North Laine Traders A.G.M.
On the windy wet evening of Tuesday 11th March over thirty traders and guests braved the elements to attend the 2008 NLTA AGM at Komedia.

The evening started off at 6.10 by Chair, Sharon Thomas welcoming everyone and Peter Stocker giving the secretary’s yearly review. Peter mentioned the successful launch of the 100% North Laine sustainable bag and the many other achievements over the last twelve months.

Peter also thanked our many partners including Brighton and Hove council, cllr Ian Davey, David Lepper M.P. the Brighton Business Forum, NLCA and all the North Laine street reps.

Soozie Campbell then gave a report on the BID, (business improvement district) which included Christmas lights, Unique Brighton website, various promotions and an idea for central cardboard recycling for city centre traders. The three BID representatives for North Laine are Andrew Fisher, Richard Calman and Gren Nation.

Treasurer David Hall then presented the 2007 treasurer’s report plus accounts and discussed membership levels and expenditure so far this year.

We then held elections of officers and Sharon Thomas was again elected as Chair, David Hall as treasurer and as Peter Stocker is moving those present voted to retain Peter as a paid co-ordinator for six months. Street reps were also elected.

There then followed a report on the North Laine website which has recorded over 276,000 individual hits since its launch. Quarterly results show strong growth, quarter 1. 2007 = 24,300 hits and quarter 1. 2008 over 56,000 hits. Brian Pedley also reported that he would be working on a member’s message board and has added Fire Assessment information to the members section. Brian was thanked for all his hard and effective work.

Any other business included the NLTA adopting Jubilee Street. Helen from MyHotel thanked us and reported that they will be opening on the 18th of March. City in Bloom have asked the NLTA to arrange a best commercial frontage competition and Lynette from Revamp asked about more maps/signs around North Laine, Councillor Davey offered to assist us.

Sharon thanked Colin Grainger for the use of Komedia and then introduced our guest speaker Jonathan Love from Business Link who talked and answered small business questions until the meeting finished at 7.30.

Full minutes and accounts are available online here as well as information on how to join the NLTA - here

News in Brief.....
North Laine lost a good friend when former head of planning for Brighton council, Ken Fines sadly died on Easter Monday. Ken created the North Laine as a conservation area in the mid seventies when it was under threat of mass demolition for a major road system. He realised that the area worked well in its small scale and probably set the seeds of the successful area we have become. Ken retired many years ago but has never ceased to take an interest in North Laine and has been very active challenging planning applications and producing a book, “a history of Brighton”.

Southern water
Southern water are slowly working their way through North Laine and we know have provisional dates for the next six months. Kensington Gardens is now just about finished with Clancy Docwra working from 8 till 11am to cause as little disruption as possible.

Making green waves
Sustainability by the sea now comes in the form of Brighton's new, ground-breaking festival Green Wave – where all the fun of the fair will have an ecological twist.Seriously ethical local companies and organisations are working together in producing this amazing festival – but the message is clear: you're not invited to the party unless you are green!

The event will be designed around 10 themed Zones and located in Preston Park on 5th and 6th July 2008. Maddy Carr, Assistant City Centre Manager at the Business Forum, and Frank Jay, of New Era Associates are running the event.

"The Green Wave event is designed to help local organisations showcase their green products and services at the same time as educating and entertaining the public." says Maddy. "It will also provide visitors from outside the city with another good reason to visit Brighton in their leisure time and so increase the visitor spend."

Juice FM will be broadcasting live from the event on Saturday and the crowds will enjoy dancing with Juicy Crew and local schools and groups. The plastic bag will be banned, solar power will be the main source of energy, and all entertainment and produce on sale will be sustainable or have an environmentally friendly theme.

To find out more about having a presence at the festival,
contact Maddy: maddy.carr@btconnect.com or
Frank Jay: frank@neweraassociates.co.uk

The Foyer is Ten!
Congratulations to the Foyer in Pelham Street which celebrated its 10th birthday on the 20th of May with an awards ceremony. The Foyer was built on City College land to provide a place for homeless or disadvantaged teenagers to live whilst taking further education courses.

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