A town to grow your business

A recent report by Experian, the leading global information service, for the BBC has highlighted Chesterfield in the top 5 in the country as a location for firms with the potential to grow.

The Experian report identifies these by assessing the characteristics of businesses within each local area and determines their growth potential based upon factors such as business ownership, size and foreign presence. They tend to be young, small companies, with directors showing entrepreneurial appetite and experience in other recent successful business ventures, have a wider corporate network and are involved in some form of international activity.

This BBC Local Growth Research also highlights that Chesterfield is one of the highest ranked local authority districts for exporting in the East Midlands and also that the town has all the facilities required to increase such export activity.

This is great news for Chesterfield and part of the work of Destination Chesterfield is not only to attract new investment into the Town but to support the businesses that are here and to help them grow.

Our recent bid for Chesterfield to become a Portas Pilot Town, also concentrates on business creation and growth within the retail sector. We have tried to look to the future in our application, setting out how we will support our existing businesses and grow new businesses, ensuring our successful town centre continues to prosper and doesn’t see the downturn other high streets have across England. Recent surveys have placed our vacant units at around 5% one of the lowest in England alongside Bond Street and Kensington High street in London.  We will find out if our application has been successful in May and you can view our supporting video below.

Sporting Success

It’s going to be another good sporting year for Chesterfield.  Firstly congratulations to Chesterfield FC on making the final of the Johnsons Paint Trophy at Wembley in March, this is great news for the town and the clubs success continues to raise the profile of the Chesterfield.  We will all be cheering the team on the 25^th March and hope to welcome the team home with the trophy. 

Looking ahead to the 29th June and the Olympic Torch will visit the town and later in the year we should hear if our Olympic hopefuls make their in to their respective teams, Good luck to Liam Pitchford and Hannah Lawrence.  We will be running a number of Olympic themed events for the Chesterfield Champions and will be able to tell you more about these soon.

We also have the Derbyshire County Cricket Club Festival of Cricket returning to Queens Park from the 15^th – 22^nd July including two fixtures against Yorkshire.  These events bring first class cricket to one of the most picturesque cricket grounds in the county and we look forward to welcoming Derbyshire to Chesterfield again over the summer.

For the latest information on sporting and other events in the town visit our website http://www.chesterfield.co.uk/ , become a fan on facebook at www.facebook.com/chesterfielduk or follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/chesterfielduk 

Chesterfield a welcoming Town

Front line staff recently became the town’s first ambassadors as part of a new initiative launched by Destination Chesterfield.

‘Chesterfield Ambassadors’ is a scheme for front line staff in the town and recognises the important role they play in shaping the impressions of Chesterfield to visitors who are here on business and pleasure.

The workshop, developed by Chesterfield Champion, Evolution Training highlights useful facts about Chesterfield, the towns regeneration plans alongside the importance of good customer service.  

The first ambassadors included street cleaners, security guards and restaurant staff, but the work doesn’t stop with the workshop; Ambassadors will be kept up-to-date with the latest news and events in the town so they can share this information with their customers, colleagues, families and friends.

The first impressions visitors receive will shape their opinion of Chesterfield.  We want front line staff to be confident to talk about Chesterfield and the exciting plans for the future.

Destination Chesterfield will be looking to recruit more Ambassadors in 2012 and if you would be interested in becoming involved contact Dominic Stevens at Destination Chesterfield on 01246 207207 or visit http://www.chesterfield.co.uk/.

A toast to Chesterfield and a prosperous New Year

Destination Chesterfield, for those of you who don’t know, is a public, private partnership led by an independent board of directors that is raising the awareness of Chesterfield as a place to do business. Member companies of Destination Chesterfield are known as Chesterfield Champions. The scheme has receives grant support via the European Union, and Chesterfield Council

The first year of the project has rapid growth in the number of Chesterfield Champions, from a standing start late in 2010, over 95 businesses of all sizes from all sectors have joined to support the promotion of Chesterfield. Many have said that joining the scheme has created new business opportunities for them, and new contacts have been created

The idea of the project is to discuss and debate what we can do in Chesterfield, to improve the prospects for future business, both from existing Companies, and inward investors. As a result of the views expressed by champions, our projects this year have included ideas for improving the gateways to the town, with new road signage, an updated tourist information centre, new canopies for the markets etc- these suggestions are in the course of being implemented, and you will shortly see physical changes occurring about the Town. Destination Chesterfield has run two major marketing campaigns to drive footfall to our town centre and have been working with the regional media to raise the profile of the town as well as holding regular business networking events for the Chesterfield Champions.   We are working closely with Chesterfield Borough Council’s Economic team, Sheffield City Region, D2N2 and the Derbyshire Economic Partnership to develop the most effective way to promote Chesterfield for inward investment and will launch a major campaign in 2012.

