Annual report 2015/16

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Annual Report 2015/16

Annual report 2015/16

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Contents

Page 3: Introduction

Page 4: Directors and Staffing

Page 5: Teignmouth and Dawlish – Overview

Page 6: Objectives and Aims

Page 7: Town Centre information and Teignmouth and Dawlish Online

Page 8: Enhancing the Environment of the town centres

Page 9: Marketing & promote the towns

Page 10: Town centre events

Page 12: Press coverage

Page 12: Major Improvements

Page 13: Future priorities 2015/16

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Introduction

The Teignmouth and Dawlish Community Interest Company is a ‘Company Limited by Guarantee’

and does not have a share capital. It was incorporated at Companies House on 14th January 2013.

The CIC was set up by Teignbridge District Council using funding from Section 106 agreements arising

from the Sainsbury (Dawlish) and Morrison’s (Teignmouth) supermarket developments. The Board

of Directors comprise three traders, plus one Town Councillor and one District Councillor from each

town. The intention was to have a clear majority from the business world and for the CIC to operate

using business principles.

The aims of the Company is to promote and carry forward the economic and community

regeneration of Teignmouth and Dawlish with a particular focus on the town centres and to

create/support a vibrant business community and economy in the two towns working with partners

and stakeholders. In particular these include the District Council, the Town Councils, the County

Council, trader’s organisations and Chambers of Commerce, transport operators (bus, rail and

coach), community organisations and events groups amongst others.

The CIC has one employee Tracy Scranage who is the Town Centre Development Manager, she has

only been in post since October 2014 and currently has a 2 year contract.

This report seeks to outline the progress made in many areas of activity in the two towns. This

ranges from delivery in some areas, progress in others, planning for the future and responding to

events. However, the CIC wants to thank all those who have provided facilities (e.g. Dawlish Town

Council for significant extra funding; Teignmouth Town Council and Teignbridge District Council for

provision of equipment).

In the following pages we seek to report the range and extent of work carried out by the CIC in

general and its TCDM in particular in 2015/16.

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Directors & Staffing: 2015/16

The Board of Directors is balanced between Teignmouth and Dawlish, with three traders from each

town, one Town Councillor from each town and one District Councillor from each town.

Board of Directors:

• Dawlish Trader (Chairman) - Peter Cross • Teignmouth Trader - Mike Jackman • Teignmouth Trader - Iain Palmer • Teignmouth Trader - Chris Houghton • Dawlish Trader - Bob Bowen • Dawlish Trader - Margaret Tucker • Teignmouth Town Councillor - Paul Burgess, Company Secretary & Treasurer • District Councillor Teignmouth - Dave Matthews • Dawlish Town Councillor - Post available • District Councillor Dawlish - Rosalind Prowse

One member of staff:

• Town Centre Development Manager - Tracy Scranage October 14 - Present

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Teignmouth & Dawlish

Overview

Teignmouth and Dawlish together have a population of over 27,000 which rises to over 33,000 when adjacent parishes are taken into account. The town centres are vibrant with over 400 businesses and comparatively low empty shop percentage compared to national statistics.

Teignmouth

• Over 280 town centre businesses

• Approx. 15,000 population

• 12 Town Councillors

• 6 District Councillors

• 1 County Councillor

GB Teignmouth (last survey

August 2014)

Dawlish (last survey

May 2015)

Vacancy rate – all

premises in town

centres

11.6% 6.4% 9.2%

Source: Local Data Company – May 2015

At present there are no empty shops in Dawlish Town Centre.

Rail usage – total entries and exist by station

Teignmouth Dawlish Dawlish Warren

2014/15 602,886 556,796 157,212

2013/14 566,620 484,174 138,966

2012/13 599,412 507,058 145,712

2011/12 566,348 480,490 141,044

Source: ORR - May 2015 Data Supplied by Devon County Council Development Team and The

Riviera Line

Dawlish

• Over 140 town centre businesses

• Approx. 13,000 population

• 16 Town Councillors

• 5 District Councillors

• 1 County Councillor

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Town Centre Development Manager’s Main Objectives

Main Purpose:

To lead and co-ordinate the development of Dawlish and Teignmouth Town centres to help satisfy

the needs and aspirations of the businesses in creating vibrant town centres, together with the local

communities and the tourist industry

Main Activities:

1. To promote the physical, social and economic wellbeing of the town centre through facilitating

the identification of, gaining commitment to and coordinating the implementation of initiatives and

improve the quality and economic viability of the towns.

