Minutes:
The Town Centre and Markets Manager, Conrad Heald explained that his main areas or responsibilities were the Town Centre, the markets and the Chorley Heritage Trail.
Chorley is still considered famous for its markets and have two main areas which make up Chorley Markets:
· The famous Flat Iron (sometimes known locally as the ‘cattle market’) held on Tuesday’s; and
· Chorley Covered Market, with static lock up stalls as well as casual availability.
On the Flat Iron, the old fashioned stalls have been replaced with brand new gazebo’s that have red and white striped tops with pelmets saying ‘Welcome to Chorley Markets’. The Gazebo’s were a recommendation of the Town Centre Vitality Inquiry and the take up by stall holders has been excellent, providing a much improved display and feel for shoppers.
Chorley also holds a monthly farmers market to bolster business for existing traders and hosts a wide variety of specialised markets, from continental to Christmas markets.
The Markets are advertised regularly n a number of publications such as:
· Bus and Coach
· Coach Touring
· Coach Tours, and
· Northern Life
The Tuesday Market attracts coach tours to the Town and the authority has an agreement with the Bus Station to allow for the parking of two coaches at a time.
Anecdotal feedback from traders gives an idea of where customers are visiting from and it would seem that the residents of St. Anne’s consider Chorley as a destination to visit.
Events like the Christmas Lights Switch on attract people to the town and this year have bee advertised on the roundabout near the Botany Bay complex. The town centre and its markets are also placed in good proximity to Astley Park.
Members discussed whether more could be done to advertise the markets by using the web and social networking sites like facebook and twitter. The markets does have its own page on the Chorley website but Members thought more could be done around linking this page to pages on other sites that shoppers may view and exploring the possibilities of Chorley coming up as a top hit when people were searching for markets information on web search engines such as google.
Advertising at the local train stations was also considered to be an effective way of attracting visitors and although this had proved to be costly in the past, Members felt it was worth revisiting this option to see if this could be achieved at a more competitive price.
The Heritage trail is a step-by-step guide around the town centre, highlighting significant historic monuments that can be seen around the town, it is just under one and a quarter miles and takes approximately one hour to complete. The trail is popular with walking groups and is advertised on the Council’s website.
RESOLVED
1. That the Council looks into the feasibility of advertising at the local train stations.
2. That the markets page on the Chorley website be linked to various other pages where shoppers are seeking information about different markets etc..
3. That the Council looks into ensuring that Chorley comes up as a top hit in the Lancashire area as a market destination on the various search engines on the Web.