this month - Revive & Thrive

1 WWW.REVIVEANDTHRIVE.CO.UK REVIVEANDTHRIVE @REVIVE_THRIVE

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PLACE FOR TOWNS AND CITIES The finest eloquence is that which gets things done

#1

THIS MONTH Enter Revive & Thrive Challenge 2016 With the chance to win £60,000 prize money

Enter Blachere £20k Competition Christmas Lights Specialists

UKMI monthly report See March’s UK Market Index

Selected stories and great ideas This month from Colchester and around the UK

intrigue inspire illuminate

Enter our

£20,000 Christmas Light Competition p.14

INSIDE this month p24. World Towns Leadership Summit

p26. Why aren’t we doing more to capture leisure visitors?

P6.

2016 Revive & Thrive Town & City Solutions Challenge

P7.

2016 Revive & Thrive Challenge for Places

P9.

UK Market Index March

P11.

Martin Blackwell’s Blog

P14.

Blachere Illumination £20,000 Christmas Lights Competition

P16.

Ronnie Brown’s Blachere Blog

P19.

bira : The Team

P20.

Wayfinding for Town Centres

P22. Hitting Back After Flood Devastation

From the Editor Welcome to the first ever edition of Place Magazine and we sincerely hope that you will find the contents of real value to you and that you will send us your stories for us to share with towns, cities, communities and destinations of all shapes and sizes across the UK. Revive & Thrive and Place Magazine has no other agenda but to make access to great ideas and inspiring stories freely available to everyone. Stakeholders in places and communities, both paid and voluntary continue to labour to drive positive change and there is no greater way to learn new ideas that are already working than through reading others best practice and experience. Place Magazine will continue to grow beyond this first edition to meet this need and we ask you to share what is working in your area with others using Place Magazine as the best vehicle to inspire and be inspired.

P23.

Blog: Making Data Relevant

P24.

World Towns Leadership Summit 2016

P26.

Why aren’t we doing more to capture leisure visitors?

P28.

Our Community Grows

P30.

Success is a Gift (Card)!

P31.

Colchester: Why would I?

P34.

Revive & Thrive Challenge and Exhibition Colchester

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P35.

Revive & Thrive Events 2016

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P36.

World: Urbain, Belgium

P38.

How the 1950’s Changed our High Streets

What better way to start than with the launch of three exciting new competitions all of which are designed to help you consider how to preserve, promote and protect the place where you live, work or play.

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Revive & Thrive Places Challenge – Prize package over £60,000 Blachere 2016 Christmas Light Competition - £20,000 of lights being given away to 10 finalists Revive & Thrive Town Centre Solutions Challenge

PLACE FOR TOWNS AND CITIES 3

All three of these competitions will climax in a fantastic conference, exhibition and couple of days of place based experiences in Colchester on 29th and 30th September 2016. Amongst the stories and thought pieces in April’s Place Magazine is the schedule of Talking Towns Events for 2016 where we bring the ideas to life and discuss how together we can work on projects to truly change and enhance your Place. We always value your feedback and hope that you see the value in UK places working together and sharing great ideas through Revive & Thrive’s Place for UK towns and cities. If you would like to submit a story in May’s Place Magazine, please send to [email protected]. We are always keen to talk too so if you want to discuss any element of Place Magazine please call the team on 03330 124285 Mark Barnes, Founder and Managing Director, Revive & Thrive Ltd

PLACE MAGAZINE Editor in Chief Mark Barnes Assistant Editor Matthew Powell Creative & Design Stephen Blackwell WWW.REVIVEANDTHRIVE.CO.UK

REVIVEANDTHRIVE @REVIVE_THRIVE Tel: 03330 124285

© 2016 Revive & Thrive

REVIVE & THRIVE’S 4

May the fourth be with you in Coleford! The force will be strong in the market town of Coleford... as the whole community comes together on the fourth of May to celebrate the town’s connection to the Star Wars movie ‘The Force Awakens’. The film features the stunning backdrop of Puzzlewood, one of the Forest of Dean’s most famous tourist attractions. The Star Wars blockbuster has significantly increased visitors to the unique and enchanting woodland, on the outskirts of Coleford.

Supported by the District and Town Council, the ‘May the Fourth’ event has been organised by Cllr Nick Penny, Deputy Mayor of Coleford, to encourage the whole community to come together with the aim of attracting visitors to the town centres in a bid to boost the local economy. Visitors to the town on the 4 May, can expect a full ‘Star Wars’ themed experience; decorated shop fronts and shop traders in fancy dress, as well as a range of themed giveaways, services and special offers. From the local butchers offering ‘Dark Vader sausages’ and ‘Chew Baccy’ burgers, to a salon offering nail art and themed hand-treatments. Children are invited to participate in a costume-making workshop, followed by a fancy dress parade through the town and prize giving supported by Coleford Town Council. For fans of the Star Wars film, the Studio Cinema will bring the event to a fitting close with a one-off showing of ‘The Force Awakens.’

Cllr Nick Penny said: “I am delighted that so many of the town centre traders and residents will be coming together to offer real diversity to the ‘May the Fourth’ event.” “I’m looking forward to bringing the town’s people together for an inspiring day that is both exciting and enjoyable, but also beneficial to our local economy. I believe that the success of any small town is reliant on finding new ways to encourage visitors, by building strong local partnerships and in gaining the support of the community as a whole. The ‘May the Fourth’ event is a fantastic example of how a community driven initiative can bring new visitors to the town.” Cllr Patrick Molyneux, Leader of the Forest of Dean District Council and Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration, Market Towns and Tourism added: “We are pleased to join with the Town Council to support Coleford’s ‘May the Fourth’ event. Encouraging people into our towns will help local businesses to thrive and will give our economy a boost. We urge everyone to get involved with ideas and


initiatives to make the day special for the town and for visitors to our area.” Ian Officer, Chairman of the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean Tourism Association said: “We are delighted that Coleford is taking such a proactive role in developing the tourism offer in the area, first with the opening of the TIC and now with the May the 4th celebrations. This makes the area more vibrant and exciting for visitors and locals alike. We have seen increased visitor numbers following the launch of Star Wars and have worked hard to maximise the impact. To see our partners also grasping this opportunity further underpins the importance of focus and partnership working. Coleford has our full support and as always we will work closely with the town council and tourist information centre to raise the profile of this event.”

CAISTOR BEACON LIGHTING TO CELEBRATE THE QUEENS 90th BIRTHDAY Caistor Town Council & Caistor Goes..Events Committee have joined forces to light a beacon in the nationwide chain to celebrate Her Majesty The Queens 90thBirthday on Thursday April 21st. The lit beacon should be visible from at least five counties!

For more information about the ‘May the Fourth’ event contact:

Lighting will be at approximately 8.15pm - dusk. The Mayor of Caistor , Cllr Carol MacKenzie will light the beacon.

Nick Penny 07801 650977 [email protected]

The beacon will be sited on the vacant site between the former

Montessori School & the houses. we are grateful to Jonathan Gibbons of Holton Estates for permission to use the site, as we are to Hansard Haulage who will be placing the Christmas tree block to safely seat the beacon. Riby Road will be open to traffic as normal, to avoid complicated diversions, Lincolnshire Police will be assisting to ensure safety , along with Caistor Goes... & Town Council volunteers. Please be guided by Police & Volunteers, who will be wearing Hi Viz Vests, we have your welfare & safety as our priority. Please stay behind barriers. Please do not park in the vicinity of the beacon/ viewing area. Caistor Fire & Rescue will, calls permitting, be on scene as well. The beacon lighting will last for about an hour, all welcome, but please ensure you choose a safe place to view.


2016 Revive & Thrive Town & City Solutions Challenge This Challenge is for all innovators and suppliers of products and solutions to places across the UK. We define places in regard to this challenge as towns, cities, communities, shopping centres, retail parks and shopping centres

Your solution needs to meet the needs of the Colchester community, but should also demonstrate how it is transferable to other UK towns and cities. Judges will be asked to score against the following categories with the highest score in each category being awarded “Best in Class 2016” and the entrant with the highest overall score being crowned as “Best Overall Solution Provider 2016”:

The Challenge Colchester is the UK’s oldest recorded town, with heritage and architecture dating back to Roman times.

[1]

From medieval shopfronts and castles, to a unique Victorian water tower, the town boasts over 2,000 years of history, setting it apart from many other places in the country.

• • • • • • •

Today, the town benefits from both a stable resident community, a young and dynamic demographic, thanks to the university, and a strong visitor offer. With a forward-thinking council, a strong resident-led voluntary sector and an energetic new town team, Colchester is wellplaced to take advantage of local, regional, national and international visitors. However, as with any town or city across the country, Colchester has both opportunities to improve and challenges to face. Our challenge to you, then, is to demonstrate how your product, services or solutions are the best ones to pull together those elements of the community, to interpret the heritage of Colchester in a way that meets the needs of locals and visitors, young and old, and to support the infrastructure of this place to help it develop and grow in an ever more competitive 21st Century marketplace.

