This is how to combat B2B late payment

New financial year, same old problem. Just a month into 2018-19 and B2B late payment is making the headlines again. The government is making the right noises but needs to practise what it preaches. So, what can SMEs do? Invoice finance is one solution.

New research from accounting software firm Xero claims that over 50% of small businesses were not paid on time in 2017 and that this delay caused a similar amount of SMEs to begin the year with negative cashflow. The impact of such financial pressure on a company’s ability to maintain forward momentum and invest in growth is clear. How can SMEs be expected to drive economic growth in such conditions?

At the same time, the Small Business Commissioner, Paul Uppal, has called on the government to issue fines to companies guilty of paying their suppliers late. That such a move has been publically demanded underlines both the seriousness of the problem and exasperation over the impact of existing measures. Let’s not forget that the government only recently introduced new legislation intended to combat late payment by naming those that do not settle invoices on time. Uppal’s call suggests that this law does not go far enough.

Indeed, the government has recently announced that it will launch tough new measures to improve conditions for small businesses, including plans to crack down on unfair payment practices and give companies more scope to report poor payment performance. This is all well and good, but there has to be a big question mark against the effectiveness of such action, especially as it seems that the public sector has its own issues as a serial late payer.

According to new research from the Federation of Small Businesses, 90% of public sector suppliers have been paid late. This is an eye-watering figure. If the government is serious about tackling B2B late payment, it would seem it needs to get its own house in order first. In the past, the organisation has claimed that late payment causes 50,000 companies to cease trading every year.

As such, it’s easy to understand why small business owners put little faith in efforts to combat late payment. There is no lack of initiatives and schemes, and even legislation, but there is little evidence to suggest that anything is working. So, what can SMEs do, besides trying to remain optimistic about government plans?

Invoice finance is one answer. Alternative finance is transforming the small business finance landscape and invoice finance is very much a driving force of this growth. Its affordability, accessibility and flexibility are proving a timely antidote to the continued caution of traditional lenders. Invoice finance alone is worth billions of pounds to the UK business sector. With regard to late payment, it is a means of ensuring that payment deadlines are met, and vital cashflow is safeguarded, without jeopardising key business relationships.

Late payment is making challenging conditions even harder for small business owners, so it’s imperative that a solution is found. However, recent developments suggest that this won’t happen anytime soon. That’s why alternative finance, and invoice finance in particular, is so important for SMEs.

To find out more about A&T Business Associates services, contact Tony on 01903 602211 or tony@atbusinessassociates.co.uk.

Five Women from Five Countries perform high energy family circus show in Worthing this July

This summer Worthing Theatres welcome Compania Vavel Circus to the Pavilion Theatre with their family fun show Garbuix on the 23-24 July. The company, based in Barcelona, Spain, are travelling to Worthing to perform exclusively as part of their Summer of Circus festival.
 
Five women from five countries come together to present a delightful, high energy circus show jam-packed full of acrobatics, music, game playing, comedy, bicycles, shouting, a giant bear and pure mayhem.

The show is performed by international artists Lola Ruiz, Juana Beltrán, Serena Vione, Jessica Arpin and Jessica Martin.
 
Lola Ruiz specialises in trapeze and Chinese pole. Discovering circus at the age of seven years, she studied at the circus school of Châtellerault, France and ESAC, Brussels. She went on tour with Monti Circus for a year in Switzerland, before creating the Belgium company Lady Cocktail in which she toured around the world.
 
Juana Beltrán specialises in hand balancing and knife throwing, from the age of four she studied sports artistic gymnastics in Argentina, with her professional training moving her towards circus arts, where she studied different disciplines and developed a very personal and unique approach to the art form.
 
Serena Vione is a circus artist and a professional instructor, who is extensively trained in Chinese pole. She arrived in Catalonia in 2006 coming from Turin, Italy, where she founded "El Circ Petit" company, with which she created various shows that tour Europe. Her last creation ITER premiered in August 2014 at the Aurillac international street festival in France, and was performed in 2015 at Fira Trapezi and FiraTàrrega, in Spain.
 
