Matt Corrigan

Lincoln is in a good position to build on its strengths as 2013 gets underway.

Whilst the economic picture remains challenging, our latest findings reveal that there are few empty premises in the Lincoln Business Improvement area – which stretches from St Marks to Newport Arch – with a vacancy rate of just 7.2%, compared with 11.3% nationally.

New names continue to move in and it is good to see well-established, independent traders investing in their businesses, in addition to the millions of pounds which are currently being spent in the university and leisure sectors.

Examples include the University of Lincoln’s new School of Pharmacy, being built on the Brayford Campus and the Premier Inn (due to open in February), which is breathing new life into a rundown area of Broadgate.

At the same time, a major push is underway to bring in more day and staying tourists, through the development of visitlincoln.com – which aims to make it much easier for tourists and conference visitors to access a wealth of information and, ultimately, book their stays.

2012 will be a tough year to follow. London 2012 and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee lifted the mood of the nation and provided the perfect foundation upon which to organise some fantastic celebration events which will be remembered for a long time to come.

But, by working with partners, we hope to bring back many of our well-established events, including the Children’s Festival, Beam, Discover Lincoln Weekend, Sausage Festival and, funding permitting, our Christmas Ice Rink.

We have also sought greater business involvement in the running of next year’s Christmas Market, which continues to be Lincoln’s premier commercial event.

Working in partnership with other agencies and organisations, sharing bright ideas and good practice and continuing to bid for external funding streams are core to our efforts to promote Lincoln and drive local wealth.

Successes on this front, mean that we are continuing to put £615,000 of European Regional Development Fund money to work, under the Revival Lincoln project.

This will make a difference in a number of areas during the year, including the provision of city centre information and signage and the development of our digital infrastructure, to better inform and assist our visitors.

As a Town Team Partner, under the Mary Portas initiative – which aims to revitalise town and city centres across the UK – we have been allocated £10,000, which we are using to explore ways in which we can make the most of Lincoln’s markets offer, including the daily covered markets and regular street markets.

Finally, a highlight for us will be when we welcome over 200 town centre managers to Lincoln for three days in July.

The Association of Town Centre Management has chosen Lincoln as the host for its 2012 Summer School. I believe that will give us a great opportunity to not only gather fresh ideas, but also showcase how much Lincoln has to offer as a clean, attractive, safe and vibrant city centre in 2013.

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— Matt Corrigan is the Chief Executive of Lincoln Business Improvement Group

— Matt Corrigan is the Chief Executive of Lincoln Business Improvement Group

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Despite the economic gloom, 2012 is starting on a positive note for Lincoln BIG – with lots of projects on the agenda – but also plenty of good reasons to build on the city’s fast-rising reputation. In the face of a potential economic downturn things aren’t going to be easy, but there are some genuine reasons for businesses and customers in the city centre to look forward to 2012.

Early on in the year will see the completion of the A46, a modern duel carriageway link to the M1 and conurbations of the Midlands, which is highly important strategically for the city, and looks set to be really good news. The challenge for Lincoln BIG is about to be making the most of this at a time that most businesses organisations and families are tightening their belt, and we plan to concentrate the investment from our levy payers in signage, marketing and events to attract more people to the city.

In particular we are looking to capitalise on the fact that Steep Hill has been named the best street in the UK and the Visit Lincoln Partnership, which we helped to form last year, is going from strength-to-strength and is working hard to strengthen Lincoln’s identity through a new brand image.

The government has also agreed at last that the city should be properly acknowledged as a tourist destination, with a brown sign on the A1 and we hope to conclude negotiations for this and get signage in place.

Good things to look forward to in the city centre in 2012 include the 2012 Olympics celebrations and the visit of the Olympic flame in June. Lincoln’s own Olympic “Live” site with a big screen, mini Olympic park and street dressing on the refurbished Cornhill will be part of the celebrations during the games themselves.

2012 also sees the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and a host of other city centre events including mystery plays and Cathedral flower festival, the return of the successful 1000 years of crafts events, sausage, busking, jazz, mini, morris dancing and children’s festivals to name but a few.

Meanwhile our larger city centre traders are continuing to fly the flag for late night Thursday trading all year round and we are looking to build on the range of early evening events and activities in the city centre.

It is hard to tell what the national and international economic situation will be and we can only marginally cushion these though our efforts in Lincoln, but locally the prospects for the city centre in 2012 are good, and with a fair wind we can hold our own, maintain a low retail vacancy rate and continue to attract new businesses to the city.