Bohemia Village Voice

(Received from the SBA, Jan 2012)

2011 Review

With Bill Orton, a founding member, chairman and backbone of The SBA retiring in December 2010 we had to move on, elect new committee members and focus on where The SBA was going.

This was reviewed in the first part of 2011 with an important decision being made to formalize the structure with a new constitution. This meant being taken more seriously by official bodies such as Hastings Borough Council as we formally represented business in St Leonards from their point of view.

After consultations a new constitution was adopted and after that a new chair and vice chairs were elected. There are two vice chairs as Bill Orton has very kindly agreed to stay on with a watching brief to help smooth the way forward.

All this has meant upheaval and change. However the core functions of The SBA; traffic, parking, antisocial behaviour and rubbish collection are still the important core functions; all helping St Leonards businesses do business.

During the rest of 2011 The SBA worked on Christmas in St Leonards 2011, and future plans for St Leonards.

The SBA also welcomed Sylvia Bennett, vice chair of Gensing Forum to the SBA committee, forging stronger bonds between the business and residential communities of St Leonards. The first event we will do together is the Olympic Torch coming through St Leonards in July.

2012 Plans

As well as maintaining the core functions of The SBA we aim to start making St Leonards a destination shopping and leisure area. This might be an uphill battle given the apathy experienced with the Christmas arrangements, but a core group believes that we can’t rely on government, the council or fate to make things happen, and just might have to do things ourselves.

Plans include:

• Helping in the production of a quarterly Events Publication
• Establishing a website listing all businesses, events, attractions and excitement in St Leonards
• Helping in the guidance and establishment of new facilities along the seafront
• Helping the establishment of any new business, especially those that will increase footfall for all traders.

If you would like to help, have any ideas, can offer input of any kind we would be more than pleased to hear from you. Please email info@sba-online.co.uk and a committee member will get back to you.