A COMPANY created to help drive economic growth will letting their meeting rooms out for free in August as part of its first birthday celebrations.

Cirencester Growth Hub, which helps drive economic growth in the town and wider Gloucestershire opened las July in purpose-built premises at the Royal Agricultural University.

They are funded by a £1.25m grant from the GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership and by the RAU,

The Hub's mission is to support new and growing Gloucestershire-based businesses through a mixture of free advice and guidance, workshops and events. Plus the venue offers pay-as-you-go membership for use of the co-working space, and meeting room hire.

Since it has opened the management team have welcomed more than 2,500 visitors, offered personalised business support to more than 110 local businesses and hosted more than 30 workshops and 10 networking events.

And more than 16,500 coffees have fuelled this hard work, courtesy of Stroud’s Golden Sheep coffee.

Yesim Nicholson, Cirencester Growth Hub manager, said: “It’s been an amazing first year. The response has been fantastic and we know, from what they tell us, that we are making a big difference to the local business community. But we’re not complacent; there are many more businesses out there who could benefit from the free support we offer, so we would urge them to get in touch and see how, together, we can help build on the business success of Cirencester and the surrounding area.”

They will be letting out their meeting rooms for the whole month of August, offering a flexible space for training, workshops or off-site meetings.

The rooms all come with complimentary parking, wifi, tea and coffee.

The offer is for August only, for one full day (9am-5pm) per company and must be booked via telephone by calling 01285 889850.

Also in August, Cirencester Growth Hub will be running a range of workshops and one-to-one advice sessions, including Google’s Digital Garage, back by popular demand on August 14, and marketing one-to-ones on August 19 and 20.