Councillors welcomed a £20,000 funding allocation proposal that will support Congleton town centre businesses' marketing initiatives which is aiming to bring shoppers back into the town.

Congleton Town Council agreed a funding allocation aimed at mitigating the impact of Covid-19, the initial focus was ensuring residents needs in terms of food, medical supplies and social support were met.

Now the high street has reopened, the town council has turned their focus on providing whatever support they can, in the most effective way to support businesses as a collective and develop initiatives that will look to bring people confidently back into the town centre.

Speaking at Thursday's virtual Congleton Town Council meeting, Cllr Russell Chadwick, chair of the business support working group, stated that since the working group's formulation, the town council has supported the Beartown Business Collective (BBC), which is a group of traders within the town centre.

Congleton Town Council has convened this business working group to coordinate a comprehensive strategy to help support our local business community.

Speaking about the BBC, Cllr Chadwick said: "They have got their own independent constitution; they are coming up with really good ideas on how they would like help and we wish to support them."

The group has started to generate their own ideas aimed at bringing shoppers back into Congleton most of which will require funding support. The initiatives that are currently being developed include:

• Bearmania 2
• Improved town centre LED lighting
• Short and medium term marketing strategies (Council led)
• Decorative flags
• Shop front improvements/vinyl's

In order to aid the town centre recovery, Cllr Chadwick requested that £20,000 would be administered by the Chief Officer, David McGifford, to help traders with tactical marketing ideas to help bring people back into the town.

Cllr Chadwick added: "We did a fantastic job helping during Covid-19 with our social aspects, but now is the time to turn our attention to helping our traders, it's very difficult out there at the moment, the cafés seem to be doing quite well, but actually when you speak to the shops, people aren't buying anything.

"Shops are becoming vacant and we are looking at how we can mitigate the empty shops with maybe fake vinyl fronts. Initially we got pricing for those and it was really expensive, but Jackie MacArthur has been looking at it to see if we can get the price down.

"We will not be able to put false shop fronts on every shop, but certainly we would be able to mitigate the appearance of the high street, one of the ideas was to have the vinyl's as a delicatessen, butchers, dress, or shoe shop at the empty premises'. So, it wasn't just going to be plain vinyl's, it's going to be more attractive than that."

Cllr Robert Douglas, chair of the town council's Finance and Policy Committee, gave councillors an overview of their current financial position.

Cllr Douglas said: "At the end of the last financial year in March, we were faced with a very fast-moving situation regarding Covid-19 and we were expecting it to have a very significant adverse impact on our finances.

"At the March Finance and Policy meeting we set aside a sum of £50,000, later analyses revealed that with the council decision to delay the appointment of additional staff that had been budgeted for in the new business plan, together with the savings from not opening the padding pool this year, the impact of the substantial losses of lost town hall income was largely offset, so that the actual impact excluding additional PPE and hand sanitisers is about £10,000 this year.

"Therefore, we were able to make good use of this Covid-19 account by being able to fund food packs for those in need and also provide a cleaner for some weeks to deep clean a toilet in the town centre after its use to encourage visitors to the town centre, these costs to came about £10,800, but they were offset by generous donations of about £3,300 so that's another net cost of about £7,500.

"In discussions with the Responsible Financial Officer, we feel it was prudent to leave about £12,500 in this Covid-19 account for emergencies in case there was a second wave of coronavirus and for the additional purchases of PPE, hand sanitiser etc.

"When you take out that cost, which comes to £30,000 that leaves a balance in this account of £20,000. We are all seeing in the newspapers and on the news everywhere about the very difficult situation faced by our businesses and traders throughout our country, and obviously Congleton town is no different in terms of the dreadful impact Covid-19 has had on them.

"Without thriving businesses, we don't have a thriving community. There are a significant number of initiatives being developed to encourage footfall into our town, but of course they require funding. Therefore I fully support and second the proposal of the reallocation of £20,000 that is available in the Covid-19 account to specifically fund these various and detailed proposed projects and other future plans, so that we can help to support our businesses and traders during these very difficult times that they face."

Cllr Denis Murphy told the committee that with support, some local artists might be "encouraged" to make use of empty shop premises' as a showcase for their artistic works.

Cllr Murphy added: "I did speak to somebody at one of the art groups at the new picture house, I believe most of them would be willing to give it a try."

Cllr Chadwick stated that Cllr Murphy's artist proposal was discussed by the working group and was "well received".

Cllr Kay Wesley told the committee that in the town council's business plan, they were "very clear" about their "ambition and vision" for Congleton not just to be a commuter town, full of people living in housing estates travelling to Manchester and Stoke every day, but councillors wanted the town centre to be a "thriving business community".

Cllr Wesley, who owns and runs a business in Congleton, added: "I employ local people, so lets not forget that a thriving local economy is not just benefitting the business owners particularly in the retail sector, but it does employ a lot of local people too."

If the proposal was approved, officers of the council would be able to work under delegated authority within the Councils Financial Regulations as they currently do with any other agreed budgets.

The maximum that can be approved is £5,000 and that will be afforded to the Chief Officer. As previously done through Covid-19 initiatives, officers will not always seek permission, but may choose to discuss their thoughts with members of the business support working group.

Mr McGifford said: "If there was something significant which was beyond that, then that would have to come through the Finance and Policy Committee, full council or an emergency meeting if it was something urgent."

Town Mayor, Cllr Sally Holland said: "I wholeheartedly endorse this, it has been a really tough time, particularly tough for small businesses and I think we need to hand out an olive branch."

ID2 media, a local production company, which produces movies for major corporations put together a promotional video for Congleton free of charge after approaching Cllr Holland.

The proposal was passed.