* Facility to hold a workshop is only open to Revive & Thrive Business Group Members. * Annual Business Group Membership to Revive & Thrive starts from £425. Any business wishing to join the Revive & Thrive Business Group can do so for just £35 in addition to challenge and exhibition costs and would then benefit from full Revive & Thrive Membership for 12 months as well as the opportunity to deliver a workshop at the 2016 Challenge Event. * All prices shown are exclusive of VAT. * Costs include 1x delegate entry to the event and 1x evening meal. * The marketing value of entry to the Challenge will be enhanced depending upon date of entry. The sooner your entry is confirmed and video uploaded, the more time will be available to promote this.

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Best Solution for Visitors Best Solution for Supporting Businesses Best Solution for Community Engagement Best Digital Solution Best Solution for Celebrating Heritage Best Solution for Measuring Success Best solution for Providing a Sustainable Future (financial and environmental) Best Solution for Improving Infrastructure Best Solution for a Safer Place

Your entry should include a short (maximum 3-minute) video posted to Youtube[2] and will involve a further 5 minute pitch to an invited audience at the Revive & Thrive Exhibition and Challenge Event 2016, taking place in Colchester on 29th and 30th September. Entry into 2016 Challenge Business Group Members £275 Other Businesses £495 Exhibition & Workshop Business Group Members £275 Other Businesses £295 Total Business Group Members £425 Other Businesses £790 [1] Categories may be amended until public voting starts on 1st August 2016 [2] The Youtube video will form the basis of a “public vote” category, to be run from 1st-31st August 2016. Additionally, Revive & Thrive will use your video across its various media channels, including website, Twitter accounts and Place Magazine to both promote the 2016 Challenge Event and your own business. Winners of the public vote will be announced at the event

To express an interest, to book your place or receive updates and terms and conditions, please email [email protected] or call 03330 124285


2016 Revive & Thrive Challenge for Places In 2014, Revive & Thrive gave away a prize worth almost £200,000 to the place which best addressed the challenge of “joining the dots” in their community. The prize was awarded at the RBTE Conference, Earls Court in London. In 2015, Revive & Thrive, in partnership with Blachere Illumination, ran a competition worth £17,000 in Christmas lighting. Finalists were invited to the home of UK illuminations, Blackpool, where everyone went away a winner. Also in 2015, Revive & Thrive challenged its providers of town and city solutions to tell a panel of expert judges why their product or service was the best solution on the market for place. In 2016, the Revive & Thrive Challenge is returning, bigger and better than ever! At our annual exhibition and conference, which this year takes place in Colchester on 29th and 30th September, we have already set businesses the challenge of demonstrating why theirs is the solution that best meets the needs of the town. And that is not all. In conjunction with this business challenge, we are pleased to announce the launch of a challenge for places – local authorities, town centre managers, town teams, consultants and BIDs can all enter this exciting competition to win tens of thousands of pounds worth of solutions for their place or a place of their choosing! This prize fund at this early stage already exceeds £55,000. Read on to find out how to enter… Colchester is the UK’s oldest recorded town, with heritage and architecture dating back to Roman times. From medieval shopfronts and castles, to a unique Victorian water tower, the town boasts over 2,000 years of history, setting it apart from many other places in the country. Today, the town benefits from both a stable resident community, a young and dynamic demographic, thanks to the university, and a strong visitor offer. With a forward-thinking council, a strong resident-led voluntary sector and an energetic new town team, Colchester is well-placed to take advantage of local, regional, national and international visitors. However, as with any town or city across the country, Colchester has both opportunities to improve and challenges to face. For Revive & Thrive’s 2016 Challenge, we are asking you to share your best practice and demonstrate how what you have achieved in your own place

could help a town such as Colchester to continue to develop as a modern, 21st Century town. You can respond to any one of the following challenges by submitting your case study in up to 1,000 words (testimonials, statistics, etc are optional and can be provided as an appendix). You may also include pictures, videos or links to web pages. Entries will be judged by an expert panel with finalists invited to attend the Revive & Thrive 2016 Exhibition and Challenge Event, to be held in Colchester on 29th and 30th September. Finalists will be expected to deliver a 10-minute presentation to an invited audience at the event with the winning entry taking home a prize in excess of £55,000 of goods, services and support for their place or a place of their choice. Challenge Categories: • How have you taken an historic town/city and rebranded it for the 21st Century? • How have you used marketing techniques or quantative analysis to draw visitors to areas of your place with lower footfall? • How have you used your place’s USP to deliver successful marketing campaigns and how did you measure the results? • How is your place fighting back against out-of-town and online shopping? • How have you incorporated street entertainment into the management of your place to provide an enhanced visitor experience? • How have you improved linkages around your place between traffic terminals (public transport and car parks) and your town/ city centre? • How have you reconciled the different needs and appeals of your daytime and evening economies? • How have you ensured that your local community and voluntary groups’ needs are balanced with the needs of your town/city centre businesses? • How have you brought small businesses into the management of your place to give them a real sense of ownership of it? • How have you harnessed civic pride to create genuine customer loyalty to your place? Entries need to be returned to: challenge@ reviveandthrive.co.uk no later than 31st July 2016. A seven day extended deadline available by request to Revive & Thrive Town Leadership Members. Shortlisted Finalists will be announced on 22nd August 2016.

To express an interest, to book your place or receive updates and terms and conditions, please email [email protected] or call 03330 124285

REVIVE & THRIVE’S

THE PRIZES 8

Revive & Thrive is grateful to all donors of prizes for Revive & Thrive Challenge for Places 2016. The prize package will grow but so far the package has a value well in excess of £60,000

Town Centre Insight Data. Package of reports for your place which will include as examples reports on retail spend bubbles, dominant lifestyle groups and retail footprint graphs.

Free treasure trail for your Place in Global Treasure Apps plus 12 months marketing support material.

A Digital Toolkit getting ALL of your town or BID businesses online with all the tools needed in one package.

Win one of the largest Advent Calendars in the UK for your Place. This prize is from 2007 world record holder for World’ Largest Advent Calendar, City Dressing

Two half-day workshops to help the place make the most of its data. Noggin will help the place collect data more effectively and use it to support growth in the local area.

1 x free of charge single count, fully managed, footfall system for 12 months with the option to continue the service element after 12 months, on a paid basis (optional)

Support to help the town and show them how to run a Customer Service Awards programme. We would then carry out Mystery Shops on the top ten shortlisted business message which can be used as a key part of the final judging. Businesses covered can include retail, services, dining and B2b. Each will get a dedicated review of how their business has performed giving management an invaluable tool.

Complete nationally recognised marketing package. See all the detail here >>

Check for updates >>


March 2016 Markets Footfall Index (February)

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Sponsored by Nabma -The Voice of Local Authority Markets

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The statement that

Colchester

is Britain’s Oldest Recorded Town is not correct... Colchester’s claim is much greater than that!

“

The truth is that Colchester is Britain’s First City – established in AD:49. Colchester was the First Capital of Roman Britain!

The reason for the strong Roman connection is that when the forces of the Emperor Claudius crossed the Channel in AD:43 to expand the Roman Empire they needed to capture the most important Ancient British settlement – which was Camulodunum, a largely rural settlement stretching from Sheepen (River Colne) in the north to Gosbecks two miles to the south of modern Colchester. Eight Ancient British “kings” surrendered to Claudius who made a brief visit to accept this personally. The Romans quickly established their presence, with the erection of a triumphal arch the remains of which have survived nearly 2,000 years and later became part of the Balkerne Gate when the Roman Wall was built after Queen Boudica (of the Iceni, from today’s Norfolk) led a tribal revolt against the Romans.

A Temple to Claudius was also built, and likewise destroyed by Boudica. The base of this temple still exists – as vaults beneath the Norman Castle which was built more than 1,000 years later, reusing extensive material from the ruins of Roman buildings. Amongst Colchester’s extensive Roman remains are the footings of arguably our nation’s oldest Christian church and, discovered 12 years ago, the site of the only Roman circus (chariot racing stadium) in Britain. Sir Bob Russell High Steward of Colchester

PLACE FOR TOWNS AND CITIES

Herding Cats? It can be done folks!

Balfe BLOG Gillian Urbanista

As the custodian and, manager of some 18 felines during my lifetime (not all at once!) I reckon that I have learned a thing or two about creating environments where the most unlikely companions feel comfortable and thrive. It is not so much about herding as making places where individuals feel at home, and choose to live in relative harmony, albeit with the odd off- note. As an ecologist by training, it was ingrained into me to make the connection between places and the people who inhabit them, and that goes

for their dogs, cats, rabbits, kids, elderly relatives and so on. Understanding the holistic nature of community living still fascinates me. Our interdependence on each other and ability to influence habitats and environments. The digital revolution adds a new dimension to trying to work out how communities will function in the future. Keep that for another day! No matter how digitally connected we get, some basics still apply. Good design can make our lives much easier. But what is good is a tricky question. How many aesthetically pleasing and expensively surfaced footpaths have you seen, only to be completely ignored by the users’ desire to find the quickest route through the now trampled shrub beds? Desire lines speak volumes about our ability to understand how people navigate through places and perform the simplest functions I learned over the years to seek local opinion from the dog

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walkers and daily shoppers who know how their community ticks and can point out favoured routes. By instinct they know what works, what will not work, but often are willing to explore new ideas if given a platform. Urban living is a complex thing. Revive & Thrive is more than scratching the surface of bringing disciplines and people Passionate about Places together. It is building real and lasting partnerships, connecting people and their habitat. It is about asking questions, highlighting problems and challenges, sharing ideas and knowledge and creating places where people, (and cats), are happy to be herded. This is barrier free and inclusive town and city centre rejuvenation! It goes beyond the confines of the built environment and sets the imagination free. Come join us!!!

