AN Alton 2020 Business Initiative has swung into action this month with the awarding of £100,000 worth of contract funding to help boost the vibrancy of the town's economy. The cash was secured towards the end of last year by the Alton Town Partnership (ATP) as a match funding grant from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and East Hampshire District Council. It will finally start to be invested in the town following the awarding of a contract to Alton Initiatives Management (AIM) Ltd to implement the initiative. AIM also supplies the services of the town initiatives manager Vernon Pearce, who now takes on the additional role of business improvement facilitator. "We can at long last start to implement the business-related projects which were first identified during the town healthcheck," said Mr Pearce. He stressed that a key feature of the programme was local ownership. "Although I will be facilitating the programme, it is vital that local businesses and other stakeholders help me to take advantage of what is a unique opportunity to improve the economy of our rural town. "AIM and EHDC spent more than a year working to obtain the grant from SEEDA and I am delighted that EHDC is showing confidence in Alton by matching the funding. Now we have to put that money to effective use." The largest and most challenging of the four projects in the initiative aims to promote the regeneration of the Mill Lane Industrial Estate through a business and public sector network that will identify areas of improvement and facilitate the implementation of those improvements by the responsible parties. The other three projects involve l developing a business network to encourage partnering in competition for contracts and services across the region l delivering a local business development package to improve business competitiveness and the recruitment of graduates within the town's enterprises l providing a customer-care training package for retail and hospitality businesses to help improve visitors' experiences of the town Mike Gibbs, EHDC's economic development and tourism manager, believes the initiative will have a real impact on the town. "Alton has a huge amount of potential. It has a wide range of goods and services to offer, and a lot of talented and hardworking people running local businesses. "We believe our investment in the town will help give them a vital boost to contribute towards make the town even more of a success." The Alton 2020 Business Initiative will be officially launched towards the end of March and a meeting to discuss the Mill Lane regeneration project will be called soon after. The first one-day, customer service training and business development seminars are already being organised for the end of March. Mike Baker, chairman of AIM and of the ATP local economy working group said: "This is an ideal opportunity for small and medium-sized companies in the town to take advantage of free, expert advice to improve their competitiveness and profitability. "I hope that this will be the start of a new era of co-operation between businesses in the town and the organisations that are seeking to help them remain competitive and successful." Further information about the business initiative can be obtained from town initiatives manager Vernon Pearce on 01420 473613. Details will also be posted on the Alton Town Partnership's section of the website http://www.altontown">www.altontown. co.uk.
