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19/09/2009 by Steve Barclay.
Something which I thought would be straightforward is providing anything but, given the capacity for bureaucracy to find reasons to be unhelpful to our local businesses.
In previous blogs I have mentioned my desire to support businesses in Fenland and East Cambridgeshire by helping them to put up tourist signs. Local attractions are often missed because those travelling through the area, and even sometimes people I chat to living locally, do not know what attractions are nearby. One of our local businesses has been in touch to say they have been quoted £5,000 by the Highways Agency for one brown tourist sign. Why should it cost so much? Even more bizarre is that even if they pay this sum they cannot have a sign at the moment as new applicants are not allowed to apply for a sign in their first year of business. Surely the first year is a critical time when the business needs to raise its profile and attract new customers?
Another business in Fenland has just been told they do not have enough visitors to justify a sign. Yet one of the reasons for wanting a sign is to get more visitors - without the sign this rule becomes an even higher hurdle. Rural businesses often do not get as many visitors as attractions in cities - using the same visitor numbers test fails to take this into account. Add to this the complexity of a host of different signage policies which results from us being on the border of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire, as well as near to Peterborough with its unitary status, and businesses face even more obstacles. A Fenland business might be in Cambridgeshire but want to put the road sign 300 yards down the road which is over the border in Norfolk.
Thankfully Fenland DC is keen to see a solution and is working with me on this. Is it not bizarre though that during a recession when we need as many jobs locally as possible, our local businesses cannot put up tourist signs? Why should they have to waste so much time on these inflexible rules when they are paying tax to keep these bodies going, and have plenty of challenges running and growing their business? We need to listen and respond to our businesses more, and I hope I can help them achieve what should be a simple request. At the moment, it feels like I have delivered little progress for them on this.
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