Show-casing practical case-studies from across the UK, including a spotlight session on the excellent innovations taking place in Birmingham, the conference will address the vitality of town centres and their integral place in the social and economic fabric of Britain.

The campaign has gathered tremendous industry support including the British Retail Consortium, the British Council of Shopping Centres, Drapers Record, the British Shops and Stores Association, Action for Market Towns, the Commission for Architecture and Built Environment, the Association of Town Centre Managers, the Local Government Chronicle, the British Property Federation and the National Skills Academy.

It has also attracted senior participation from the key stakeholder groups across retail and the public sector, as together they share their ideas for urgent action and examples of innovation and best practice. Key speakers include:

- Steve Easterbrook, CEO, McDonald’s UK
- Rt. Hon. Philip Dunne MP, Shadow Retail Spokesman & Chairman, Retail Crime Commission
- Alex Gourlay, Chief Executive – Health & Beauty, Alliance Boots
- Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Executive Director Corporate & Legal Affairs, Tesco
- David Draffan, Managing Director, Plymouth Town Centre
- Leigh Sparks, Professor of Retail Studies, University of Stirling
- Sara Weller, Managing Director, The Home Retail Group
- Stephen Robertson, Director General, The British Retail Consortium
- Jeremy Collins, Head of Retail Development, John Lewis and President, BCSC
- Rt. Hon. Caroline Spelman, Shadow Secretary of State, Department of Communities and Local Government
- Duncan Currall, Chairman, Plymouth City Centre Company & Regional Managing Director, South West Media Group
- Simon Wade, Chief Executive, Action for Market Towns
- Greg Willis, MAKE Architects
- Jack Glonek, Assistant Director Investment – Enterprise and Employment, Birmingham City Council
- Simon Quinn, Chief Executive, Association of Town Centre Management
- Karl Kachler, Managing Director, MindFolio
- Mike Barnett, Head of Property, Thorntons
- Tim Danaher, Editor, Retail Week
- Emma Maier, Editor, Local Government Chronicle
- Dame Judith Mayhew DBE, Chairman, The New West End Company

Find out more about event here: http://www.savethehighstreet.co.uk/download-brochure.

As a leading local business figure we wished to personally bring your attention to the event, as we felt this may be of interest to you. If you are interested in attending we are pleased to be able to offer you an exclusive VIP discounted rate. Save £100 – register before Friday, 26 February! Quote BIRMRET.

This special rate is exclusive via Retail Birmingham and can be claimed by contacting the event organisers directly on telephone number +44 (0)20 7554 5806 or by emailing on retailconferences@emap.com, quoting BIRMRET.

We believe this is an excellent opportunity for the leaders and businesses of Birmingham to showcase their achievements and engage with some of the key players in the retail and property industries throughout the UK.

Bullring shopping centre welcomed an average of 1 million visitors a week in the run up to Christmas, and across Birmingham’s retail area trading increased by 4.3% in December 2009 compared to 2008

The Boxing Day sales proved to be one of the busiest days of the year for many retailers, with some stores experiencing their most successful ever trading figures. Harvey Nichols at The Mailbox opened for the first time ever on Boxing Day to early morning queues of an estimated 3,000 shoppers and by lunchtime thousands more had passed through its doors.

Alan Chatham, Chair of Retail Birmingham said:

“After a difficult year for many retailers, strong Christmas trading figures have been particularly welcome. Boxing Day trade was also supported by our joint initiative with Centro and National Express to secure additional local transport services that enabled visitors, retailers and staff to travel into the city centre easily and safely.”

Despite the huge number of visitors to Birmingham’s main retail areas, crime continued to fall in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Total crime recorded for December in the city centre area dropped to 972 offences – a 37 per cent reduction on the same month in 2008.

Shoplifting offences were also down to 131, a drop of five per cent on last December.

Chief Supt Nicholson said: “Rising visitor numbers and falling crime will continue to ensure that Birmingham builds on its reputation as the safest major city in the country.”

The design project was launched in September 2009 to identify key areas for further development in Birmingham city centre, and make recommendations for improving the identity and connectivity of Birmingham’s retail district. The project is being carried out by Make Architects and will be completed in March 2010.

Over the coming weeks, guest bloggers will be discussing areas including the role of New Street, the opportunity to revive Corporation Street, and the role of lighting in the city centre.

To read more, or share your views, check out the blog here.