Jessica Arpin is a world animal, polyglot and nomad. She trained at the Montreal circus school in acrobatic bike and clown. Her solo street show “Kalabazi” has been performed 600 times in 24 countries. Jessica has worked with various companies such as the Nau de Ícaros in São Paulo, Théâtre AmStramGram and the Théâtre du Loup in Geneva and the DuoRoccoco with Luca Regina. She speaks 6 languages fluently... and the best part is that she is able to speak every of them backwards.
 
Jessica Martin is the comical character who brings a lot of madness. In 2013, she finished the Fratellini Academy in Paris, where she specialised as a clown acrobat. Then she joined the Théâtre de l’Incendie in France to perform in “Richard the III”. While performing in different productions, she goes on training as a hospital clown and at the Campus Universo Cascadas (Stunt University Campus).

Tickets for Garbuix at the Pavilion Theatre are available from the Worthing Theatres box office on 01903 206 206 and online at worthingtheatres.co.uk.

Olivier and Total Theatre award winners Gandini Juggling present 8 Songs

Olivier and Total Theatre award winners Gandini Juggling present 8 Songs - a series of choreographed juggling vignettes set to 8 classic rock and roll songs, as part of Worthing Theatres Summer of Circus festival at the Pavilion Theatre on Friday 22 June.
 
The fast-paced show is a tribute to the mythical landscape of popular music; from Dylan’s stream of consciousness realms to the Velvet Underground troubling landscapes, from David Bowie’s soulful escapades to the rocking Rolling Stone’s anthemic joy de vivre. Each song has its own atmosphere and its own micro universe.
 
Creating a sense of ritual, celebration, and primal tribal energy the piece builds crescendo style from solos and duets to a full cast finale. Meanings will be alluded to, with semi-literal references to the songs themselves.

For anyone looking to practice and develop their skills whilst having fun, the company will also be running a beginner’s juggling workshop on the day.
 
Gandini Juggling have for over two decades been one of the world's most prolific and adventurous circus companies. Founded with the aim of fusing Juggling and dance, they have pushed the artistic and technical boundaries of juggling, resulting in performances that delight, astound, and defy easy categorisation. Iconic and iconoclastic in equal measure Gandini Juggling have changed the perception of what juggling is and can be - transforming what might be considered a parlour-trick into a rich and distinctive art form in its own right.
 
Formed by world-renowned jugglers Sean Gandini and Kati Ylä­Hokkala the award winning Gandini Juggling have been at the forefront of contemporary circus for over 25 years. During that time the company have produced over 30 productions, performing 5000 shows (and counting) around the world. Gandini are trailblazers in their field and have developed a reputation as promiscuous collaborators who continue to reinvent and reinvigorate juggling for the 21st century.
 
8 Songs is performed by Christopher Patfield, Francesca Mari, Frederike Gerstner Inaki Sastre, Jose Triguero, Lynn Scott & Helena Berry. The creative team includes company director Sean Gandini and lighting designer Guy Dickens and the show was co-commissioned by Without Walls Consortium, Ageas Salisbury International Arts Festival Greenwich & Docklands International Festival.

Tickets for 8 Songs and the jugging workshop at the Pavilion Theatre are available from the Worthing Theatres box office on 01903 206 206 and online at worthingtheatres.co.uk.

An invitation to the Royal Wedding at the Ardington Hotel

His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales K G KT

Has requested the presence of his 

Loyal subjects 

To view the marriage of

His Royal Highness Prince Harry of Wales

With

Ms Meghan Markle
 

At the Ardington hotel
(on an 8ft screen)

On Saturday 19^th May 2018 at 12 Noon

Including 3-course wedding breakfast with accompanying wines.

Followed by a Reception in the Eden room

Dress:

as you deem appropriate to attend a Royal Wedding

order of service:

 guests are requested to arrive for refreshments by 11:30am 

Freshly ground coffee, Tea infusions, Coca cola and Budweiser

Fortnum and Mason biscuits

Cookies

11:50

 Please be seated by the ushers

 Midday

 Commencement of the service

 1:00pm

 The wedding breakfast will be served

 __________________________________________________

Menu

Poached Sussex Asparagus

Hollondaise sauce

English Sparkling wine

….

Tian of

Handpicked crab and locally smoked salmon, Quail egg

 Chablis

….