Future High Street Summit

BLOG Consultant

Martin Blackwell

Speaking at the Future High Street Summit in Nottingham last week it struck me that while we are all, quite rightly, looking at all the “solutions” that’s are on offer (especially all things digital) the basics remain the same. It’s about people and the way we interact. I was asked the question, “Are BIDs the only game in town?” And the answer is no, of course not! But they are increasingly important. On average there will be a BID ballot every week this year. But, unlike the government’s decision in education to make Academy Schools “the only game in town”, that would never work for a BID because they are democratic; you have to win people over and gain their trust.

I think three things are vital: Vision, Governance and Leadership. The vision to set out clearly what you are trying to achieve and why it’s important. To have clear and transparent governance that enables stakeholders to have a real voice. Finally, to have leadership that gets things done by winning hearts and minds. What they all have in common is the human element. Without someone setting out a clear vision that people can relate to, support and rally around you have no chance. Failure to getting a governance structure in place that’s transparent and trustworthy will damage trust. And without good leadership you wouldn’t last long. The recent demise of the three BIDs in Torbay on the back of a failed, unifying tourism BID vote is an example of where at least one of these three must have failed. The old adage “People vote for people” holds true. So, all the “solutions” in the world will do no good if you ignore human nature and relationships.

I tried to paint the picture of the management of town centres as being like a patchwork quilt of interests; with squares of varying size and colour each representing a different interest. The local authority used to take up most of the blanket, but as this has shrunk gaps have appeared. Good place management is about how to stitch things back together and patch over the holes. A BID is a very good way to do that in many places, but Town Teams to traditional TCM have a role to play as well. So whether you are going for a BID first time, renewing or working with a Town Team if you want to see a great example of vision, governance in leadership take a look at the Bishy Road Traders Association, winners of the Great British High Street Award 2015. For me their Chairman, Johnny Hayes, exemplifies this. President Obama said he didn’t go into office “to be something”. The rather it was “to do something”. You can do no worse than surround yourself with people who want to do things.


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£20,000 worth of Christmas Lights

up for grabs in the Blachere Illumination Light Competition 2016

For 2016 Blachere Illumination are going one step further as they offer prizes for up to 10 finalists.

You can see the feedback and photos from the winning finalists overleaf.

These are: • Eight prizes of £1000 of Christmas Lighting • One second prize of £2000 of Christmas Lighting • First prize of £10,000 of Christmas Lighting

NB – this competition is only 1800 words long and should be able to be completed in one hour. Supporting documents are optional.

Applicants in 2015 are encouraged to enter once again. Prizes are Motif product (Pole mount and transverse frames) only. Installation, infrastructure and storage costs are not included. What is the competition designed to achieve? Like in 2015 applicants are being urged to consider what their places and its retailers get from adding some sparkle to the peak shopping period. But, Blachere are going one step further this year by asking applicants to consider what other creative solutions could be used to bring residents, shoppers and visitors into the heart of their places to celebrate at other times of the year.

The Questions To be in with a chance of winning one of the prizes above, all of which are being awarded for perpetuity to the ten winners by Blachere Illumination, simply answer the following questions.

The questions should be answered considering your own experiences or by envisaging the answers if you were to win the Competition or if you were able to create the ‘dream’ event for your place with any budget that you need. Feel free to be creative but the answers must be physically if not economically feasible. Q1 Is your Christmas Lights Switch On Event the most important date in your place’s calendar? If so, why is the event still so important? If not, what event is your most important event and what creative solutions do you use to enhance the resident or visitor experience. (max 600 words) 35% score

Q2 Christmas Lights create an enjoyable experience for visitors and shoppers lasting sometimes, for more than six weeks. Describe another event real, planned or imagined that uses or could use lighting or other creative solutions to create an extended experience for visitors to your place. (max 600 words) 35% score Q3 Three part question: • How do you ensure a return on investment for offering experiences similar to Christmas Lighting and Light Switch On Events? • To enable these experiences to take place, is it essential for you that the return is financial and/or experiential? • How do you measure the return? (max 600 words) 30% Score Email: [email protected] to register interest, for updates and to receive the terms and conditions. Or call 03330 124285 with any other inquiries.


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Our Christmas events, ice rink and lights are always a firm favourite with locals and visitors to Hastings. Last year, our lights and festive period were upgraded and enhanced thanks to Blachere Illumination and Revive and Thrive. Hastings entered their inaugural Christmas Lights Competition and were rewarded with an additional £1000 of lighting after taking third place. The competition really focuses minds on the meaning and value of community and I’m pleased we took part in it. As well as a chance to meet the Blachere UK team, the finals also included a visit to the famous Blackpool Illuminations workshops and a chance to meet fellow competitors from a range of cities, towns and villages throughout the country. I would encourage as many community groups and organisations as possible to enter this year’s competition. It’s a learning experience and great fun.

Registration of Intent and competition opens

5th April 2016

Close for applications

31st July 2016

Seven extended deadline available by request for Revive & Thrive Town Leadership Members.

Finalists announced

“

Rob Woods, Hastings Town Centre Manager

by 30th August 2016

Finalists Presentations and prize award

29th and 30th September

REVIVE & THRIVE’S

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16

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One second prize of £2000 of Christmas Lighting First prize of £10,000 of Christmas Lighting

Email [email protected] to register interest, for updates and to receive the terms and conditions.

Brown BLOG Ronnie Blachere

I’m very pleased to be writing the first of my monthly blogs in the all new Place Magazine. We at Blachere Illumination are as keen as Revive & Thrive to share great ideas that you can deliver yourselves in your community. Over the coming months, this column, will help you consider some of the more creative solutions that there are out there for bringing your ‘place’ to life. We all know that town and city centres and shopping centres are now much more than retail. People want an experience and with technology now so accessible and affordable it is becoming easier and easier for us to give our visitors and shoppers an experience that they will never forget. I look forward to considering this further with you.

Myth busting It won’t surprise you that I will want to share my passion for Christmas Lighting with you and the focus here will be around challenging you to consider the amount of income your place enjoys as a result of a well thought out lighting installation. Again due to technology, the cost of purchase and running costs are now so low that everyone needs to look at Christmas with a fresh perspective and I would be honoured to help you with this. Win, Win, Win April’s inaugural Place Magazine sees the launch of the 2016 Blachere Christmas Light Competition. The final of this will be held at Revive & Thrive’s main event in Colchester in September. We are offering 10 prizes of Christmas Lights in time for Christmas 2016. The prizes are as follows – • Eight prizes of £1000 of Christmas Lighting

Product Updates New LED+ product Launched at Blachere World Conference Lisbon, Portugal. In March, at the Blachere World Conference in Lisbon, a new product range was launched. This is a new string and curtain product that is rated at IP66. This is a massive improvement to the current crop of products on the market today that are only rated at IP44. The new products are complimented by an accessory range for connecting Strings, curtains, stalactite and even motifs together with only on mains cable. These products also have a physical shock rating of IK06 and are the brightest. Have a great April everybody and if I can be of any help to you please email me on [email protected] Ronnie Brown, Managing Director, Blachere Illuminations

Trip to the Light Fantastic Southwater Parish Council took part in the Revive and Thrive Christmas Light competition – sponsored by Blachere lights in 2015. We were impressed throughout with the ease of the application process and professionalism of those managing the competition. Southwater Parish Council’s team greatly enjoyed the day at Blackpool and felt that we obtain a real insight into the business and advantages of professional community lights. Participating in this experience has given us all the opportunity to assess the benefits obtained to date by our Christmas lights and to forward plan

how we can build up, and expand, the Southwater Christmas experience and better utilise the resources in which we have already invested. So what happened next? Well, with the prize money we received in 2015 we were able to light trees around our war memorial which we hope to be able to use for annual remembrance events and WW1 commemoration events. Additionally the lights form a welcoming area to the entrance to the village and light up the surrounding paths forming a link between two shopping areas. We now have a clear vision of what we want to do next to expand the lighting scheme and to use our lights throughout the year. We have been assisted by Blachere staff in choosing the lights and mountings and have always enjoyed our illuminating discussions.


Blachere competition 2015 Winners

We are the Central St Leonards Town Team and in 2015 we won the Revive and Thrive Blachere Christmas Lights Competition We decided we would enter the Competition in the summer and after much research and many drafts put together round tables we submitted our entry. Our hope was to be in the final, of course, but we were surprised when we received the news we would be going to Blackpool along with five other towns. We had a few weeks to put together our

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presentation and we pondered on how we would do it. We divided the tasks up and again spent many evenings around tables writing, revising and changing bits. We also went out and made a short video in the town, talking to traders and residents as well as our local MP. So September came and our rag tag group boarded the train at St Leonards to our trip to Blackpool. We were nervous and excited about the day, but none of us thought we had a hope of winning, after all most of the other finalists were Town Councils with lots of experience of this type of thing. The morning was taken up with a tour of Lightworks, showing us how they produced and put together the Blackpool Lights. It was really interesting, but our minds were on the Competition. We all had a buffet lunch and then had to wait; we were the last to give our presentation and got more and more nervous as the afternoon went on. Finally we were called in and presented our bid and then waited in trepidation

for the results. I think we all nearly collapsed when we were announced as winners!!! We had a really good evening in Blackpool. The lights were the talk of the whole area and people came into St Leonards to see them from far and wide. All the traders felt the footfall had risen and their sales had improved. It was sad when we had to take them down in January and the streets went back to their normal selves. They are stored away now ready for next Christmas and will be a lasting reminder of our day in Blackpool.