It has been a great year for Chesterfield, we have recently had announcements about the refurbishment of the market hall, the new investment from Debenhams, who are to open a new store in 2012, Toys R Us,  have just opened,  and the planning of the proposed Northern Gateway retail  development is underway. The progress which is being made in the Town was recently recognised at the prestigious Regeneration and Renewal National awards run by Regeneration and Renewal Magazine, where the project for the regeneration of the A61 corridor, which includes Chesterfield Waterside, the new Football ground, Tesco, and Casa Hotel, was awarded Highly commended status, finishing second only to the Olympic Park, a major achievement. There was also the great success of the football club last season and their announcement that Elton John will play here at the B2 Net; we have also been successful in getting Chesterfield selected for the route of the Olympic torch next summer.

Chesterfield is prospering and I urge you all to be confident and celebrate the town and if we continue to all work together to raise the profile of Chesterfield we will all prosper.

The time of year for a celebration

It’s been a great year for the town of Chesterfield, and Destination Chesterfield, the new initiative created to promote the area, will shortly celebrate it’s first anniversary. Accordingly, we would like to invite Chesterfield businesses to join us at the Casa Hotel on the 30^th November from 8.00 – 11.30 for a birthday event; this is your opportunity to hear, and to feedback on, the achievements for the year, and what is planned in the coming months by Destination Chesterfield.  To book your place online at www.chesterfield.co.uk/celebrate

There has been further good news for the town recently, Chesterfield Borough Council has received second place, and a highly commended award from a  panel of professional judges for its regeneration of the A61/River Rother Corridor.  The Council entered the development of the old Dema Glass site and the A61/River Rother Corridor into the nationally recognised 2011 Regeneration and Renewal Awards.  Shortlisted from over 400 entries, the sites were up against some stiff competition and eventually were narrowly beaten into second place by the new Olympic Park in London, a magnificent achievement. This is a great result for Chesterfield and reflects our ambition and passion to make Chesterfield a modern, contemporary destination that attracts investment, employment, tourism and is ultimately a great place to live. 

Christmas will soon be upon us and Destination Chesterfield will be running a campaign promoting the Town over the festive period.  The campaign will go to 40,000 homes in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire and 100,000 email addresses across the country.  In partnership with Chesterfield Borough Council we will be announcing a great incentive to visit the town, running a Christmas competition with over £2000 worth of prizes and of course highlighting the great events from the Christmas lights switch on with Batman (20^th November 17.00) to the Pantomime (8^th December – 3^rd January – Pomegranate Theatre) and from A Christmas Carol (22^nd – 26^th November – Pomegranate Theatre) to traditional Carol Concerts at the crooked spire church.  Full details of what’s on and to enter the competition visit www.chesterfield.co.uk/christmas  from early November

Shopping for the Future

These are exciting times if you are a shopper in Chesterfield. The town has high occupancy rates, good footfall, one of the largest markets in England and a great mix of independents alongside high street names. However as part of the town’s on-going regeneration the offer is to be improved further.

Chesterfield Borough Council is to undertake a £4 million refurbishment of the town’s historic Market Hall. These major improvements take place because of a funding package which includes £2.1 million of European and Lottery grant with the remaining money coming from the Council. The planning and listed building applications will be submitted in late July with consultation over the summer/autumn. Market traders who have units in the Market Hall have been offered temporary accommodation, the main part of which will be in a temporary market hall on New Square. Traders are expected to vacate their current stalls in January 2012. The refurbishment should begin in February 2012 and the Market Hall is scheduled to reopen in February 2013.

Secondly Chesterfield Borough Council has announced that it is to start searching for a development partner for one of the Town centres’ major regeneration projects. The “Northern Gateway” scheme. The proposed redevelopment of the Donut roundabout area, aims to extend the Town centre shopping offer by creating a newly constructed retail area, with the aim of attracting new brands/names to the Town, thereby improving the quality of the shopping experience. This development will support the existing retail offer and improved highway arrangements will link the town with the Railway Station and the Chesterfield Waterside development. It is hoped that the development could be completed by 2015.

Rewarding Regeneration

Some great news this month, two of Chesterfield’s regeneration projects have been shortlisted as finalists in the prestigious Renewal and Regeneration Awards, a UK wide competition which assesses in depth the quality and deliverability of redevelopment proposals. This provides a further indication that the ongoing work of Developers and the Council promoting the Town is beginning to bring some national recognition.

Chesterfield Borough Council put forward the development of the old Dema Glass site and the A61/River Rother Corridor for an award. There were over 400 entries into this year’s competition and Chesterfield has secured two places in the finals. The judges visited the sites in early July with the winners being announced at an awards ceremony to be held in London in September.

The Dema Glass site, which features the newly constructed B2Net Stadium and the Tesco Extra Superstore has been entered into the award for “mixed-use development of the year”. The A61/River Rother Corridor which includes the Chesterfield Waterside development, the new BMW and Mini showrooms, the Casa Hotel and the Dema Glass site has been entered into the Strategic Planning award category.

Just reaching the finals in these awards is recognition of how much Chesterfield is regenerating into a great destination for residents, visitors, students and the business community. The work of the Chesterfield Champions in bringing forward new ideas for promoting the Town, and the Businesses who are based here, continues apace, and we will all shortly start to see the first visible evidence ‘on the ground’ of the initiatives which have been created and delivered.

For more details on the development sites in Chesterfield visit http://www.chesterfield.co.uk/