2. To help set up and/or support the meeting and operations of the Town Centre Forums

3. To help to promote a mutual understanding between the private and public sectors

4. To organise, co-ordinate and promote events which will assist in the revitalisation of the town

centres

5. To maintain and develop information concerning the economic prosperity of the town centres and

to be aware of the new opportunities and threats to the town centres and support businesses to

identify and plan for these

6. To develop and maintain a good knowledge of funding sources. To identify funding opportunities

and prepare funding bids for projects as approved by the CIC and to be responsible for project

managing approved bids, to advise local organisations of funding opportunities as the arise and

assist them in submitting bids.

7. To establish and maintain a website and social media presence in providing information in respect

of Town centre management, to utilise other appropriate on line resources including web based

feedback in relation to the towns, their facilities, events and the overall environment.

8. To market the town centres by appropriate opportunities including local press opportunities,

social media and maintaining a website including appropriate links to relevant associated sites.

9. To liaise with relevant Council Departments and external partners to ensure that the town centres

are kept safe, clean and tidy.

10. To assist with the development of delivery of the Town Centre targets agreed annually with the

CIC

11. To undertake reports and presentations on Town Centre related matters to a range of councils

and partnership forums

12. To assist Teignbridge District Council, Teignmouth Town Council and Dawlish Town Council in

activities which promote the economic regeneration and revitalisation of the town centre.

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13. To build constructive relationships with appropriate local organisations, particularly Town,

District and County councils, Chamber of Trade and commerce, Traders Groups, Tourism Agencies

and other local groups and to make reports and recommendations to them as necessary and to help

meet their needs

14. To submit timely progress reports to the Board of the CIC in respect of performance targets and

key performance indicators set annual by the town forums, where appropriate to act as the licence

holder for town centre public entertainment licences.

15. Any other duties commensurate with the post which may be reasonable required.

Town Centre Information: Improving town centre communications and raising the profile of the CIC

There have been a variety of ways in which the CIC has become established in Teignmouth and

Dawlish. These include representing town centre business interests, whether members of a traders

association or not, Teignmouth Town Centre Partnership meetings and also at Traders Association

and Chamber of Trade and Events Committee meetings in Dawlish.

The CIC also represents Teignmouth and Dawlish at other committees and regularly gives reports

and support to organisations such as Dawlish Arts Committee, Dawlish Warren Tourism, and Events

organisations amongst others. This enables the Town Centre Development Manager to highlight to

people the many great things the towns have to offer and promote the work that the CIC is doing.

Social Media

Social media is another key way to engage with residents and businesses and there are now over 1337 followers of the Teignmouth and Dawlish Community Interest Company on Facebook and 498 on Twitter, the opening of new businesses and promotions are always very successful on Facebook as well as the promotion of events in the towns, The TCDM had now started to advertise job vacancies for town centre businesses and volunteer positions available.

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The Love Teignmouth and Love Dawlish websites have been undergoing some improvements thanks to the small team of Volunteers, the Whats on pages are well populated and will have links for the Two Town Council website that are currently being changed themselves, we have been lucky enough to secure some funding from Teignbridge to improve the sites this work will be carried out by the end of the year.

Enhancing the Environment of the town centres

Teignbridge were awarded a £10,000 Mary Portas grant for Dawlish, they gave this money to the CIC

to use for shop front improvements the TCDM visited all the traders in Dawlish and explained the

criteria of the grant and after a year of work in Dawlish the scheme came to an end in March, this

resulted in a £40,000 investment in the Town centre, BBC Spotlight came and filmed a piece last

week and this will go on air in the next week, Teignbridge were very pleased with the project and its

results.