Town Leadership Member This membership level is best suited for BID Managers, Town Centre Managers, Town Teams, Local Authority employees and other voluntary groups. Join our Town Leader Group where you will have the opportunity to connect with other leaders, share best practice and experience in running a successful town or city. • • • • • • • • •

Connect with others, share best practice and experience in running a successful town or city Promote your town Networking Attend exclusive Town Leader events Host a Revive & Thrive event Benefit from Revive & Thrive Cost Reduction Services Receive the monthly UK Markets Index Receive discounts and special offers from our Business Group members Be the first to hear about the newest and most innovative town solutions

People Passionate about their Place Membership Individual membership for people doing wonderful things in their town. Collaboration is the key to the future of the high street and where we live. • • • • • • • •

Have a feature spread on the Revive & Thrive website Monthly Newsletters Sharing your voice in our monthly newsletter and at our events Revive & Thrive Cost Reduction Services (available if you upgrade to Town Leaders membership) Discounts and special offers Discounted entry to all our Talking Town events Host one of our regional events Competitions and challenges Annual Membership £42.50+VAT

Annual Membership only £245+VAT (5 individuals) Multi Town Membership only £695+VAT (4 towns / 20 individuals)

Memberships 2016

Business Group Membership

Revive & Thrive Associate Membership

Supporting organisations that provide town solution services and products to connect with communities UK wide. Be part of a solution focused collaboration tasked with building a new future for town and city centres with an emphasis on engagement and action. • • • • • • • • • •

Promote your business Come face to face with your target customer base Take part in our Talking Towns Events Attend our inclusive Business Group meetings Benefit from discounts and special offers Take part in our competitions showcasing best practice Revive & Thrive Cost Reduction Services Be part of our Town Solution Services Directory Receive the monthly UK Markets Index Keep updated with opportunities and news via our monthly newsletter

Annual Membership only £425+VAT. Bespoke packages available on request

Associate membership of Revive & Thrive is open to all those working in a freelance capacity with towns, cities and communities up and down the country. • • • • • • • • • • • •

Increase your links with other high calibre professionals across the UK Benefit from both internal and external expertise Regular networking meetings Increase your earning potential Raise your profile by submitting articles for our newsletters and magazine Share best practice and good news stories with our 30,000+ followers Discounted entry to Revive & Thrive events Take advantage of Revive & Thrive’s cost reduction services Discounts and special offers on our Businesses Group members’ products and services Earn commission on Revive & Thrive membership and business group sales Be part of a solution focused collaboration aimed at improving our country’s towns, cities, villages and high streets

Annual Membership £100+VAT or £10+VAT per month

Click to Apply or See More Information


Support for indie retailers from bira (British Independent Retailers Association) A long-time partner of Revive & Thrive, the British Independent Retailers Association (bira) are regular attendees at events up and down the UK. We’d like to introduce you to the bira team who would be happy to hear from you if you would like any help or support with town centre initiatives or some practical tips to help your local independent retailer businesses.

There are 5 Regional Managers, a National Membership Manager and a network of c.7,000 members who are always happy to help. The Regional Managers can help by putting you in touch with other indie retailers and by attending local networking meetings to deliver updates on ‘hot topics’ such as Auto Enrolment Pensions or helping to develop customer loyalty through the ‘Shop Local’ campaign.

Mellissa Wheeler, RMM for the South East and Retail Columnist for FAB (Fashion Association of Britain) Melissa joined bira on 4th January, at the same time as Lorna and Jennifer. She has been a big part of the bira community, has worked as FAB Retail Columnist since 2013. Melissa is well aware of the diverse range of locations that she will need to visit in order to reach our retail audience. She’s previously attended a meeting with a member at a ‘walk the pork’ event on a Norfolk rare breed pig farm. When not in work, Melissa likes to spend her time running or cycling and travelling to beautiful places. She also enjoys spending time relaxing with friends and family.

Here are the team:

Alasdair Straker, Business Development Manager for Scotland Alasdair has been with bira for many years and over the past 18 months he has spent much of his time supporting the specialist agricultural division, BAGMA (British Agricultural and Garden Machinery Association). Alasdair looks forward to the annual ‘Curling in Stirling’ challenge which has been running for the past 28 years! He often finds himself knee deep in mud when attending dealership events.

Lorna Lewis, RMM for the North Lorna joined bira on 4th January this year to take over from Graham Bamford, who enjoyed 23 years of providing help and support to bira members in the North of England before retiring in December 2015. When Lorna isn’t at work or looking after her little girl, she enjoys travelling and going to the theatre or music concerts. Lorna went travelling to Australia and once shared her room with a possum!

Leigh Green, Senior RMM for the Midlands Leigh joined bira just over two years ago as Membership Recruitment Assistant, working on the telephone, based in the Birmingham office. His work now includes supporting members face to face. When not in work he enjoys the great outdoors. Horse riding, dog walking and clay pigeon shooting are among his favourite pastimes.

Jennifer Passmore, RMM for the South West Jennifer also joined bira on 4th January. As a new RMM for the South West, Jennifer will be support existing members and also looking for opportunities to develop the bira community across the region. When not at work, Jennifer spends time looking after her little girl and also socialising, exercising and going to lots of classic car shows!

National Membership Manager Julie Conway is delighted to have the team in place and to be working closely with Revive & Thrive: “Together we have such a great range of support for local businesses and we really want to make sure independent retailers enjoy a successful future.” When not in work, Julie looks after her mini zoo of 2 dogs (soon to be 3), a bearded dragon, a Royal Python, a hamster, a tortoise and a collection of tropical fish. The bira ‘Shop Local’ campaign is an effective and simple way to help promote the message about shopping locally to support the community and bring life back into our high streets. You can request free window stickers and a call back from any of the bira team by emailing [email protected]

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JOIN as a ‘bira Revive & Thrive’ retail member. If you are an independent retailer, you can join bira and automatically get access to additional benefits from Revive & Thrive.

For more information visit: http://www.bira.co.uk/news/revive-thrive-retailmembership


Wayfinding for Town Centres In a generation of increasing online sales the experience for users of our town centres needs to be rich and engaging to increase and boost sales developing our communities. How can a wayfinding project be part of these solutions? This completed successfully will enable town centres to attract and keep their visitors as well as drawing people back time after time discovering what is new and engaging.

Discovering what is great

A great part of peoples experience of a place is how easy it is to navigate as well as discovering new places. So many stories have been told through the generations about the new cafe or hideaway round the back of the lane beside the red pillar box. A great wayfinding strategy has two parts; destination and

discovery. We all need to get to the place we came for. Where success for a town or retail area comes into play if getting people to take a different route and discover something new. Increasing dwell time is key to the success of a town centre thriving and developing. To achieve this it is important to have relevant, current and helpful information available to every user in an accessible manner. This can be in the form of clearly designated information points, as well as apps allowing current and live information which can be integrated into travel guidance. Every user should be considered and solutions accommodate and ensuring information is accessible for the visually and physically impaired (collaboration should be made with key bodies; RNIB, Alzheimer’s Society and more).

A great experience

The wayfinding strategy can take its place in the built and digital environments. It is important that it is consistent across all media and touch points. In the built environment it is good to have a range of signage designed fit for each area, improving the towns history and image / brand. A range of signage serves various aspects; primary decision points, with pedestrian monoliths including directional information with maps and secondary decision points, finger posts reassuring people through on their journey. This is important to enable the correct information to be delivered at the point of need for each user and journey. The overall map gives a scope of the area when entering the town. As well as external destinations when leaving to town to aid onward


journeys. Fingerposts are great to reassure users they are on track. Organising these carefully in the right locations can lead to an intuitive cost effective solution. As part of the great experience a wayfinding project has a very special opportunity to be able to change and improve peoples journeys. As part of an education we can show people new destinations, routes and attractions. As well as improving users awareness of the locations around them enabling them to make decisions to use alternative sustainable transport methods for example; walking, cycling, trams, buses, boats and trains.

A sustainable solution

When developing a solution in evolving town centres or cities it is crucial to ensure that the project has a sustainable future.

It is important to ensure the correct signage is installed and the solution is developed to be flexible responding to changes. This includes designing the right hardware as well as setting up the correct procedures for full maintenance. To extend the life of the signage, protecting against vandalism as well as mitigating weather damage and development requirements should be included. Opportunities to integrate technology can lead to developing a forward thinking wayfinding solution. These could be to include NFC, screens to display responsive information as well as integrated advertising. Interaction between mobile devices and static navigation tools will enable a richer level of information each user can access, for example times of films at theatres or times of buses. Additional to this personal route mapping is

now possible with the hand-held device enabling users to have a personal wayfinding assistant in their pocket. There are also further opportunities available to the retailers to use the technology to engage with visitors with offers and location based promotions.