 A duo of loin and shoulder of Southdown lamb

Rosemary and honey gravy

Roasted new potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli cauliflower mornay

Chianti or Sancerre

….

Elderflower and lemon posset

Orange muscat

 Sussex cheese  plate, bath olives, apple pickle

Freshly ground coffee

Fotnum and Mason violet creams and truffles

 __________________________________________________

 £49:00 Including accompanying wine

Numbers will be limited to 40

 The wedding will be projected on to an 8 feet screen

 Full payment when booking, please.

http://indigorestaurant.info/event/1893/

Freedom of Worthing honour for Richebourg

A First World War battle known as ‘The Day Sussex Died’ will be honoured on Saturday (May 12) when the Mayor of Richebourg is granted the freedom of the borough of Worthing.

The Mayor, Gerard Delahaye, and schoolchildren and officials from Pas-de-Calais, will visit Worthing to receive the award from the Mayor of Worthing Councillor Alex Harman.

Cllr Harman said: "Honouring the town of Richebourg by bestowing the the freedom of the borough of Worthing upon the Mayor’s office is long overdue. It's important to not only remember the past, but also look to the future.

"I'm very proud that this has been brought forward during my year as Mayor."

Officially known as the Battle of Boar's Head, the battle which so affected the county took place on June 30, 1916. In less than five hours more than 1,300 soldiers from the three South Downs Battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment were either killed, wounded, captured or missing. Of the 366 who died, 22 were from Worthing.

The freedom will officially be bestowed during a ceremony in Worthing Town Hall. It will be proceeded by a short commemoration service at the Battle of Boar's Head memorial in Beach House Park.

During the visit, a Royal Sussex Regiment flag, paid for by Chris Coopey, president of Worthing Adur Chamber of Commerce, will fly outside Worthing Town Hall.

The weekend will also see an unveiling of a piece of collaboratively-designed stained glass on Worthing Pier.

The glass was jointly designed by the students from Chatsmore Catholic High School, Worthing, Ecole Marcel Lejosne and Ecole du Sacré Cœur in Richebourg. A duplicate piece of glass will also be presented to the town of Richebourg.

The visit by the French delegation has been arranged by Chatsmore Catholic High School, who forged links with Richebourg through their Legacy 110 programme which encourages schoolchildren to become involved in projects to pass on the legacy of remembering World War One.  The school also unveiled the permanent memorial to the battle in Beach House Park in 2016.

Julian Morgan, assistant headteacher at Chatsmore, said "We are very excited about the visit. It's not only a chance for our pupils to appreciate how close to home events of the First War were felt, but also to engage with children from Richebourg in a cultural exchange while exploring our shared history.”

"It's incredible that this is happening as it is building on the long-lasting friendship between the two areas built nearly a century ago” added Councillor Harman.

The events also builds on the links created by former Worthing Mayor Ellen Chapman, who first formed connections with the town back in the 1920s.

Through rain, wind and not much shine - Worthing’s Brooklands Lake is brought back to life

They battled driving rain, gale-force winds, the darkest, smelliest black silt and even a terrifying creature from the deep but at last they’ve put a much-loved landmark on the road to recovery.

Engineers at Five Rivers Environmental Contracting have now completed the first stage of the major works on Brooklands Lake which has been funded by Worthing Borough Council.

If you visit the lake today you will see fast flowing, clear water and an abundance of wildlife but that was not always the case.

When Five Rivers took on the contract in 2017, the lake was stagnant due to a build up of silt which was having an impact on the environment and wildlife. In October the company set out to remove 15,000 cubic metres of silt and create new margins on the edge without reducing the footprint of the lake.

Even though they faced cold, wet and windy working conditions they ended up redistributing

19,000 cubic metres of silt, 4000 more than expected, the equivalent of almost eight Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The Teville Stream which flows into the lake has also been completely transformed. The former sluggish four metre wide stream has been reduced to a one and a half metre stream of fast, flowing water which stops silt building up.

Apart from removing the silt, works have been carried out to create a new and thriving habitat for a diverse range of wildlife:

·         Thick mats of coconut fibres and UK plant species have been planted to provide a diverse habitat around the lake & up the river.