Birmingham’s Corporation Street was designed as a boulevard. Influenced by Haussmann’s work in Paris in the 1800s the aim was to have a road that clearly accommodated traffic as well as promenading; clear areas for both were created with wide footways, demarcated by a sensibly sized and spaced trees that provided a rhythm to the street and bounded a central area reserved for traffic. Birmingham’s boulevard connected the fabulous Victorian Law Courts designed by Sir Aston Webb and Ingress Bell in 1887 and New Street Station, which at the time was a far different building to the 1960s design that now occupies the site.

The Retail Birmingham Business Improvement District (BID) through its design strategy – Creating a Spectacular Shopping Environment – is analysing the current function of Corporation Street and the issues that are hindering its role as Birmingham’s primary north /south axis and frustrating retail activity on its western side.

Corporation Street Birmingham by Zander Olsen , Make Architects

The closure of a number of established shops can’t be solely attributed to the economic situation and our analysis is taking into consideration a number of other issues including the impact of the quantity of buses and the changes that would occur if the extension of the Metro system – effectively a tram – redirected them away from Corporation Street.

One of the key questions we have been asking is ‘How do people navigate from House of Fraser to Harvey Nichols and the canals beyond?’ So many people gave different answers which seemed strange when on a map there is an obvious route that would lead people around the edge of New Street Station. In reality, this route is a sequence of disjointed and unpleasant connections.

How do people navigate from House of Fraser to Harvey Nichols?

One proposal to resolve this situation would be to extend Corporation Street, both in name and in aesthetic, to provide a seamless pedestrian oriented link, free from buses, between Old Square in the north to The Mailbox, the canal network and the city’s fastest growing residential area that sits behind this.

What do you think? With the forthcoming redevelopment of New Street station should we take this opportunity to improve its surrounding public realm too? And what is your view of the buses on Corporation Street. Should a tram replace them?

Great cities have great streets. Streets that help to orientate visitors; that provide a clear route to explore and move people from one side of a city to the other.

Great streets create a spine for many of the world’s most successful retail locations. New York’s Fifth Avenue, Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Oxford Street in London – these routes are renowned destinations in their own right, but they also provide a vital function for visitors and shoppers looking to find their way.

New Street in Birmingham should naturally take the role of our city’s spine. With great civic buildings to the west – the beautifully restored Town Hall and the impressive Council House, and Birmingham’s world renowned Bullring to the East, New Street should be a familiar and inviting route to visitors and a great exemplar of how a key anchor street in a world class city should look and feel. But it’s clear that for a wide variety of reasons, New Street isn’t providing this function.Having spoken to lots of people in the city I know I’m not alone in thinking  that Birmingham has lost its spine.

In September 2009 Retail Birmingham launched an ambitious project to set the direction for  the future development of Birmingham’s central retail area.

The six month design project, led by Make Architects, will provide an overarching design ambition for Birmingham city centre and identify key character areas for  development.The study will come up with a series of proposals for  improving the identity and connectivity of Birmingham’s retail district to create a spectacular shopping environment befitting of a great international city.

New Street is one of the major talking points that has emerged from our first stage of consultation. In fact, one of our consultees asked the question, “With a new New Street Station underway, can Birmingham afford to have an old New Street?”

What can Retail Birmingham, our partners and retailers do to ensure that Birmingham’s retail area gets its backbone back? And is tackling New Street enough? Which other critical routes do we need to address?

The debate continues…

A sum of £500,000 has been pledged by Be Birmingham to be distributed amongst small to medium firms who demonstrate they are suffering extreme hardship. 75% of the award of hardship relief is met by central government, meaning the £500,000 allocated will result in £2 million worth of relief being made available to businesses. At present these awards are only for the current financial year of 2009/10.

Businesses will need to provide evidence that they are sustaining extreme hardship and that Birmingham City Council Tax payers will suffer if hardship relief is not granted. The assistance will seek to secure financial sustainability of small businesses and the consequent continued employment of Birmingham residents.

Birmingham City Council can consider applications even if businesses have made payments, or paid in full, towards Business Rates during 2009/10.

Further information, as well as a Hardship Relief claim form can be obtained by calling the Business Rates team on 0121 303 5510 or 303 5511.

It will take the Business Rates team up to 28 days to consider your claim, and therefore you should continue to pay your rates whilst you are waiting for a decision.