Conclusion

Wayfinding opens a great opportunity to every town and city, it is the key means for setting in motion the revitalisation of these areas increasing spend, footfall, regional reputation offering an all round experience for everyone. Successful and legible towns and cities leave lasting legacies improving the nations jewels as thriving tourism and business environments and the hubs of our communities. J.Docksey, Design JD 020 3137 5513 [email protected]


Hitting Back After Flood Devastation Padiham in Lancashire is an old mill town that has seen its fair share of high street woes but is trying to rejuvenate with the help of the local council and realistic landlords. One local business, Mooch Café 87, opened in 2013, has grown into a popular destination and has quickly gone from 3 tables to 12 with expansion into an upstairs space for larger groups. Owned by two people who had only met twice before opening, the passion of owners Alison McLeod and Susan Sanderson, and their love for what they were creating meant that they had loyal regulars and newcomers every day. Business was good.

Like other businesses in the town, Mooch Café 87 was hit by the flood on Boxing Day and, for a brief time, the owners were devastated. However within 7 days, thanks to hard work, and the support of family, friends and total strangers helping out, the café re-opened.

exciting products and a converted loft filled with the most fantastic upcycled goodies thanks to Belle & Fox, another local business. Belle & Fox is run by two super-talented ladies, Lauren and Lesley Howarth, who create beauty out of junk shop finds: quirky lamps and vase, stools and shelves, etc.

Not to be down hearted with their losses, the business received a grant to help with costs and in 3 months it has gone from mud to MORe. MORe@ mooch is the new brand name for the refurbished upstairs clothing department and our new upmarket product lines. As well as providing a delicious daily menu of fresh homemade food there are now even more gorgeous gifts, more

There are lots of other good stories to come out of the flood devastation: the local barbers has gone from 10 square ft to 50, knocking into a devastated flat next door she has created a masculine space for hair and male beauty. Everyone in town is sprucing themselves up ready for Padiham in Parade a 1940s weekend that will see the whole town come together again but this time to party not mop up!

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FEATURED

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Made you Look

Very few retailers run flagship stores! I have never worked out how many shops there are within our towns and villages across the country, but I can tell you very few of them have large budgets to spend on Visual Merchandising and advertising – if indeed any. It struck me that most of the shops and projects highlighted are generally either flagship stores or shops with huge budgets to invest in VM, marketing expertise and digital technology, or the struggling retailer who remains under an umbrella of doom and gloom with the demise of the High Street clearly upon them. I’m not talking about the North/South divide, but I am standing up for the small independent retailer, the business which is able to provide something unique for their customer which you possibly wouldn’t find in an out of town shopping centre. These are the people we are trying to help stand out on the high street – the ones with no budget set aside for advertising or VM at all. There are some amazing independent window displays around which have

BLOG Noggin

Sven Latham

Imagine the scene at a conference. Tea and biscuits are out. People are mingling and chatting away. An interested, enthusiastic person makes an approach and asks me that great introducer, ‘so, what do you do?’ ‘Data,’ I reply, ‘I manage town centre data.’ Cue panicked looks, searching for the exit. You can see it in their eyes. Oh good grief, I’m about to be bored to death by numbers. ‘Need to, err, go refill my cup,’ and so the conversation ends. However, there is an echo of the truth here. Data really is quite boring. A few gain pleasure from it, but for the vast majority it’s a jumble of numbers and charts – intangible and meaningless. The problem is that data is really starting to become rather important. Look at retail – the big chains live by data,

been created without a huge fortune being lavished upon expensive props. Visualisation, a good eye for colour and theme as well as a basic understanding of grouping and merchandise styling mixed with re-purposed props and materials is often all it takes to create eye-catching yet engaging displays for the customer to enjoy. Yet there are also businesses and retailers who don’t appreciate the value of their shop front and its importance in attracting trade not only to themselves but their neighbours too…or not! The wrong impression and customers will pass on by. As we all know first impressions are crucial, but quite often this simple fact is overlooked. This is where our passion lies. Working through Revive and Thrive and supported by Town Teams, BIDs, Councils, VM colleges and different

Retail Sector groups, our training is reaching those small shops and businesses helping to inspire businesses into create eye-catching displays as an important key to attracting locals and tourists alike. A bright, colourful High street full of attractive shop displays will encourage footfall and trade…there’s more to window dressing than many people like to believe! Yes, the high street is changing and there is no simple answer, but if all shop fronts were at least clean and cared for that would at least be a start? Helen and Janet have worked in display for thirty years having studied with the British Display Society, so are fully qualified in providing advice and guidance about visual displays. http://www.madeyoulookmadeyoustare.co.uk

Making Data Relevant diligently collecting and analysing it. Shopping centres are obsessed with footfall and measuring every square inch of floor space for profitability. Data is also fast becoming the norm. Anyone under the age of 25 has grown up in a world where personal data is a valuable, tradeable commodity. So-called millennials are a rising proportion of our consumers, visitors and colleagues, and as they enter, so too are the expectations of data growing. For those of us that work in communities, in BIDs and as TCMs, the rise of data has been hard to miss. For many years there have been ways to collect it, but only in the last few has it become more affordable and easier to gather. We can now gather data on an extraordinary, unprecedented scale. For the smaller retailer, communityled data is a vital insight into business improvement: when to open the

doors; how best to staff; when to run marketing campaigns. Their larger chain competitors already have access to this and are using it to great effect. It’s time for the small guy to level the playing field. For town centre managers, the consequences of data are very real. Communities are not just places to shop. They are our workplaces, our social hubs, our leisure and tourism destinations. By using data, along with expertise and creativity, we can continue to improve the places we love. The challenge, for people like me, is to take this vast sea of data and turn it into something useful for everybody. A form we can all look at, appreciate and learn from. In short – to make it attractive and relevant. Contact: https://www.noggin.bi/contact-us/


they are nodes of labour force, distinct local production and tourism. Towns, while distinct from entire cities, share many traits with urban neighbourhoods outside the city centre. Across regions, Discussing this will be World the First Minister towns and neighbourhoods are facing networks of townslies connect people of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, leading a challenge buton amongst the challenge and infrastructure at scale. Towns what a fairer Scotlandopportunity. should look like and neighbourhoods matter to the in 2030 and how to make this vision a What are the new alliances and approaches for a reality. We will also hear from a range of transformation of modern economies, strong competitive economy combined with a fairer, internationally recognised moreleaders equal society? promising value; blending local and global opportunities. But, the town and thinkers including, Mayor What can we learn fromnarrative each other andwell howarticulated do we is less than George Ferguson, Bristol City Council, collaborate on shared areas of concern? cities. Towns suffer. Transformation is Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, CEO, stalled. Thefirst promise of a networked The Cape Town Partnership, Tinaclass speakers Join world for this ever global system, choices, Saaby, Copenhagen’s City Architect, leaders discussion and urban contribute to awith World Towns to support an increasinglyVision diverse international economist Michael – ‘A Public-Private-Social Agreement forsociety is not Urban Centres’ co-produced with Unitedand investment met with thethe support Shuman and Michael Smith, Chair of –the Nations Habitat Future of Places Programme and are to deliver the reality. Towns International Downtown Association. the World Economic Forum. dealing with social migration at a scale previously even unknown to cities; the This global conversation will result in a www.scotlandstowns.org/world_towns_leadership_summit supporting infrastructure is not there published World Towns Agreement – ‘A and the response has been chaotic. Public-Private-Social Vision for Urban Amongst the challenge lies opportunity. Centres’. Issued in advance to delegates Across the world, towns and and further refined at the Summit, it neighbourhoods are in this struggle. will have input from the United Nations Habitat Future of Places Programme, the They are the largest scale for community, and the smallest scale for urbanity. World Economic Forum, URBACT, the Sponsored by International Economic Development So, what can we learn from each other Council, the Academy of Urbanism and and how do we collaborate on shared the OECD. areas of concern? #WTLS16 @WTLS_16 This call to action is now vital. Towns Join our global discussion in Scotland, are a key element of global urban 15 – 16 June 2016. infrastructure. At the scale of nations, need to develop to achieve a strong competitive economy combined with a fairer, more equal society?

WTLS 2016

WORLD TOWNS LEADERSHIP SUMMIT 2016

15th – 16th June 2016 Edinburgh, Scotland Join international town and urban leaders for a world first, taking place in Scotland in June 2016. Organised by ATCM, BIDs Scotland, IDA and Scotland’s Towns Partnership, the World Towns Leadership Summit will discuss the evolving nature of civic governance and the changing economic drivers for successful place-making.

