired about these but no response so far.
I know a number of businesses in Sydenham that would make good use of any assistance from the council.
SHOP FRONT GRANTS
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digime2007
- Posts: 258
- Joined: 10 Sep 2007 18:26
- Location: Sydenhham
I've cut and pasted some copy from an old lewisham life (september 06) from the Councils website regarding shop front grants:
"That’s what the Catford Town Centre Improvement Grant aims to do. Independent retailers who want to give their shop and business frontages a face lift can get up to 50% of the cost paid."
"With an initial £230,000 in the kitty from Lewisham Capital Funding up until 2008 it is hoped that up to 40 premises could be given a facelift."
"Catford Town Centre Manager Petra Smith says that the cost of
updating premises can often be too much to bear for some of the smaller shops which give a town centre its character."
“We want to boost trade and encourage the growth of business in Catford town centre. Several businesses we’ve helped say that they would not have gone ahead with a facelift without the grant. We would like to see a knock on effect created which spreads throughout the town.”
The owner of Watling Tyres in Rushey Green, Norman Flury, took advantage of a £7,750 grant to fund 50% of the costs of revamping the frontage of his business."
As I highlighted in bold , there are many shops that wont change without financial help.
The council have stated above in their own newsletter that how shops look is important, not only to the individual shops, but the area as a whole. They were willing in 2006 to put almost a 1/4 of a million pounds into such a scheme.
The council have invested in very good, well designed, well thought out guidelines.
But changing a shop front often isn't the problem. The design and signage is.
According to the article, changing the shop front cost £15,000.
To change signage can cost between a few hundred and £1500.
With careful consideration given to design the council could save some 90% by investing in good design of the signage.
I didn't change any shop front on the WHAT IF project. Only the design and signage.
Hopefully the WHAT IF project has shown that a few design changes can make a massive difference. We don't need to change ANY Of the shop fronts in Sydenham unless we are replacing cheap aluminium ones with ones closer to the original ones that were there before.
I have two questions for Julie Sutch and Cllr Chris Best:
• Will these grants be made available to businesses in Sydenham to improve their design and signage without CHANGING the shop front?
• Will these grants be linked to the shop guidelines created for Lewisham Council which exclude the use of closed roller shutters, back lit illuminated box signage and cheap metal shop fronts?
Many thanks for your help,
Lee
"That’s what the Catford Town Centre Improvement Grant aims to do. Independent retailers who want to give their shop and business frontages a face lift can get up to 50% of the cost paid."
"With an initial £230,000 in the kitty from Lewisham Capital Funding up until 2008 it is hoped that up to 40 premises could be given a facelift."
"Catford Town Centre Manager Petra Smith says that the cost of
updating premises can often be too much to bear for some of the smaller shops which give a town centre its character."
“We want to boost trade and encourage the growth of business in Catford town centre. Several businesses we’ve helped say that they would not have gone ahead with a facelift without the grant. We would like to see a knock on effect created which spreads throughout the town.”
The owner of Watling Tyres in Rushey Green, Norman Flury, took advantage of a £7,750 grant to fund 50% of the costs of revamping the frontage of his business."
As I highlighted in bold , there are many shops that wont change without financial help.
The council have stated above in their own newsletter that how shops look is important, not only to the individual shops, but the area as a whole. They were willing in 2006 to put almost a 1/4 of a million pounds into such a scheme.
The council have invested in very good, well designed, well thought out guidelines.
But changing a shop front often isn't the problem. The design and signage is.
According to the article, changing the shop front cost £15,000.
To change signage can cost between a few hundred and £1500.
With careful consideration given to design the council could save some 90% by investing in good design of the signage.
I didn't change any shop front on the WHAT IF project. Only the design and signage.
Hopefully the WHAT IF project has shown that a few design changes can make a massive difference. We don't need to change ANY Of the shop fronts in Sydenham unless we are replacing cheap aluminium ones with ones closer to the original ones that were there before.
I have two questions for Julie Sutch and Cllr Chris Best:
• Will these grants be made available to businesses in Sydenham to improve their design and signage without CHANGING the shop front?
• Will these grants be linked to the shop guidelines created for Lewisham Council which exclude the use of closed roller shutters, back lit illuminated box signage and cheap metal shop fronts?
Many thanks for your help,
Lee
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Chris Best
- Posts: 439
- Joined: 6 May 2005 11:37
- Location: Sydenham
Some years ago Lewisham Council attracted funds from the Crystal Palace Single Regeneration Budget to provide shop front grants in Sydenham Road. We were hoping to use the planning gain funds from the Bell Green development but the developer is no longer in business. We will continue to look for planning gain funds to support the high street but we also negotiate with developers to provide much needed affordable homes. I will seek to ensure that when the rest of the Bell Green site is developed the traders in Sydenham Road will see a benefit.
Dear Cllr Chris,
Many thanks for your reply.
So basically there are no grants available for businesses in Sydenham to improve their shop fronts?
If so, can I respectfully suggest that the statement 'including the provision of shop front improvement grants' should be removed from both the links posted on this thread as it is misleading.
I had quite a few messages from businesses in Sydenham who will be disappointed with this news. I hope that we can get a developer to develop Bell Green to regenerate what is a rundown part of Sydenham. The plans on the websites for the buildings near the Bell Green Surgery and the plans for the building opposite Sainsbury's were well designed. I was hoping that these were still going ahead and my heart sinks to hear that they are not.
Regards
Lee
Many thanks for your reply.
So basically there are no grants available for businesses in Sydenham to improve their shop fronts?
If so, can I respectfully suggest that the statement 'including the provision of shop front improvement grants' should be removed from both the links posted on this thread as it is misleading.
I had quite a few messages from businesses in Sydenham who will be disappointed with this news. I hope that we can get a developer to develop Bell Green to regenerate what is a rundown part of Sydenham. The plans on the websites for the buildings near the Bell Green Surgery and the plans for the building opposite Sainsbury's were well designed. I was hoping that these were still going ahead and my heart sinks to hear that they are not.
Regards
Lee
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digime2007
- Posts: 258
- Joined: 10 Sep 2007 18:26
- Location: Sydenhham
That's disappointing. From what Lee says it seems like we could make some significant positive changes to Sydenham Road with a relatively small financial commitment.
I agree with Lee that the reference on your website to "the provision of shop front improvement grants" should be removed, or, preferably changed to a commitment to trying to secure funds for future grants.
Thanks for clarifying the situation.
I agree with Lee that the reference on your website to "the provision of shop front improvement grants" should be removed, or, preferably changed to a commitment to trying to secure funds for future grants.
Thanks for clarifying the situation.
Ditto - Thanks Lee for highlighting this! It wouldn't be the first time that we have been mislead about developments in Lower Sydenham. What news exactly do the councillors have?? It seems that there's a degree of complacency has dangerously set in here here with regard to notifying us and the local businesses of grants that actually are available to improve things - confused as always.digime2007 wrote:That's disappointing. From what Lee says it seems like we could make some significant positive changes to Sydenham Road with a relatively small financial commitment.
I agree with Lee that the reference on your website to "the provision of shop front improvement grants" should be removed, or, preferably changed to a commitment to trying to secure funds for future grants.
Thanks for clarifying the situation.
