By JO HARRISON
THE task of restoring retail confidence in the Armidale CBD has received a significant boost with Armidale Dumaresq Council contributing $20,000 to Locals4Locals for the appointment of a CBD Co-ordinator.
Councillors voted unanimously at last week’s ordinary council meeting to approve the funds for a part-time marketing co-ordinator.
This is the first step in implementing the key recommendations by marketing expert Linda Hailey who council engaged last year to develop an Armidale City Centre Marketing Plan.
Project Manager with ADC’s Economic Development, Tourism and Marketing Harold Ritch said one of the 30 recommendations by Linda Hailey was that the town would benefit from hiring a person to co-ordinate activities in relation to promoting retail in the town.
“We have taken on nearly all the recommendations in the Armidale City Centre Marketing Plan and are slowly working through those,” Mr Ritch said.
“Linda Hailey also said in her report that the last people in town that should be looking after this role would be council and that the role should belong to a member organisation in the retail sphere like Locals4Locals.
“We brought them to the table and had numerous meetings to discuss how we would fund this role and what the benefits would be. Everyone was very positive and agreed that Locals4Locals was the right vehicle to kick this off.”
Further funding will be needed to implement the role with Locals4Locals and council working towards a full time position with an estimated $100,000 needed to cover wages and implement marketing campaigns and initiatives.
Locals4Locals member Andrew Korsch, who has worked closely with the council, said that this was the beginning of a terrific opportunity to revitalise retail in the CBD.
“As a local business owner it is hard to get out-and-about and look at the bigger picture,” he said. “Everyone is concerned with just running their own business so to have a CBD coordinator go out and see all the businesses is going to be extremely positive.”
“They will be able to run the marketing activities and boost foot traffic in the mall.”
Locals4Locals are hoping to implement the role straight away in a part-time capacity however Mr Korsch stressed that it is extremely important to find the right candidate for the position.
“We want it to be a long-term role and someone who has a good relationship with business owners as well as have a solid understanding of retail and what needs to happen to increase foot traffic through the CBD,” he said.
One of the recommendations in the Hailey report was to establish WiFi in the mall and Locals4Locals will make this a priority for the CBD co-ordinator.
“This will be our first goal to improve the CBD,” Mr Korsch said. “At the moment there is no one in the mall, so we need to get people down there having business meetings, having coffee, lunches and doing their shopping.
“Free WiFi will just be the tip of the iceberg of what we have planned to rejuvenate the community’s shopping experiences in the CBD.”