I N V I TAT I O N

Across the world, the State is shrinking. Urgent action is essential if we are to make our places better. What are the new alliances and approaches we


Eastleigh Market Place receives £600k facelift Eastleigh Market Place has recently received a £600k facelift which has re-invented the market area into an exciting environment offering space for more than 50 traders. The revamp has included resurfacing the area, new electric points, lighting and street furniture bringing a modern feel to the traditional market at the heart of the Town. The Market operates from 9am to 4pm on Thursdays and Saturdays and has already seen an increase in traders and footfall due to the regeneration efforts from Eastleigh Borough Council. However, the Market is still looking for new traders to fill this expanded area, offering a 3x3m pitch for just £22.50 which includes the use of electric and waste disposal. For a limited time only, new traders can take advantage of an introductory offer by paying for three days consecutive trade to receive the following three days free. Business

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support and advice can also be offered to help traders get started or for existing traders to expand their business. Registered charities are also entitled to a free 3x3m pitch once a month. Gazebos are also available for hire. Situated next to the recreation ground which hosts Eastleigh’s iconic bandstand, there are often community events, performances and activities also going on, bringing a great atmosphere to the Town centre. As well as this, there is a kid’s playground and ample parking nearby. The Council has a dedicated Communications team that work hard to publicise the market in all of their extensive promotions campaigns, including the Borough News that reaches every household in the Borough, which is a population of 125k.

With two local train stations, bus routes and even an airport nearby, Eastleigh is a bustling Town Centre that is quickly becoming the place to shop and the place to trade. If you would like to secure yourself a stall, or to find out more please contact: [email protected] or 02380 688 033 or visit the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/EastleighMarket

Back at the end of 2015, to support our work with the town as it developed a BID, we asked the community of Hexham to tell us why they loved their town so much. Here are just a few of the responses: “Great things about Hexham: Art, history, culture and community all merge into one. The last month has seen events as varied as Spook Night, Bonfire Night and a challenging and inspiring 2 week Festival of Remembrance which included talks, plays, art, music, faith and history – different groups and individuals all working together to make a difference. It’s a town trying to value its history and move with the times – and of course there’s a fantastic cinema!” Tamsin Beevor, Partnership Manager, Hexham Community Partnership

“Hexham is a fabulous town – for its medieval, Georgian and Victorian buildings combined with its open spaces and parks. You can walk to anything you want, it’s that size of town. You walk – you see people – so, it’s friendly. I have attached a beautiful picture of Hadrian House within the setting of the grounds of Hexham House. We need investment to save these two wonderful buildings and find a new use for them.” Wendy Breach, B&B owner and maker of soft furnishings

REVIVE & THRIVE’S 26 Britain’s BLOG Discover Towns Peter Stonham

Why aren’t we doing more to capture leisure visitors? Some of Britain’s towns are world famous for attracting tourists – STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, BRIGHTON and WINDSOR, to name but three – but most are almost unknown for their tourist potential beyond the local areaand often not even that well known within it. And that’s a huge shame! It’s also a huge opportunity, and anyone involved with local economic development or place-making should benefit from a greater understanding of what can be done to lift the profile of an individual town as a visitor attraction and ways of partnering with local tourist -oriented businesses to create iconic identities and experiences that change perceptions of what is there to be enjoyed and attract more visitors. A number of great examples exist of successful initiatives to re-position and exploit the great potential for visitors and their spending at the local level. The Leicestershire town of Melton Mowbray has made itself a reputation from its history of specialty food produce with famous pork pies, stilton cheese, Hunt cake and ales, all made locally. It can legitimately claim the title as ‘the rural capital of food and drink,’ with a packed programme of annual events, including this year’s new ‘Pie Fest’ in August. In Herefordshire the town of Ledbury has recently been voted one of the best places to live by The Sunday Times, but it’s also now known as a great place to visit. As well as distinctive architecture, amongst the many themes

to be explored are its tradition of poets, celebrated every July at the Ledbury Poetry Festival. The cider connection is not overlooked by the town either! In Shropshire, Shrewsbury is a town rich in history and traditional buildings and has also taken advantage of its reputation for parks and gardens based on its famous early gardening broadcaster Percy Thrower, who worked in the town. Shrewsbury has much helped its visitor potential by carefully managing its facilities for coaches, and now has official ‘coach friendly’ status. With a background in travel and tourism publishing and promotion, Landor Travel Publications has built an enviable reputation for knowledge about the huge untapped local tourism potential in the UK and has recently taken the lead in setting up the UK Town’s Promotion Network in association with partners including The Historic Towns Forum and Revive and Thrive. The GOTravelShow on 16th January at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park provided the ideal opportunity to place a focus on BRITAIN’S DELIGHTFUL TOWNS, the first time this had been done at a travel trade show. In a themed zone, representatives of some of the best of BRITAIN’S TOWNS, RESORTS and individual NEIGHBOURHOODS within bigger cities were brought together. As visitors often search for original visit ideas by theme the zone also explored some particular topics and projects that could inspire specific itineraries covering a number of towns in local areas.

The show provided a platform for the launch of the UK Town’s Promotion Network as an initiative to support the considerable untapped visitor opportunities in this field and a new website:www.discoverbritainstowns.co.uk The website will be the new online place information will be available about individual towns and tourists can benefit from when they visit. There’s a great potential to share information about the best tourist angles for every town because it is almost certain that there will be something special in each town that will attract either a general tourist audience, or can become a unique and special draw. Many potential visitors are enthusiasts or have a passion for a particular theme be it historical, cultural, sporting, food and drink related or an even more esoteric subject! Some of the things that individual towns have been able to build on include stories of invasion, migrant, or religious communities who have come there in the past, celebrity former residents, locations made famous by film or TV programmes or notorious events that made the headlines. There’s a huge opportunity to showcase the best of all our unique towns! The UK TOWNS PARTNER’S NETWORK and DISCOVER BRITAIN’S TOWNS will be delighted to hear from you. Contact: stonham.hastings@ landortravelpublcations.com

FEATURED Perks Loyalty

Perks Loyalty, the latest mobile loyalty app for small businesses, is celebrating its recent six figure investment by offering three UK BIDs a massive 65% discount on its town-wide subscription costs! The app that makes buying local ‘easy and rewarding’, allows customers to claim rewards for buying in their local independent business. After successfully acquiring investment, Perks Loyalty will be establishing townwide digital loyalty communities across the UK that will connect local businesses with local people. To kick-start its ambitious campaign, Perks Loyalty will offer three lucky BIDs a generous 65% discount on town-wide membership to the Perks Loyalty platform. Perks Loyalty Commercial Director, Waleed Shihadah said: “We are delighted to announce the Perks Loyalty discount for BIDs competition.” “We want to work with towns where the sense of community is strong so that we can help create a system that supports these communities”. “By downloading the app, people can instantly see the local businesses around them that use Perks Loyalty.

When viewing these businesses, free introductory rewards are offered by joining their Perks programme and ongoing digital ‘stamps’ can be claimed for each purchase, eventually leading to a reward.” Perks Loyalty was established in June 2015 by founder and CEO Achille Traore, with the aim of “empowering small businesses through affordable technology and making buying local as easy and rewarding as possible”. Traore explains, “The idea is to help make small businesses more successful by giving them the same kind of technology that the big corporations have, but at a price they can afford” “With Perks Loyalty, small businesses can create bespoke loyalty schemes with ease, they can push promotions directly to their customers’ phones and collect vital customer analytics in real time”. Packages of this scale usually cost £14,400, but three lucky winners will get this same package for just £5000. As of March 2016, Revive & Thrive welcomed new Business Group members Perks Loyalty to help them champion buying local through digital loyalty. Managing Director and Founder Mark Barnes said, “Our mission is to help all those who are passionate about their places. BIDs have a core function of supporting their constituent businesses, many of whom are independent retailers and the Perks Loyalty platform creates an opportunity to do that. We know that the winning BID areas will gain a huge benefit from the increase


in customer loyalty that this product brings. Whether you are looking to implement an area-wide loyalty scheme for the first time, are looking to upgrade on existing programmes or want to streamline what you are already doing, talk to Perks Loyalty to see how they can help you.” To find out more about Perks Loyalty, visit their website: www.perks-loyalty. com/bids and view this short Youtube video. To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize for your BID, simply email Waleed at: waleed@topscreenmedia. com with your name and contact details. The competition closes at 5pm on Friday 29th April, with the winning entries being drawn at random. The winning areas will be announced on Tuesday 3rd May.


Our Community Grows

Three years ago you would have said that it was in a very poor state – a typical run down high road with little of any imagination and value in what it was offering and how it looked. Since then we have been working hard in our Town Team, with a very enthusiastic new Chair and some great new additions to our Trustees and Management Committee, and have begun to turn our high road around.

We cleared 3 of the large station platform planters and filled them with 4.5 cubic tons of soil, carried from the pavement, down 3 flights of steps, 25 kilo bags, to the planters…. Our backs and legs really ached! But then we could plant them – see photos. And these first 3 have been adopted by members of our community who are maintaining them. Now we start on the next three…. with the help of Community Payback. Once cleared these planters will be filled with fresh top soil and then offered to the community for their sponsorship/use. We also have for the past 3 years arranged for 6 railing planters to be planted up and these have been much admired by our community of commuters (some 9 million journeys go through this station every year) and the coffee shop under the station has asked for our help and we have added to the flowers here. Flowers we have found have been very important in encouraging people to admire their community space – though some smokers seem to think that any piece of soil is an ashtray!

We thought we should start by beautifying it as people entered into it and so began to work from our main Tube Station out.

