Hailsham Businesses Invited To Attend New Forum

If you operate a business within Hailsham, you are invited to a meeting of the newly formed Hailsham Business Forum on Friday 2nd October at the Hailsham Civic Community Hall from 6.30pm.

The Hailsham Business Forum, which has been set up by the Hailsham Forward Town Team to supplement the Residents’ and Community Forums established earlier this year, aims to provide a new discussion group for businesses and retailers with a common interest in a prosperous future for Hailsham to voice their views.

Ways to promote Hailsham, bring more people into the town and encourage traders to work together to boost the local economy will also be encouraged at the forum.

Meetings will be attended by members of the Hailsham Forward Town Team and councillors and take place on a regular basis. They are open to all members of the local business community.

The first meeting will look at the town centre improvement works scheduled to take place in early 2016 and provide an update on the scheme, as well as the forthcoming Christmas events in the town.

A key feature of the first meeting will be a presentation by Lyoness, an international customer loyalty scheme provider, who will outline the benefits for local businesses of establishing a loyalty scheme in Hailsham and the surrounding area.

Such a scheme would provide benefits to both local businesses (by increasing local shopping and purchase of services with the offer of discounts) and local residents, by way of discounts or credits. The proposed scheme would also provide a small revenue for the Hailsham Forward project to re-invest in the town.

Individual invitations will be sent out to all known businesses in Hailsham in early September. If you wish to attend the first Hailsham Business Forum please write to Mickey Caira (Town Council Offices, Market Street, Hailsham, BN27 2AE) or send an email to mickey.caira@hailsham-tc.gov.uk confirming your attendance.

Town and district Councillor Nick Collinson, who is a member of the Hailsham Forward Executive said: “Setting up this forum is, like with the Residents’ and Community Forums, an important step as it’s crucial that businesses in the town have an input into how Hailsham develops in the coming years.”

“The forum is in its infancy but we very much hope that it can be a positive force for good in the town and help with its promotion. Anything that can help promote local businesses is a good thing and clearly the more we can demonstrate that it’s a viable place to be, the easier it will be for new businesses to set up base here in the future.”

“We would like as many local businesses as possible to get involved in this new forum.”

The creation of the Hailsham Business Forum has been welcomed by the Town Mayor, Councillor Nigel Coltman. “The forum will be instrumental in promoting the town as a viable business centre and should enable a range of initiatives to be discussed and developed,” he said. “Hailsham Forward wants to reflect the ideas of local businesses and residents, so this is a good time to tell us your ideas.”

Rob Slater, Chairman of the Hailsham Forward Executive commented: “It’s so important that we all support local businesses and help improve the local economy in Hailsham so we hope this forum will be a united voice for all businesses and retailers in the town.”

“However, we need their input and it is important that we get as many business representatives as possible to take part in the first meeting of the forum in early October.”