Issue - meetings

The Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Board is seeking a number of innovative ways of promoting the area and generating income to invest in activities in the Surrey Hills.

Surrey Hills Enterprises is a Community Interest Company (CIC) established in 2012 to educate the public and raise awareness of the Surrey Hills and to promote the brand for the Surrey Hills. The CIC is able to trade commercially but has to ensure that all its profits are used for the benefit of the community, in this case for the communities of the Surrey Hills. Creation of the CIC was supported by the Surrey Hills AONB Board with a view to the CIC running events and educational programmes in the Surrey Hills and generating income to be used to fund activities that are indentified in  the Surrey Hills Management Plan.  

The Trademark (“Surrey Hills”) is owned by Surrey County Council on behalf of the Surrey Hills AONB Board and therefore to enable the CIC to develop the brand, it needs to be able to use the Trademark.  In order to retain control over the Trademark, the County Council proposes to licence the Trademark to the CIC rather than transferring it.

[The decisions on this item may be called in by the Environment and Transport Select Committee]

1.         That the Trademark be licensed to Surrey Hills Enterprises to use commercially for an initial period of three years at no cost, and to be reviewed at the end of that term.           

2.         That the final wording of the Trademark licence be agreed by officers and signed off by the Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment

3.         That the Trademark be licensed to the Community Interest Company (CIC) once the Head of Legal Services has advised that the CIC is properly established and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Board have approved the licence.