In order to both enhance the area and promote the town attractions, the CIC took the lead on the

lamp post banners along the Strand in Dawlish in 2013 and it was decided that the banners needed

to be changed last year, it was decided to put them up using carabiners as these would not come

loose, unfortunately it just ripped the banners, this year we have redesigned two of the banners as

well as repairing the broken ones from last year, sadly the repaired banners did not withstand the

wind at Easter but the new design did, the Town Council have agreed to replace all of the old design

and these will be replaced by the end of May bank holiday.

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Town Maps

One of the more visual ways in which the CIC has supported existing town centre businesses is

through the development of the Teignmouth and Dawlish shopping maps. This supports businesses

and promotes the town, they include every business free of charge, offering the opportunity to

advertise for a fee, this helping to subsidise the maps, this year’s maps also included Shaldon and

Dawlish Warren.

The maps showcase all the businesses in the town centres and have been

developed to include attractions that the towns have to offer, such as a

theatre, museum and Teignmouth Heritage Trail and this year the maps also

include the location of the town defibrillators

Nearly all the 50,000 maps have now been distributed to holiday parks, TICs

and local attractions, libraries and Train Stations as well as many being handed out by local

businesses, there is also an electronic version on the Visit South Devon Page as well as the Love

Dawlish and Love Teignmouth Websites

The C.I.C has installed large versions of the maps outside Morrison’s, The Lawn duck boards and

outside the TIC Dawlish and Waitrose, these have been updated with the new maps.

Brown Signs

Teignmouth tourism signs have now been installed and there are also extra directional signage for

Shopmobility and also Water sports on the Back Beach.

Town Centre Events

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Town centre events are a way to generate extra footfall into Teignmouth and Dawlish as events can

bring in more people. Although there is already an outstanding established programme of events in

each town, the CIC has contributed to a number of events, from supporting roles and volunteering

through to organising events of its own.

Teignmouth Events

The CIC have been involved with many events over the past year,

Monthly Craft and Farmers Markets

The Craft and Farmers markets have grown in popularity and increase footfall on the day they are

happening, Northumberland place traders have seen a

significant rise in visitor number on Market Day. At key times

of the year the TCDM organises events alongside the markets

for example Halloween, there was free art given out during

the day kindly donated by Inspirations and also a pumpkin

carving completion, Laura wall judged this and Tesco donated

the treats.

Vintage Bus Event and Rotary Event

This event was the first event that Teignmouth and Dawlish have worked together, even though the

weather was not kind to us we had 2291 passenger travel on the 15 Heritage buses throughout the

day between Teignmouth, Dawlish and Dawlish Warren, the Rotary Club in Teignmouth held their

Bike Fest event at the same time which increased there visitor number and also increased there

bucket collection for the day.

St Georges Festival

St Georges Festival was the biggest ever due to increased funding from the Town Council, this event

attracted hundreds of visitor over the weekend, this event was a joint event between the TCDM and

The Teignmouth Traders Association.

Supper Saturday and Lights Switch on event

Even though the weather was bad during the day there was three markets, a Santa’s grotto, Craft

Workshops and Shopper Karaoke. The lights switch on was earlier this year at 5pm and this worked

well with the Churches together doing five carols at five and other groups joining in the event.

Taste of the Teign

This event was to celebrate the produce that is in and around the river Teign, it is a weeklong event

with local producers and food outlets taking part, this was its first year and was very successful, it

has attracted media coverage from national magazines and Visit South Devon have given this event

extensive coverage, the TCDM has worked with The Teignbridge Coastal officer on this event as well

and the development officer Ali Clerk as well as Lori Reach the main organiser. Please feel free to

have a look at the Taste of the Teign Facebook page for more details.

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Dawlish Events

Heritage Bicycle Event

This was organised as part of the Heritage Day across the two towns, this event was a first for

Dawlish and attracted a lot of attending for visitors and locals, with two vintage bike rides during the

day.

Lights Switch on Event

The Dawlish lights switch on event is organised by the town council and this year the TCDM applied

to Dawlish Town Council for the money to hire an artificial Ice rink for three days, over the weekend

nearly 1000 children enjoyed the ice rink and the feedback was that it was nice to have something

free for the children to do.

