New Alresford Town Council

New Alresford Town Council

Minutes of the tourism committee meeting

Wednesday 3^rd October 2007

at 6:30pm in the Station Buffet

Present: Cllrs Phillips, Yeldham, Gentry, Cattle, B Jeffs, Read, Evans. Louise McKay (Watercress Line),

Karen Brazier (WCC Tourism),

In attendance: City Councillor E. Jeffs

Member of Public: Mr R Atkins

Apologies: None

Press: 2

26	Declarations of interest None
27	Minutes of the meeting 13th June 2007 Minutes AGREED (Proposer: Cllr Phillips, Seconder: Cllr Gentry) Proposed Carnival – RG to see if it is raised at the Town Partnership other than that no action. This item to be included for discussion on the next Agenda.
28	Public Questions Mr Atkins questions were taken when the Watercress Festival was discussed; see below.
29	Budget And Expenditure To Date RG talked through the current situation
29.1	Visitor Information Point: Currently out of action so are unlikely to get a bill. Clerk to follow up with KB	Clerk
29.2	Leaflet Distribution: Needs to be checked that it is not for ‘Spend a Day’ leaflets.	RG/Clerk
29.3	Millennium Trail: OK
29.4	Adv/Mktg/Leaflets: We have £2k in our budget for the pocket guides - the millennium trail leaflets were in last year’s budget/expenses. The committee does not feel the extra funding of £500 is necessary and that the £2k is sufficient. The Chamber of Commerce invoice to NATC has come in at £2½k. This needs to be replaced by a new invoice for the agreed £2k.	Clerk
29.5	Watercress Festival: We paid £1716 in our own right for electricity/marshals/radios/refuse/tables/ambulance/cones and received back £1316. Mowing for parking was not agreed but paid. No invoice received or grant paid to the Watercress Alliance. RG – proposed to take the net amount of £1,600 and pass it over to next year’s budget. JC and MP to look through the Watercress Invoices to see what is going on	JC/MP
29.6	Hanging Baskets: There is currently a surplus of £858 with the only bill left being the watering.
29.7	Bowser: There is currently an overspend of £1,101 due to the repairs that have had to be carried out on it. Need to establish what the major overhaul will cost. Hopefully this and the baskets together will break even by the end of the year.	JC
	Apart from the bowser everything seems to be within budget.

30.1

Projects

Watercress Festival: Alresford Chamber has proposed to run the 2008 festival and provide £3,000 sponsorship, taking on responsibility for the areas previously looked after and funded by the Watercress Alliance (entertainers, folk band, compere, horse & cart, farm tours, donation to school, chairs and table, high profile chef, festival programme, signage, toilet hire, staging, AA signs, car park & police.) They said they would also provide regional PR for the local area.

With a £2,500 donation from NATC, the Chamber would need to find sponsors or other sources of income to the tune of £17,435, which is likely to be provided by the Watercress Alliance.

National PR and TV coverage through Wendy Akers. Stalls in West & East Streets to come to NATC. A clerk is required for the Watercress Meetings.

Agreed date for the Watercress Festival is 11^th May 2008 due to the availability of Antony Worrall-Thompson who will do a book launch at the festival to celebrate 200 years of watercress farming.

RA – asked is £22,900 the total expenditure. MP – that is what has been calculated

There is no official event organizer – JC informed the meeting that this is to be announced after the next Watercress Festival meeting which will aim to define exactly who will do what. KB asked to be kept posted as the third leg of the PR campaign

30.2

Hanging Baskets: Flowers have been excellent. At the next meeting the points to bear in mind for 2008 would be discussed: Should the flat rate for watering be reconsidered. Currently have 3 people rotating the watering who are reliable. Next year’s sell-in could be done later than Jan/Feb, possibly March, following a successful 2007.

RG/JC

30.4

Millennium Trail Maintenance: The original proposal was that when the edge of the trail was repaired the shingle was also to be done. It had been ordered, didn’t arrive and when the supplier was contacted the lorry had broken down and the timings for the next delivery weren’t suitable for the volunteers. The funding is already in place for this and will be done early November. Have been trying to work round HCC with regards to cutting the Trail, which is staying quite clear at the moment. KY believes the footpaths are the responsibility of HCC. MP has been told that HCC are responsible for only one cut, anymore is up to us. KY believes as it is a Tourist trail HCC is responsible. BJ agreed. RG – we need to be firmer with HCC. In 2006 we passed the cost for the extra cuts to HCC who refused to cover it. All correspondence to be passed to KY to fight our corner.

Tree at bottom of Dean fallen into river. Winchester Tree Officer coming to look at it.

30.5

Kruger Plaque: Due to arrive this week. Need to work out where it is going to go.

MP/Clerk

31.1

Literature and Technology

Millennium/Arle Valley Trail: Count stocks, check how many damaged by plumbing leak and whether replacements covered by insurance.

Clerk

31.2

Restoration of Eel House: KY reported that they are waiting for more income to be generated.

HCC has offered a £3k grant with certain conditions. One of these is for Eel House to be open 26 days a year to the public. KY to go back to HCC with the suggestion of replacing the closed fencing with railings to enable the public to see inside without actually entering.

31.3

Alresford Pocket Guide:

Resolution to contribute £2k to Alresford Chamber of Commerce towards cost of the New Alresford Pocket Guide: Proposed: Malcolm Phillips. Seconded: Jonathan Read. Agreed

In circulation. Local companies have been covered; KB has placed them at the Tourist Info Centres.

Briefly discussed Impact who distributes NATC leaflets. Get a quote from them to generally distribute for Easter.

Clerk

32.1

Reports

Winchester Tourism:

KB reports it has been a good summer. Golden Age has been filmed in Winchester, marketing & PR in place. Also GMTV running a week long feature. New web pages on visit Winchester. Green Leaf Tourism Scheme to be promoted in Visitor’s Guide. Visit Britain ~ enjoyEngland.com – won a prize for Keats’ walk.

So’ton Airport ~ trying to encourage people to the Winchester area. Trying to get better links from airport.

Watercress campaign still ongoing

32.2

Chamber of Commerce:

SE has chaired 4 meetings with the following items to bring forward to this.

1) Membership: 117 which is highest ever

2) Alresford Bag: Sold all 500 bags at the Alresford Show (largest gate ever). New stock due Nov.

3) Pocket Guide: Good addition

4) Watercress Festival: No further comments to make

5) Market: sent out questionnaire for public to complete. Info currently being collated and awaiting feedback which will be shared at next month’s chamber meeting. Overall the Chamber is behind the market.

6) Parking: A big issue. Mike Dowcett of ServicePoint helping to re-route business drivers.

Overall Chamber is now more business driven. RG – Chamber website up and running for 5 years next month showing over 200k hits per month. Press release is due out.

32.3

Watercress Line:

LM reported that passengers are 10% up – a good year

Next year 35^th anniversary of closure. A diesel unit will be running 2/3 Feb

25^th anniversary of extension to Ropley & Four Marks stations.

3 x Thomas events, 2 around Easter and 1 in August. To be ad. on TV

Any other Business

RA informed the meeting that the BBC is keen to do a programme on Eel House and congratulated Cllr E Jeffs and team on achieving a grant. Cllr Jeffs stated that they are still short on funds by £18k

Date of next meeting: Wednesday 9^th January 2008 at 6.30pm Station Buffet

The Chairman closed the meeting at 7:30pm

Chair Signature__________________________Date__________________