·         By the stream, the paths have been ripped out and recycled. Coir - coconut husk - carpets have been laid to bed in marginal plants and encourage a diversity of species.

·         100 tons of gravel have been used in the lake to make Riffles (a rocky part of a stream of river) which create different widths & depths which encourage diverse wildlife.

·         Bog plants such as Irises and Marsh Marigolds have been planted on the western bank.

·         Berry trees are being planted on the new island to provide food for the birds during winter. Species will include Holly, Hazel, Guelder Rose and Blackthorn

The wildlife are certainly taking to the new lake and a Swan is already nesting on its margins. This year the Five Rivers team provided her with some straw to build her nest, but in future years she will be able to take full advantage of the reed (Phragmities) that have been planted across the site.

And that’s not all, Five Rivers will be providing the ducks and swans with their very own floating nests. Giving them extra safety during the nesting season.

It's not just the birds that are coming back. A shoal of rudd and carp have also been spotted in the river, proving that the fish are able to swim over the Riffles.

Despite facing one of the most wet and windy winter and spring periods on record Jacob Dew, Operations Manager of Five Rivers Environmental Contracting said he was  pleased with the way the project has turned out.

“We’re really pleased that we have completed the main works to such a good standard, but the project wasn’t without it challenges,” he said, “It was incredibly difficult during the coldest months when we were battling the wind and rain. The lowest point must have been when the silt became so waterlogged it was almost impossible to use our equipment.

“Despite the weather, the project has had some great moments. The best part about the project for me has been the local community and the incredible support that they have given my team and I.”

Earlier this year in the silt one of the engineers found a full-grown Common Snapping Turtle an extremely rare creature in the UK which is thought to have been dumped there by a pet owner. The creature is well named because it has been known to bite the finger off a human hand. Nicknamed Terry the turtle is now recovering in quarantine.

Five Rivers will be on site for the next few weeks tying up the loose ends and generally tidying up.They’ll be seeding,raking and planting the remaining 11,000 Phragmities.

The fencing will be kept around the lake until the plants and reeds bed in, making the  margins more stable.

It will take up to two years for the lake to return to its former splendour and Five Rivers will be visiting the site regularly to make sure everything is going to plan.

The entire Brooklands Park, owned by Worthing Borough Council, is the subject of a major improvement plan to revive the area.

Latest News from Gatwick

Business and Community

• Gatwick has announced vacancies for more than 1,200 retail, restaurant, check-in desk assistance and luggage handling roles.  This reflects Gatwick’s continued growth as we get ready to face our busiest summer on record.  More than 800 jobs are being offered from across the airport’s retail and restaurant portfolio whilst recruitment is underway for more than 400 jobs for ground handling agents, the companies which provide check-in desk assistance for passengers as well as loading/unloading luggage and cargo onto aircraft at Gatwick. More…

• The airport had its busiest March on record last month, +2.5% on last year, with a total of 3.5 million passengers passing through.  With long-haul routes +23.2% year-on-year, March also saw Gatwick once again adding to its global connectivity, launching two new long-haul routes to Austin and Chicago, as well as announcing Qatar Airways’ impending new service to Doha.  More…
• In March, the Gatwick Foundation Fund awarded £100,000 to 21 deserving projects across Kent, Surrey and Sussex. To date, 80 organisations and more than 46,000 people have benefited from the Gatwick Foundation Fund, with reported improvements in the services provided, which cover four main areas: Employment, training and skills; Families; Widening horizons and Elderly people. More…

• More than 40 local families with a family member who has a hidden disability attended Gatwick on Sunday (8 April) for an event designed to make airports feel like ‘a less scary place’.  Held in the North Terminal, Gatwick’s Accessibility Day helped to familiarise people with a hidden disability – and their families and carers - with the sights and sounds of an airport so they have a practical overview of airport processes before they travel. Gatwick is aiming to be the most accessible airport in the UK and is currently engaging with a broad range of disability groups to help ensure that the airport makes its services accessible for everyone. More…

• We have announced a new partnership with Kew’s wild botanic garden at Wakehurst Place to support a bursary programme for schools in the South East. It will cover the cost of travel to the site for schools with students from disadvantaged backgrounds, enabling them to access Wakehurst’s wide variety of educational activities which meet curriculum targets across a range of subjects including Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). The partnership, which also provides corporate membership benefits for the airport’s staff, sits within Gatwick’s Education Strategy ‘Inform, Inspire, Invest’, which includes partnerships with other STEM initiatives, such as the Big Bang Fair and Learn Live broadcasts.  More…

• Earlier this month London Gatwick announced its charity partners for the next two years. 