Drive it Day

Due to a clash in dates at Teignmouth the Drive it day was asked if they would like to have their

event in Dawlish this year, the TCDM talked to Teignbridge regarding the ban on vehicles on the

Lawn and they agreed to the event going ahead, Dawlish Town Council kindly paid for a band and

first aid cover for the event, it was very well attended and the Drive it day organisers were very

happy with the advertising of the event the TCDM had organised.

Town Centre Trails

I have supported the Dawlish Chamber of Trade and The Teignmouth Traders Association with their

Easter Trails these events encourage people to go around the town to find the bunnies/eggs and at

the same time explore what the town has to offer. These events are free and always popular with

visitors.

Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny was unable to go out in the town on the Easter Saturday and all the markets had

to be cancelled due to the weather, she did manage a short in on Easter Monday in both towns and

the CIC would like to thanks Bay Events, Costcutter (Dawlish) and Tesco’s (Teignmouth) for their

donation of the easter eggs.

In addition to helping promote and support events, the CIC is grateful for funding from Dawlish

Town Council and Teignmouth Town Council which enabled us to produce the Dawlish and

Teignmouth events guide, 20,000 of these were

produced and many outlets have already run out or are

running low. Events that did not come forward in

time to be included in the guide are added to a

monthly poster that is emailed to all the traders in

both towns and also given to Stagecoach for the

buses, TIC’s in Dawlish, I have also got a notice board

in the Barton Car that this is also displayed on every

month and I have now got the keys for the one of the

Den.

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Press Coverage

There is also additional press coverage that has been generated for other events by the CIC.

Despite no advertising budget, the CIC has been successful in contributing many articles in local,

regional news which has been free publicity for the towns, some of which have been front page

news.

Coverage includes features in: Herald Express, Express & Echo, Teignmouth Post, Teignmouth News,

Mid-Devon Advertiser, Western Morning News, Dawlish Gazette, and Dawlish Post. In addition to

print, the Town Centre Development Manager has also been successful generating publicity on: BBC

Radio four and BBC Spotlight with three slots for the black swans, Air Show and the Mary Portas

project for Dawlish as well as the Hebridean Princess visit for Teignmouth.

Major Improvements

Although not in a position to deliver major improvements, the CIC represents business interests at a

number of groups and lobbies on key issues.

Projects the Town Centre Development Manager has attended on a regular basis on behalf of the

CIC include:

- Parking Committee – Teignmouth

- Lawn Improvements – Dawlish

- Brunswick Street Development - Teignmouth

- Cycle route - Dawlish and Teignmouth to Dawlish

- Love you Beach Campaign - Teignmouth

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Future priorities

2015/16 There are 3 key priorities for the CIC for 2015/16:

Funding

Marketing the towns

Facilitating In addition to this, we will also continue to deliver more results:

Continue to organise and assist events in Teignmouth and Dawlish

Marketing Deliver and manage Teignmouth and Dawlish town websites Continue to update the town maps and distribute.

Continue to release regular press releases with positive information about the towns.

Represent business interests

Lobbying

Support businesses & promote investment

React to events and opportunities

Work closely with Teignbridge District Council, Teignmouth Town Council and Dawlish Town Council.

Final Thoughts

The CIC wishes to put on record its thanks to Teignmouth and Dawlish Town Councils and their

members, Teignbridge District Council, the business and trade organisations of the two towns,

Stagecoach, First Great Western and many other businesses and individuals with whom we have

worked.

The Board of the CIC wish to record their thanks to Tracy Scranage, the CIC’s Town Centre

Development Manager for all her hard works and achievements this year. May 2016

Message from Tracy Scranage:

I would like to take this opportunity to Thank Angie and Huw Weatherhead for all of their help with

the community screens, we now have three screens in Teignmouth, two in Dawlish and one in

Dawlish Warren, Angie spends many hours a month volunteering to keep this project working in

Teignmouth and Dawlish, she also helps with the Love Teignmouth and Love Dawlish Websites. This

project would not be possible without them.