Vision Buxton is an extremely flexible organisation.  It has changed shape and direction many times in the recent past and last year was no exception. 

Our Administrator, Nicola, left on Maternity Leave in April 2008 and in due course gave birth to the gorgeous Isabella.  We wish Nicola and her family the very best of luck in the years to come.  Nicola’s place was taken first of all by Sally and Marion, who kept us out of trouble during the changeover period, and then by Carolyn Botham who is still helping us out as an Administrator, on an ad hoc rather than permanent basis.  Many thanks to Carolyn for all her hard work – it’s been a steep learning curve!

The organisation changed again when I took over from Bill Preece as Chair in March 2008 and worked with the Board of Directors to streamline how Vision Buxton works.  Directors took responsibility for different areas of Vision Buxton’s activities, with some great results.  A small Executive Committee of five Directors was also formed to deal with day-to-day management issues.

Vision Buxton is very lucky to have practical, voluntary, support from many of its members as well as from Directors.  We are always grateful for offers of help, and are on the lookout for new directors to help develop the organisation, so if you think you can help please do talk to me later.  Today I’d particularly like to thank all our supporters for their hard work in the following areas. 

Marketing

Louise Potter heads up a very active committee whose task it is to look at how best to market Buxton to the outside world.  This enthusiastic committee includes David Mulholland, Steve Caddy, Pat Chapman, Richard Graham, Jen Woodward, Claire Rhodes, Chris Sweetmore, Jonathan Ogden and Sally Rowland amongst others.  Pat Chapman has done sterling work over the last year looking after the Visit Buxton website – not an easy task so many thanks to Pat.  Thanks also to Paul Radcliffe for technical help with this site. 

Plans are well advanced for another journalists’ familiarisation trip to experience the delights of Buxton, and the Marketing Group is also working closely with Visitpeakdistrict.com and Nestle on some special initiatives.

Membership

The membership group made up of Mo Stewart, Andrea Lewis, Carolyn Botham and Chris Sweetmore has worked hard to provide new benefits for members, including a variety of very well received networking events, Member to Member Special Offers and affiliated status with the Derby and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce. 

Paul Merrick helped us with database organisation and Helen Duncan has provided fantastic support for Vision Buxton by sending out regular E-Newsletters.  Thanks also to Richard Graham and Dave Golding for providing a new Vision Buxton website at no cost.  Please check to see if your details are on there, and don’t forget to send us news and events to promote for you.  Advertising opportunities are also available on the website at extremely reasonable rates!  Dave has offered to become a VB Director and help out with all things technical, including the websites, so queries on websites to Dave in future please!  If you have not yet replied to Martin’s query regarding the receipt of correspondence by e-mail by the way, please do so as soon as possible.

Members’ meetings, which replaced the Full Group and Core Group meetings, are now held every two months, at the Old Hall Hotel at 8.30am.  These meetings have been well attended and have included discussions on a variety of subjects including environmental grants, planning issues, crime statistics, alterations to the Pavilion Gardens and many more.

We are very grateful to both the Old Hall Hotel and the Lee Wood Hotel for generously providing free accommodation for a variety of meetings, often at short notice.

Finances

Throughout the last year Elaine Walker has worked extremely hard to keep a handle on our finances.  This is a complicated and time consuming job, as you can tell from her report, and we are very grateful to her for all her help.  Elaine has decided to pass on the baton now, and retire from the Board, and is in the process of transferring the day-to-day responsibility to Terry Strong.  Also joining the Board is Christine Francis who will be known to most of you. 

Small Business Incubator Unit

Alan Thompson continues to champion the Small Business Incubator Unit for Buxton, working now in close co-operation with representatives from the University of Derby in Buxton and High Peak Borough Council.  After disappointments with the reaction of the Royal British Legion to proposals to use their building on Hardwick Square, the Lighthouse building, the most recent and exciting proposals are for a new-build on the Council’s Market Street site.  We hope that there will be some more news on this very soon.

Representation and Consultation

Bill Preece and Richard Silson make sure that Vision Buxton members are represented at consultations with relevant bodies and arrange for presentations such as the one today on the plans for Spring Gardens and the Local Development Framework.  More work is needed in this area and discussions are planned with High Peak Borough Council in particular to improve our partnership working.  We look forward to welcoming David McPhie to the Board.  With help from other Directors, David will be setting up a group to help support small businesses in Buxton, probably working with the Derby and Derbyshire Economic Partnership and the Market Towns Forum.

Events

The Christmas Lights Switch On event was successfully moved to the Pavilion Gardens in November 2008, and work is now underway on this year’s event.  The Committee is chaired by Andrea Lewis and includes Mike Bryant, Iris Sparkes, Terry Crawford, Stuart Conway, Malcolm Bradbury, Carolyn Botham, Alistair Scrivener and Rev John Hudghton.  Fund raising is on-going for more lights – all help gratefully received!

Buxton in Bloom is now an independent organisation, and a huge amount of work is going into preparing Buxton for this year’s entry into Entente Florale, or Europe in Bloom.  Vision Buxton wishes Jane McGrother and all her team the best of luck and will help out wherever possible - Andrea Lewis, Steve Caddy and David Mulholland are flying the flag on the Buxton in Bloom committee for VB.

Company Secretary

My particular thanks go to Martin Wragg for keeping VB on track with all things legal, and for much appreciated help with meetings, minutes and negotiations, some of which have been extremely time consuming indeed!

The future is as challenging for Vision Buxton as it is for all businesses and organisations at the moment.  I do believe, however, that by being flexible and responding to the needs of our members we have actually managed to weather the storm and are in good shape now to grow and thrive.  I hope that you will all continue to support Vision Buxton in the future, so that in turn we can help you.  Thank You.