Published: Tuesday 18th October 2016 | 1.38pm
Cannock Chase Council has scooped an award for collaborative working, for the recently launched Good Life Deals app and has been high commended for the Let’s Grow Grant at a recent award ceremony.
The awards were handed out at the FSB Local Authority Awards ceremony last month hosted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).
The FSB Local Authority Awards is now in its 5th year; the awards aim to recognise the work undertaken by Local Authorities to support small businesses across the Staffordshire and West Midlands region. These awards both recognise achievements and help FSB promote the very best examples of good work to all Councils across the region
The award for collaborative working was won in conjunction with South Staffordshire Council following the recent launch of the Good Life Deals App.
The Good Life Deals App is a place where local businesses can upload discounts and offers for members of the public to view and take advantage of the offer. Cannock Chase Council teamed up with South Staffordshire Council to give a bigger target market and members of the public access to more deals.
Councillor Gordon Alcott, Portfolio Leader for Economic Development and Planning said “I am delighted that the Council has received recognition for their two initiatives aimed at helping local businesses. We do all we can to raise awareness of grants available for local businesses to help them expand and grow.
Our recently launched Good Life Deals app is an excellent way of helping local businesses to promote their special offers and encouraging our residents to shop local.”
Karen Woolley, Development Manager for FSB, said “The FSB is always really pleased to see collaboration between its key partners on projects which have a really good impact on local small businesses across a number of geographies. We were delighted to award South Staffordshire Council and Cannock Chase Council with a ‘Collaborative Working’ award for their joint ‘Good Life Deals’ campaign. This initiative fully supports the FSB’s work around raising the profile of shopping locally and supporting local trade.”
Imre Tolgyesi, South Staffordshire Council Business Hub Lead, said, “Winning this award is fantastic recognition for both councils and the team that have worked behind the scenes on Good Life Deals together. Supporting local businesses and encouraging people to shop locally is something we’re passionate about.”
Cannock Chase Council were also highly commended in the category Best ‘Small Business Friendly’ Programme/campaign for the ‘Let’s Grow Grant.
The Let’s Grow Grant is available for SME’s who have been trading for at least 6 months and looking to expand and grow their business. The grant could be used to buy new equipment and/or move premises or secure/create jobs.
The Lets Grow Grant is a 50% match funded grant scheme of up to £5000, so could really give your business a boost.
Karen Woolley, Development Manager for FSB, said “We were delighted to award Cannock Chase Council with a Highly Commended award for its ‘Let’s Grow’ Project. Access to finance remains one of the biggest barriers to growth for many of our members and other small businesses. We are increasingly seeing small firms turn to alternative forms of finance as opposed to the mainstream high street banks. Any measures which provide an alternative access point for funding are very much appreciated.”
For more information on the Good Life App: http://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/residents/other/good-life-deals
For more information of the grants or help available for local business please contact the Economic Development Team on 01543 464272 on email on econdev@cannockchasedc.gov.uk