To help improve the mood of our commuters we also created a community mosaic and installed it opposite our Tube Station – Louis. Louis

Here in Willesden Green (North West London) we have been very busy beautifying our very urban high road.

has now been joined by Eartha - our second cat mosaic and it is incredible – really large and created by the community even school children had a hand in making it. Greening our environment is a very high priority for us and we are always looking for spaces in which we can undertake some of this. Moving out from our Tube Station we worked with a number of our high street retailers to plant around their spaces. In December, Taylor’s Bulbs donated 2000 daffodil bulbs through the auspices of the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association. Some of these were planted near our larger Sainsbury’s, some were planted in the recently cleared St Andrew’s Church garden, and others were donated to our retailers or planted on the station forecourt. We have taken over the St Andrew’s Church garden responsibility – as this is the biggest patch of free land on our high street and this is cleared and ready for planting shrubs. This garden will be planted by our community gardening group on the 10th April with some shrubs the Town Team has financed plus


finally – working towards a BID for certain aspects of high street work. Our work with our high street has not gone unnoticed in the wider community and thus we have found that we are being contacted by potential developers for such small sites as exist around the high street to help with community involvement and consultation efforts.

One of our biggest pieces of work was the creation of a high street map.

included. This includes cleanliness inside and out, service etc. A pdf of this map can be sent to anyone interested to see how we did this and what was included etc. the work in creating an atmosphere of intent and desire to be included took 2 of our member over 100 hours of work each, visiting the retailers/service providers; assessing their current state of readiness to be included; suggesting improvements; and then re-assessing. Such was the desire to be included that we saw one particular retailer outside his shop one morning cleaning up his pavement curtilege with toothbrush! And we have a holding list of people for version 2 – which is yet to be agreed and financed!

We believe we are the first of any London high streets to do this. It is a fold out of our 70 Good traders who have to adhere to a certain standard to be

One net result of this and our other efforts is an improved high street viability in some areas – not everywhere yet but getting there – and we are now

donations from all of our gardens! We just need some soil to help with this…. We have also entered into a partnership with our local Library to run gardening workshops and a gardening club on a monthly basis. This has included workshops with children learning to plant vegetable seeds – which they took home to grow; and next week they will be painting 4 large planters in which they will create a community garden behind the library. These workshops are very popular and are usually oversubscribed.

This has included working with Brent Council to obtain a firm promise to add green areas when our reconfiguration for the new cycle way is undertaken – including trees and seats and planters. Finally. We are working towards a large garden festival over the next two years – 2018 being the really big year - with a combination of many local voluntary groups and including some shop owners who have already agreed to participate, which is wonderful. But we need to find some funding for this. Our next step is? Well, letting everyone know what we have done and how well on the back of many many voluntary hours from our community and very little funding and obviously, trying to obtain yet more volunteers and of course more money as we can do a very great deal with only a little – we are frugal and innovative!


Success is a gift (card)! •

Miconex recently invited town and city centre managers from across Scotland and the north of England to visit their Perth office to explore how a Visa based program can be used within towns and cities both as a gift card and a visitor pass.  Joining them on the day were Hakan Hult from CBS City and Jon Sederqvist Østmoe from Presend who provided an overview of how these programs have been delivered in over 35 towns in Scandinavia, profiling the most successful projects and the key factors required for success. Colin Munro (Managing Director, Miconex) kicked the day off with a presentation to explain the background to The Perth Card project and detailed how they had gone about meeting the brief from Leigh Brown (City Centre Manager, Perth) to introduce a new gift card with the following objectives: • •

Easy to use for consumers Easy to use for businesses

Delivers economic benefit for Perth city centre businesses • Measurable, providing new data and insight • Potential to generate revenue and profit Colin talked through how The Perth Card works for consumers - they simply buy a Perth Card as a present for friends, family and colleagues rather than an Amazon Card, Google Play Card etc, this way the money stays in Perth. The gift card can then be used in full or in part at a range of businesses including cafes, restaurants, attractions, shops and venues. The Perth Card website was demonstrated where consumers can purchase a card, check their balance and find out where they can use the card. Hakan Hult (Business Development, CBS City) who are based in Sweden explained how they work with over 30 towns and cities across Sweden and Norway to help them set up and successfully run gift card programs. Hakan explained that in Scandinavia the gift cards are seen an essential part of town centre manager’s toolkit providing a product to sell to consumers on behalf of their business communities. Hakan provided examples of some of the more established programs where towns are seeing £7-8 spend on gift cards per head of population by year 3.

After a coffee break during which the gift card kiosk were demonstrated, Jon Ostmoe (CEO Presend) explained how the infrastructure works using the existing Visa infrastructure meaning that no new hardware, software or contracts with businesses are required. This makes it possible for all businesses in a town to be involved in the project. Jon provided insight into how consumers were using the current programs where they see an average of 40% overspend on gift card redemptions, with customers tending to be less price sensitive when using the cards leading to higher margin sales for retailers. Comparisons to lower tech solutions were provided with one of the key benefits being the speed that the businesses receive their money and the lack of any reconciliation being required (compared to paper voucher schemes). Jon finished his presentation by providing examples of how else the card programs were being used including; staff incentives, rewards to blood donors and as city passes with consumers receiving reduced price entry to attractions when using the cards. Since the meeting in January there are now several towns getting ready to launch their own gift cards. For more information about the program get in touch with Colin at Miconex [email protected]


Why would I? Just why would I visit Colchester?

I’d visit to exclaim. I’d exclaim at the skill of masons and stonecarvers from nearly a thousand years ago. I’d try and picture the lives lived back then and wonder just how they managed to create building components with such uniformity. I’d visit to learn. Someone somewhere will be able to answer those questions. In one of the museums, in a society, in a university, amongst the many craftsmen – someone knows. And they will enjoy sharing their knowledge. I’d visit to stretch my neck backwards. Whose are the plaques? Just why is Jumbo called Jumbo? Is there really a tree growing on top of a castle? I’d visit to wonder. To wonder at how the buildings over the centuries have melded together to produce today’s town centre. I’d look up to see the timeline of the town and wonder just what was in the space where a 70’s concrete building now stands – why was the earlier building sacrificed? I’d visit to shop at the market. I’d try and puzzle out just why it’s in the high street alongside the traffic. Where was the market square of old? What is in it’s place? I’d visit to explore. I’d wander the ancient grid of the streets. I’d dip in and out of the tiny specialist shops interspersed with tea rooms, charity

shops, betting offices, mobile phone shops and the ubiquitous Poundland (or two) I’d visit to spend. Just which artisan will persuade me to part with my money? Will it be hand crafted jewellery? The best chocolate in town? A gyros from the market? Fabric from one of two haberdashers? Or shall I explore the emporium within the oldest church in town, right in the town centre? I’d visit to experience. With a variety of venues from a brilliant music and comedy venue in a church to a multi million pound art gallery, theatres, museums and pubs, there’s something for everyone.

I’d visit to befriend. With a well established co-operative there’s always someone to chat to. A welcoming spot hosting pop up restaurants, music nights, mens sheds and pottery classes amongst other things. I’d visit to listen. I’d be at the bandstand on a Sunday afternoon enjoying a visiting band and watching the spontaneous dancing. I’d visit to find a home. In fact, I did. I’m one of the very many people in Colchester who loved it enough to move to Colchester. With a history of welcoming people – who wouldn’t? Karen Taylor Colchestersoup


FEATURED Streetcloud

technologies could be integrated and configured to work in unison. What new capabilities would this bring, and would this deliver the outcomes town managers need?

Not a day goes by when a Town or BID Manager doesn’t get approached about a new Digital Solution, eg an App, Loyalty Scheme, Social Media Management, Wifi, etc. Each solution provider will have made significant investment into their product idea. They will have will no doubt that their offering will be unique in the market place and offers game changing capabilities for a town. Its fair to say that there is no shortage of innovative talent in the UK, and many BID and Town managers may have tried several innovative solutions, hoping the next solution will provide the outcome they need. Too often those solutions have at best only managed to deliver part of the desired outcome. Where there has been some success, the provider has failed to sustain and build on those milestones to achieve further incremental benefits. In general most digital solutions are suited to benefit smaller independent businesses working from a single location, but what about an entire Town?, are the same solutions appropriate for Town Managers needs, and will a combination of solutions enable the required outcomes?

