New manager of Worthing town centre up for challenge
Worthing’s new town centre manager said she has taken over at an exciting time, with Christmas on its way and vacant properties under offer – but admitted she has some challenges to tackle.
Hannah Mamzaroli, Worthing’s new business improvement district (BID) manager, has had something of a career change, with her background in retail and the nightlife scene.
Hannah moved, with her family, from London to Brighton – and now she wants to take Worthing to new heights.
“I worked in retail since I was 16,”Hannahsaid.“it’ssomething I’ve always loved. I did that instead of university and I worked my way up and I’m really proud of the career I had.
“I also worked in hospitality – in nightclubs and events planning. I have experience in social media and marketing, so I’m hoping to bring all those elements together in this job.
“I visited Worthing for the first time when I was viewing houseshere.myselfandmyhusband decided to move our familyawayfromlondoneightyears ago. We fell in love with it.
"We loved the fairground on theseafrontandtheflowerbeds. The people were really friendly. We thought it was somewhere we’d like to move our family.
“If people live here their whole lives they can be a bit negative. I hope I can see it through fresheyes.it’sdifferent–aslower pace of life – but people who live here are really lucky.
“A lot of high streets in the UK are very much the same but therearealotofindependentretailsinworthingandireallylove that,” she added.
“I will be looking to tap into that. People are really community-focused here, with more events than most towns – we have a lot of different things in the pipeline.
“I’m looking forward to tappingintomyexperienceofbringing together the daytime and night-time economies.
"There’s a really good opportunity there to have a collaborative approach."
Hannah is looking forward tothetown’sbiglate-nightshoppingeventonthursday,december 14, organised by the BID.
“We’d love to see the whole of Worthing come out for that. We’ve worked hard on it,” she said. “In terms of the high street and nightlife, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. I would really ask people to come out and shop on the high street instead of buying on Amazon. It’s another sale that can help to keep businesses open.
“All the shops are open until 7pm on that day. We've got entertainment, a stage, various characters, a stilt walker, roller skating elves and Santa will be there, too.”
Hannah said it would be ‘naïve not to face up to the issue’ of crimeandanti-socialbehaviour.
“There’s no denying, with an economic recession, there will unfortunately always be an upturn in crime,” she said. “We are lookingatdifferentwaystomake Worthing a safer town. That will be a bit of a challenge for everyone.”
Hannah added she was lookingforwardtoacollaborativeapproach with Worthing Borough Council.
"We all want to make Worthing better and are working towards the same goal,” she said.