Following a Gatwick staff vote, St Catherine’s Hospice has been selected as the airport’s local charity partner, while Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance Trust has also been selected as a strategic partner.  Together the two charities will join Gatwick’s longstanding charity partnership with TravelCare, which has served alongside the airport’s terminals since 1986. Based in the South Terminal, every day the Gatwick TravelCare team helps to resolve a wide range of welfare issues including missed flights, passport irregularities as well as providing emotional support. More…

Noise and Airspace

• Gatwick continues to support a substantial programme of work to manage the impacts aircraft operations.  While we can't eliminate aircraft noise completely, our goal is to reduce it as much as possible.  We work closely with the Noise Management Board (NMB) which brings together industry partners and community representatives to oversee joint strategies to deal with noise around the airport.   To find out the latest information on the work of the Noise Management Board, read NMB Chair Bo Redeborn’s latest blog.

• Following the legal judgement to quash the CAA’s Route 4 Standard Instrument Departure routes Post Implementation Review in April 2017, our Head of Airspace Strategy Andy Sinclair provides an update on the current situation and planned next steps in his latest Airspace blog.

• Gatwick commissioned an independent study to look at the perception of aircraft height and noise following a recommendation from the 2015 Independent Arrivals Review. The academic study has been published, and its main findings can be found in bullet point format here.

Walk it Worthing - Interactive Map Launch

Are you a visitor to Worthing, or perhaps a newbie resident?  Have you explored the independent galleries, or tried out that new restaurant in town?  As part of National Walking Month, Worthing Borough Council’s  tourism arm, Discover Worthing, has launched Walk it Worthing a new digital interactive map to help visitors make the most of their stay and encourage local people to explore the town.

“The beauty of Worthing is everything is within walking distance. However, many of the town’s real hidden gems are tucked away and could be easily missed,” says the council’s Visitor Economy and Marketing Officer Judy Fox.

The Walk it Worthing interactive map is similar to Google Maps but links to the Discover Worthing website. Simply input your location, the distance you’d like to walk, search either by category, for example art galleries and museums or restaurants, or by theme including rainy day activities, family friendly or outdoor activities, and Walk it Worthing will give you walking directions to your chosen destination.

As Judy explains: “Imagine you were staying at the Burlington Hotel which is located to the west of Worthing on the seafront and wanted to find a place for dinner. Your natural instincts would probably send you along the promenade into central Worthing. Not ideal on a rainy day. Using Walk it Worthing you can type in your postcode, search Restaurants and Bars and up will pop a number places on Rowlands Road – a great neighbourhood area with an independent buzz, just off the beaten track.”

National Walking Month is the brainchild of national charity Living Streets. It is designed as a month of celebrating walking and encouraging others to become involved, improving the physical and mental health of all. Walk it Worthing also feeds into Adur & Worthing Councils' public health and sustainability strategies.

Improving Access to Staff Training

Research undertaken by Whitehead-Ross Education and Consulting in West Sussex has revealed that whilst many small businesses access staff training and development opportunities, many feel there is a lack of information and inflexibility to meet their needs.

The research, undertaken by Whitehead-Ross at the Better Business Show, hosted by Worthing and Adur Chamber of Commerce in February, captured data from 79 delegates on voting pads at an interactive exhibition stand.

Delegates responded that 51% invest in staff training and development opportunities, with a small fraction (9%) stating they do not have time to think about it.

In considering the barriers that prevent small businesses from accessing government-funded training programmes, many small businesses (41%) feel they do not know what training is available for their business sector.

Ian Ross, Managing Director of Whitehead-Ross Education, explained “There are many, often competing, skills programmes with complex and rigid eligibility criteria. Small businesses accessing our training programmes often tell us that they only found out about our funded courses by chance as a result of our own marketing.”

“This feedback suggests initiatives, such as the Business Navigators funded by the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership, need to think about other ways of raising awareness of the support available to the business community, as not all small businesses attend networking and Chamber events.”

