The latest situation regarding proposals to redevelop the Bath & West Showground and bring it right into the 21st century was outlined at a top-level meeting last week.
Over 60 people – including Mendip District, Somerset County Council and Rural Development Agency representatives – attended the meeting at the Bath & West Showground on Friday (October 27th) to hear the latest progress on plans for new exhibition halls and a rural business village on the 240 acre site.
Consultants KPMG have been brought in to make the business case for the massive revamp to ensure the showground’s survival and future. Facilities at the showground are becoming increasingly dilapidated and new buildings are needed to ensure the needs of event organisers and visitors are met for the future.
The facilities are let out all year round to outside event organisers – and those commercial activities help fund the charitable aims of the Royal Bath & West of England Society.
A recent economic impact study showed that events and other activities at the Shepton Mallet-based Showground generate a massive £164 million per year boost for the rural economy. The findings now form the corner-stone of the Royal Bath & West of England Society’s mission to draw attention to the important role it plays in the region and underpin its case for the future funding of the ambitious re-development programme which includes new multi-purpose exhibition halls, new catering facilities and an on-site business village which will offer a range of business, community and training activities.
Outlining the proposals Dr Jane Guise, Chief Executive of the Royal Bath & West of England Society, said that new halls with sophisticated facilities to keep pace with demand would provide a new income stream which would generate even more for the rural economy.
With the business case for the programme in place, funding can now be sought from various bodies to make the plans a reality. “This important economic hub needs to be maintained and enhanced.” said Dr Guise.
Lord Cameron of Dillington, Chairman of the Somerset Strategic Business Partnership, said the countryside regeneration for both its economic vibrancy and social agenda. Regeneration of the countryside was vital and new areas of growth must be sought.
The area must have a venue for events which were waterproof and winterproof to attract businesses which would in turn enhance the economy. The Showground would attract top quality businesses – but it needed to be able to offer top quality facilities.
David Clifford, senior partner of KPMG said the task ahead was to reinvent the existing facilities that are tired and turn the showground into a regional and national events centre which will really add something to the national economy.
The Society will now look at the various options put forward by KPMG to fund the scheme.
The Rt Hon Lord King of Bridgwater, Chairman of the Excel conference and exhibition centre in London and former president of the Society, said it was a “most exciting and unique opportunity “of a way forward for the Society to secure its future as an organisation which underpinned and encouraged West Country farming.” Unless the scheme went forward the Society would find it increasingly difficult to survive in the future. It was, he said, “at the tipping point.”
Around the world people were demanding good, modern, efficient conference and exhibition facilities. To have such facilities at the Bath & West would benefit the whole region enormously.
The Society, he said, was in an ideal situation – it is a charitable Society which already has its own ideal site to operate events from; it has an established share of the events market. It already has a good reputation and therefore it is ready and able to play its part.
And he stressed that the sooner it happened the better. “There is an opportunity here but it needs to be picked up quick,” he said and he offered expertise and advice from Excel. “It would be a tragically lost opportunity to let the Bath & West moulder away and how difficult it would be in 10 or 15 years to get it back.”
There were better and worse ways of spending public money – far better he said to proceed with the scheme than let the Bath & West “rot away” and become brown land and housing.
Alan Gloak, chairman of Somerset County Council said a large major exhibition and event centre was desperately needed. And Alan Stone, marketing manager of Old Mill Rural Services, said the redevelopment would be vitally important for the whole of the West Country, socially, economically and culturally.
Paul Buchanan, deputy leader of Somerset County Council, said they were facing a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a package together to transform the showground and safeguard its viability for the future. And he urged all present to exert their influence to make it happen.