Lancing Business Park
Annual General Meeting 8th March 2018
Dear Businesses,
What a busy week we had last week, but it was great to meet so many of you last Wednesday when I handed out the latest LBP BID invoices. At least it was only a partial invoice from April till August, with a second invoice maybe due in September for the rest of the financial year.
On Thursday, Lancing Business Park Members gathered at the impressive Experience Centre at Eschmann House for the 2018 LBP AGM.
Members were treated to a wonderful spread sponsored by Clayton Morris at the Pit Stop (on the Shoreham Vehicle Auction site) and kindly served by Clayton and Emily.
Members were then welcomed upstairs to Eschmann's Bramber and Chichester Suites, by Damian Pulford from Sussex Transport, the now appointed Chairman of LBP.
Damian explained how during his 20 years on Lancing Business Park he has witnessed the transformation that the LBP BID has made to the business park, creating a vibrant and attractive business area to operate from. Damian thanked Mike Punter from Parafix for being instrumental in these changes and developing the LBP BID to the successful partnership that it is today. Damian also thanked Linda Stopp for her contribution to the BID and wished her a happy retirement, along with Darren Holloway from RRD, for his years of service on the BID Committee, as Darren is now part-time, he is unfortunately no longer available on Committee days.
Damian then introduced Paul Moore, Head of Operations for Bidfood, to give an update on their 65,000sqft development in Chartwell Road. 
Paul talked members through the development layout, progress to date and operational hours. Explaining that they will commence in September with 50 staff on site and 7 loading bays to service 21 HGVs and 3 vans. Bidfood have developed the site to ensure all their vehicles will be accommodated on site, to minimise impact to the business park, providing 47 HGV parking spaces and 82 car parking spaces to enable future on site expansion. Before you ask, yes we have asked if Bidfood will consider leases spaces, but unfortunately this is not something Bidfood will be able to do.
I then gave an update on each of the four LBP projects - Access, Clean-up, Connect and Safe. Explaining how 1.5 tonnes of paper and card is collected free each week to be recycled, all the work Linda Stopp undertook before her retirement in December 2017, the Grounds Maintenance contract work undertaken by Mike Nea from CJS Landscapes and the projects I have covered since joining in January this year e.g. the deep clean of Marlborough Road Car Park, ridding the business park of three caravans and removal of numerous abandoned vehicles. I am very pleased to report that finally today, we have a business park free of abandoned vehicles, maximising available parking spaces on the business park.
Peter Raynsford from 5 Rings then gave an update on LBP's CCTV network, explaining that capacity has been increased from the original 7 cameras to 29 cameras, now giving coverage across the whole park. Peter's team have also provided CCTV footage to the Police which led to Police action, helping to further deter future incidents.
I must also add that Peter has delivered this network upgrade with a 75% efficiency on the original operating costs and expanded the network to enable future cameras to be added if needed.
Euan Cameron from Parafix, the LBP Company Secretary kindly gave an entertaining rundown of the BID's company finances. I have two apologies to make to Euan, firstly for surprising him with a few more slides than he was expecting and secondly for enjoying his presentation so much, that I forget to get up to take any photos of him. Here is a photo of Euan deep in conversation with Mike at the start of the evening instead.
We then thanked the 2017 BID Committee, who duly stepped down and members approved the proposed 2018 BID Committee, sadly without Darren Holloway from RRD and Mike Punter, as he has retired from the LBP BID Committee, but can still be found at Parafix, when he is not in Cheshire or at his Eastern Europe operations.
I then explained that in July this year, the LBP BID will go to ballot to decide if the BID should continue when the current term expires on 31st August 2018. The official ballot day is 12th July 2018 with the results being announced on 13th July 2018. I also explained that I will be launching a LBP Survey in the next few weeks, to help identify what services would help businesses on the park over the next five years. Please can I ask that as many of you as possible please complete the survey, as the information submitted will form the basis of the 2018-2023 LBP BID Business Plan and we want to make sure that all your comments are considered fully.
The lovely Elizabeth Baxter from Care for Veterans thanked all members on the business park for their assistance, participation and generosity over the past year. With particular mention of Linda Stopp and Lawrence Boon at Fizz for all their support and expertise. Elizabeth explained that they have rebranded from Queen Alexandra Hospital Home to Care for Veterans, as they feel this better portrays what their charity does.
The BID Committee then proposed that Care for Veterans be retained as LBP Charity for a further year, as it was felt that LBP could really help during the charity's transitional period.
I would just like to say a big thank you to Ray Wood and Clive Stoner from Eschmann Equipment for providing such a wonderful venue and to Clayton Morris from The Pit Stop, for providing and serving the lovely food. To Paul Moore from Bidfood for sharing their development news with us, Peter Raynsford for all his hard work on the LBP CCTV and to Euan Cameron for making sure LBP BID's finances are recorded accurately and effectively.
If you would like to know more about any of the items I have mentioned above, please click the presentation slide below to view the full AGM presentation. Please note this presentation opens much quicker using Chrome :