“This could involve those government agencies responsible for economic growth in our region better coordinating with local authorities, such as flyers being sent out with annual business rate statements and developing stronger partnerships with high street banks to ensure literature about support available is available in branches.”

Additional challenges identified by small businesses include training programmes not being flexible enough (25%) – something training providers are in control of – and too much bureaucracy (26%) – such as too much paperwork to participate in funded programmes, which acts as a disincentive to access such programmes.

Of the small businesses who participated in the research, microbusinesses accounted for 59% of respondents (1-9 staff) with 9% employing 10-19 staff and 32% employing 20 or more staff.

Ian Ross concluded “According to West Sussex County Council, 84.6% of businesses in West Sussex employ less than 10 people. As the backbone of the local economy, this research gives a brief glimpse into how government agencies and training providers can better support small businesses to access staff training and development.”

ADUR AND WORTHING ARE TRULY 'WHERE THE WILD FLOWERS GROW' 

Adur and Worthing are truly ‘Where The Wild Flowers Grow’ this spring as the Councils announce a record programme to splash our communities with colour -- including World War One memorial displays rich with poppies.

District and Borough have a deserved reputation for the number of wildflower seed sowings on their parks, green spaces, churchyards and even roadside verges which burst into fragrant explosions of colour in the summer.

And this year’s sowings, called Where The Wild Flowers Grow, starts next week (April 30) when the community and many local area Friends Of groups are invited to help the park rangers and grounds maintenance teams sow the seeds. As well as planting the traditional flanders poppies, the parks department will be sowing seed mixes that provide rich nectar sources for our pollinating bees and other insects whilst producing vibrant colour displays.  Seeds include borage,cosmos, cornflower, flax, marigold, and many others.

On selected sites, residents will be able to help with the whole process, from planting the seed, to tending and weeding the sites as the flowers begin to grow.

For a list of the locations and times of the community sowing please follow this link wildflower web page .

In total there are 27 sites across the District and Borough which will be included for sowing some of which will be exclusively for poppies to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One.

Adur & Worthing Councils’ Parks and Open Spaces Manager Dan Ross said, ‘It’s fantastic to see the results of the sowing when the sites burst into colour. We really want to see as many people as possible coming out to help and then taking enjoyment in watching these pieces of land completely transform.

‘This year we thought it would be a fitting tribute to have some exclusive poppy sowings to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the World War One. We have had a great response to similar displays over the past three years, and I think it will be particularly poignant to see those areas grow in even more sites this year across our District and Borough.’

Wildflower meadows offer a diverse, and typically exceptionally attractive, habitat for the pleasure of young and old alike. The twentieth century saw a sharp decrease in the variety of wildflowers in the UK countryside,  due to changes in agricultural policy and practice, particularly increased field drainage and herbicide use.

But over the past two decades, renewed interest in wildflower habitats has grown with concerns for biodiversity protection and concern for the stability of our fragile bee population. In our parks, we are aiming to raise awareness of the importance of wildflowers, pollinating insects, and provide space for wildlife within our urban green spaces.

Some of the benefits of this are:

·        Plant diversity attracts insects and other invertebrates (including butterflies, bees birds and mammals

·        Flowering species add a changing palate of colour to the urban environment throughout the seasons

·        Active involvement of the community in managing the site encourages ownership values to be fostered.

·        Even small plots of wildflower planting can change the feel of a setting, so that the creation of a wildflower meadow as part of an urban greenspace can bring a little piece of countryside into the town.

For an interactive map of the sites under the Where The Wild Flowers Grow programme go to link here  Map

In addition to the creation of new wildflower meadows, The Council manage a number of important native meadows in particularly on our Chalk Downland sites. Sites such as Honeysuckle Meadow in Worthing, Mill Hill Local Nature Reserve, in Shoreham or Lancing Ring Local Nature Reserve. On such sites, we are working closely with the Southdowns National Park Authority and local community groups, to promote an understanding of the importance of the Chalk landscape. For more information about Chalk Grassland and our work on these sites, please visit our web site of click on these links. Importance of chalk grassland in the Downs, Lancing Ring, Mill Hill