The Parade schedule:

1pm – 4.15pm    Reindeer penned outside M&S (High Street)

3.30pm – 4.30pm   Form up of parade on Edgbaston Street

4.30pm – 5.30pm   Parade from High Street to Brindeyplace (please see route map attached)

5.30pm – 6.30pm  Reindeers penned in Brindleyplace for photo opportunities

The parade will include Santa with his sleigh, reindeers, marching bands, street entertainment and pantomime characters.

If you have any queries please call the Retail Birmingham Hotline on 0121 616 2877

Christmas-Parade-Route

Previous studies have shown that as well as speaking to consumers, the views and opinions of the retailers and operators are an essential input into this type of study.  

Therefore, you will shortly receive a short questionnaire and we would be grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete it.  All views and opinions will be treated in the strictest confidence.  The completed questionnaires will be analysed as a group of responses and not individually.

The questionnaire will be delivered to your store by a member of the Street Warden team.   As timescales are tight, it would be much appreciated if you could complete it and return it in the envelope provided to the Street Warden who will call at your store to pick it up the following day.

This is a very important strategic study and this is your opportunity to have an input into the future growth of the city centre.

Thank you in advance for your time and contribution to this important study.  On receipt of the questionnaire, if you have any queries or require  further information, please don’t hesitate to contact either Paul Frater or Mariana Wilkins from The Retail Group on 0207 407 7711.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for your time.

Birmingham City Council will manage and deliver the programme, in partnership with Business Link West Midlands and the Local Town Centre Managers.

Financial Assistance provided by Birmingham City Council will include a grant award between £2,500 and £10,000 towards the set-up and marketing of your business, including the following:

• Installation (heating & lighting)
• Fascia improvements (shop fitting & signage)
• Connections (fax, telephone, broadband)
• Equipment (up to £1000 of the grant can be used to purchase equipment)
• Professional fees (solicitors, surveyors, designers)
• Marketing/Branding
• Rent and rates**
• Removal costs**

* Grant equivalent to 50% of eligible costs, subject to satisfying criteria and approval of the application by an awarding panel.

** Rent, rates and removal costs are an eligible cost only if the project involves a move to new premises.

You can also get business support provided by Business Link and of course continue to get support from Retail Birmingham.

For further information and to download the application form go to www.birmingham.gov.uk/RDP

The Royal British Legion in Birmingham is setting up an initiative to work with the retail and business community to help injured service personnel and their families at Selly Oak Hospital. This will be called ‘Team Works in Birmingham’ (together everyone achieves more).

Families of Injured Armed Forces

Many families arrive in our city when their loved ones are injured in conflict. They will no doubt be traumatised and worried about the nature of the injuries and what will happen.  They will have to uproot themselves and will be accommodated by the St Johns Red Cross welfare team, who also provide much needed support. The welfare team would like to offer more but they have limited resources.  Some families find themselves in situ for long periods as multiple operations may be required. This may cause financial as well as emotional issues. The welfare team are stretched to fulfil their needs and offer the kind of support they would like to give. They do a brilliant job with limited resources.

Injured Personnel

During recovery the injured are taken out in the community in order to adapt to the outside world and learn to cope with their disabilities.  They are accompanied by uniformed armed forces representatives to give them added confidence.  They will be taken to shows, meals, and other leisure activities.

If you can offer any of the following this will be greatly appreciated. Please contact Jo Trezise at jtrezise@britishlegion.org.uk or 01952 660036

WISH LIST

Hairdressing Vouchers

Spa Days

Sea Life Entry Vouchers

NEC/NIA Tickets

Flowers for the Rooms

Cinema Tickets

Theatre

Special Hotel Breaks re R & R

Car Show Tickets

Millennium Think Tank Tickets

Cannon Hill Adventure Centre

Botanical Gardens

West Midlands Safari Park Tickets

Chester Zoo Tickets

Dudley Zoo

Families Pack ) Fresh Milk, Eggs, Butter/Marg, Fresh Bread, Quick Meals, Bacon, Tea Bags, Coffee. Need is approx x 3 a week.

Cleaning Products, Washing up liquid, Toilet Rolls, Kitchen Roll.

Bedding they need as many sets as possible, re changing over regularly and wear and tear.  They have 20 single beds and 6 double beds.  They would like different colours for single and double for ease to identify for changing.

Any opportunity for events/outings