Notes from the New Mills Marketing Group meeting
11th January 2013-01-11
Present: Beth Atkinson, Jean Fildes, Mike Daniels, Barry Bate
Apologies: Sean Whewell
The group rehearsed it’s discussion from before Christmas. It was agreed that, having grown from the Friends of New Mills Station, this group had taken on a larger remit and now had a separate identity from the Station group. It was recognised that the group needed to work on the creation of a constitution for itself.
The group considered and rewrote the draft strategy (created on 10th December) – turning it into an overall Aim, a set of Objectives and several immediate strategic actions.
These are set out below:
Overall Aim of the Group
- To foster the local economy through the promotion of New Mills heritage and the distinctive nature and history of the area.
Objectives of the Group
- Attract new visitors to the area and maximise local benefits to support the local economy
- Encourage visitors to stay longer in New Mills
- Encourage the evolution of New Mills as a green transport hub to the local area, reducing car dependency by visitors wherever possible
- Increase and market the number of key events held throughout the year
- Embrace existing local groups, co-ordinate their growth and success
- Support the conservation of the landscape – including footpaths, towpaths and the natural environment
- Enhance visitor learning, enjoyment and understanding of the town
- Broaden the range of people who can access and enjoy the area
- Encourage the best use of existing resources – e.g. the Heritage Centre
- Actively promote local products and businesses
Immediate strategic actions
- Begin seeking grants and funding resources to support some or all of the objectives
- Co-ordinate and review signage/ leaflets for the area in liaison with the Town Council, Borough Council and County Council.
The group also took on the following actions:
- This group has a unique identity – all members to consider the creation of a suitable constitution
- To aid 1) Beth will send group members a number of constitutions
- Barry to collect information on possible definitions of the ‘boundaries’ of New Mills (including material offered by Joe Dugdale of Rural Action Derbyshire
- Beth to provide details of a potential web site creator for future discussion
- Beth to investigate if there are any existing Economic Development Strategies – and circulate them to group members
- Barry to investigate what local business support groups exist and circulate information to group members
- Jean to collate and circulate information on funding possibilities for the group (Beth to send previous funding applications to Jean to aid in this collation)
It was agreed that the following items would be included on the next agenda (and would possibly become ‘standing item’ issues:
- Documentation of the assets of the group
- Documentation of the stakeholders of the group
Next meeting:
The next meeting will take place at 7.00 pm on Tuesday 29th January at Jean Fildes’ house.