Digital Apps such as Twitter, Facebook clearly have global reach and have become the primary method for marketing and social communication. However on a local level, even these powerful tools have limited impact to drive the required outcomes for towns, resulting in town managers trying different combinations of other digital options e.g. iBeacon, Wifi, and other smart Apps. Individually, each digital solution goes some way to deliver benefit, IF implemented effectively, and often this is the reason why some implementations have failed. For the reasons stated above, this calls for solution providers to address town managers requirements in a different way, and recognise that the needs of the town manager are different to individual businesses, and a single App type solution may only deliver part of the required outcome. This suggests that there is a need for multiple solutions to come together and collectively deliver the required outcomes. Like musical instruments, each will produce a beautiful sound and perfectly execute the task intended. We all know what happens when these instruments come together as an Orchestra. But what would be possible if various digital

If producing a descent App for smartphones isn’t challenging enough, integration of multiple technologies is likely to introduce yet a another layer of complexity. The end result is essentially what would form the basis of a Digital Ecosystem. The design of which is critical to enable scalability, and flexibility to evolve with future advancements in technology. So what could form part of a Digital EcoSystem: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Social Media Integration Town Wide Wi-Fi Intranet + Internet Interactive Augmented Reality Mobile Commerce and payment Gateway integration. Click and Collect for small businesses Beacon Technology Digital Parking Schemes Location aware Apps (Android and IOS at a minimum) Subscriber Alerts– Emails and in App GPS navigation Mobile Web App Apple Wallet, (Offers, Events, Loyalty, Discount coupons) Apple Watch Digital Click and Collect Visitor data capture Data Analytics – Big Data Trip Advisor Review Integration Restaurant Booking systems Online Takeaway ordering service Taxi Ordering Service


A fully effective digital ecosystem for a town needs to allow anyone to connect across the town using any device. This includes Laptops, and non cellular tablet devices. The Eco System effectively blends in with day to day town life where locals can benefit from using a combination of the digital solutions as listed above, without necessarily needing to pre download and install software. Although, certain apps would enhance the capabilities further with technology such as Augmented Reality and iBeacon, which at present can only operate via a App. Examples of possible outcomes include: •

• • •

• • • • •

Visitors being able to freely access all town related content – without necessarily needing to download an App. Free Connectivity to Town Intranet and Internet Local Events can easily be found, Visitors can get navigation to the door. Event Organisers and Local businesses can make sales across the town Intranet to augment their income. Event Tickets can be digitised and appear on mobiles on the day of the event. Increased footfall through effective communication with local residents. Improved Parking management through flexible digital parking systems. Flexible Digital Parking and Loyalty schemes to increase visitors and support local trade. Making visits to the town fun and interesting through an interactive

•

Augmented reality experience, that’s also linked to Businesses and Events. Improved visitor data and analytics to show the performance of a towns ability to thrive.

So where do we go from here.. While town managers might agree that a digital ecosystem is what their town needs, the task of integrating multiple technologies may typically involve authors of multiple systems to collaborate and sustain that collaboration for years to come, and then collaborate to offer a cost effective solution focused on delivering outcomes. The question is, who might these authors be, will they collaborate, will the integration work, who would manage them and will this be a cost effective sustainable solution. An option is to engage an integrator who may already have invested in integrating multiple technologies to form a base Digital EcoSystem, and be able to offer the flexibility to configure the system further to achieve the required outcomes. The keyword here is ‘Outcomes’. The outcome a town manager needs, span broader than local businesses, in order to serve the needs of the entire town and encompasses the needs of local businesses. It’s no surprise that individual solutions have been inadequate for towns and a more capable ‘Digital Eco System’ is required’ So its stands to say that a Digital Ecosystem is essentially an enterprise

grade solution designed for Towns, that is functionally richer, more capable and scalable, with the ability to evolve in this ever changing digital era. Summary : • • • • •

•

•

Todays system solutions appear to be more suited to the needs of smaller Businesses. There are a wide range of individual solutions that are complex to integrate. Its costly, timely and risky for Town manager to develop an Integrated solution. By combining Multiple Systems richer outcomes are possible. Most system providers offer point solutions requiring further integration with other systems, if intended to be used by a Town. The Town needs a robust integrated Digital Ecosystem that is scalable and flexible to adapt with changing technologies. There are options available where a town could adopt a base Digital Ecosystem on which to evolve and grow over time.

CONTACT Tel: 0800 6890739 [email protected] www.streetcloud.co


Revive & Thrive Challenge and Exhibition Coming to

Colchester

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural Revive & Thrive Town Centre Solutions Challenge and Exhibition, held at the Black Country Living Museum, we are pleased to announce the venue for the 2016 event. This year, we are bringing expertise, solutions and practitioners from across the UK to the historic Essex market town of Colchester where we will be challenging businesses, towns and others to demonstrate how what they do can make a real difference, both to this beautiful town and to places across the country. It will be an event not to be missed if our initial fact-finding mission was anything to go by: having been told to arrive at a local landmark at a certain time, the Revive & Thrive team was treated to a magical mystery tour of Colchester by a variety of local enthusiasts and experts, taking in Britain’s oldest high street, one of the best respected theatres in the country, a unique Victorian water tower, a 500-year old shop front and many more of the town’s hidden and better known delights.

In 2015, we challenged providers of town and city solutions to demonstrate why their product or service was the “best in class”. This year, the challenge will be to demonstrate how these solutions can be applied in a real place to make tangible differences to the visitor, worker and shopper experience:

Tickets will be on sale this month, so book early to avoid missing out on the opportunity to discover more about this beautiful town, take real solutions back to your place, catch up with friends and colleagues old and new and be a part of the UK’s most innovative regeneration event!

How can retailer training improve the heritage infrastructure of a town?

The Revive & Thrive Town and City Solutions Challenge and Exhibition 2016 is being delivered in partnership with Colchester Borough Council, the Colchester Town Team and local community groups including Colchester Soup who persuaded us that Colchester was the ideal place for us to hold our event this year.

How can festive lighting tell the story of a place’s history? How can footfall counting help guide people around a town or city? How can digital technology draw visitors into shops and other businesses? All of these questions and many more will be answered between now and the Challenge event which will take place at various venues across the town on 29th & 30th September. The agenda is still taking shape, but already confirmed are: • • • • • •

Town Centre solutions exhibition Online and on-the-day challenges Walking Tours of Colchester An evening reception Expert workshops Guest speakers


Revive & Thrive Events 2016 We look forward to seeing you at one or more of our events in 2016. Please see the feedback here to see how much people have enjoyed our previous events. For early notification of when booking goes live for the events, please email [email protected]

25th May 2016

Talking Towns Maidenhead in partnership with Maidenhead Town Partnership sponsored by Blachere Illumination

Provisional date 21st June 2016

The Talking Towns Experience Huddersfield sponsored by Blachere Illumination

29th and 30th September 2016

Revive & Thrive Annual Conference and Exhibition (also finals of both Revive & Thrive Challenges and Blachere Christmas Light Competition)

Date in October 2016 tbc Talking Towns London

Discounts for all of these events are available to Revive & Thrive Members. Find a membership to suit you here. If you wanted to host an event in your area in 2016 or start planning for 2017 please email [email protected]

REVIVE & THRIVE’S

CH1ChesterBID Board makes two key leadership appointments

36

Lewis until he retires later this month. Nick joins from Southport BID where he was Operations Manager. He was also previously Town Centre Manager in Warrington, Cheshire.

JOBS CH1 Chester BID The Board of Chester’s city centre business improvement district, CH1ChesterBID, has made two key leadership appointments. Following an extensive recruitment campaign, Carl Critchlow, formerly BID Coordinator at Birkenhead BID which recently secured a compelling “yes’ vote, joins CH1ChesterBID as BID Manager. He will replace Rita Waters. Nick White joins CH1ChesterBID as the new City Centre Manager and will work alongside current post holder Peter

Ed Oliver, Chairman of CH1ChesterBID, said: “Carl and Nick are two exceptional operators and both come with a wealth of knowledge about successful business improvement districts. They were the obvious choice for Chester and will bring fresh eyes to the city’s challenges and opportunities. We’re delighted to have them both on board and know they will be real assets to the city. “As we’ve said before, we have ambitious plans to create a better future for our city – plans that put Chester city centre back where it belongs as the retail, business and leisure destination of choice – and the Board and myself know that Carl and Nick both share that same commitment.”

“I’m very proud to be joining CH1ChesterBID and personally delighted to have the opportunity to work in this fantastic city every day”, said Carl Critchlow who joined the team on Wednesday 24th February. “I’m aiming to engage with as many CH1ChesterBID members as possible over the next few weeks and, most importantly, listen to everything they have to say. CH1ChesterBID started work in September 2014 following a successful ballot involving all of the businesses within the BID area. The full BID term will run for five years until September 2019, during which time around £2.5m of private sector funds will be invested directly into city centre improvements. To find out more about CH1ChesterBID visit www.ch1chesterbid.co.uk

Meet Urbain, the all-in-one ‘Smart City Management Platform’

Urbain bundles all kinds of digital city and retail marketing solutions in one novel concept – and is indeed a very clever all-in-one activating management instrument and daily marketing tool to boost the high street, attract shoppers or increase footfall in general. Urbain is fully customisable thanks to its modular set-up, including options for responsive websites, loyalty schemes, gift vouchers, newsletters, webshops, digital signage, raffles… Launched in Flanders by activation agency Het Opzet, today Urbain has been rolled out in approximately 20 town centres in Belgium.

the first digital city pass in Belgium, the ambi.pass. With great success: after just one year, 17,000 ambi.passes were actively used, of which 46% have been registered. 35% of subscribers read the weekly newsletter, and the website already attracted no less than 75,000 visitors. For the retailers, this resulted in 400,000 euro of average rewarded turnover per month, or 4,300 transactions. For the pass holder, using the ambi.pass is ever so easy: over 100 retailers have signed up the scheme. With every purchase, customers receive loyalty points, which in turn entitles this customer not only to a discount, but also to one hour of free parking and a chance to win the weekly ambi.pass competition. Tongeren now takes the next step rolling out subsequent Urbain modules, such as the digital gift voucher and the introduction of a city webshop. In the near future the city will digitize even further with the launch of a city webshop, a virtualisation of the city, e-windows of the shops,…

The historic city of Tongeren pioneered the platform in April 2014 by introducing

Maarten Decramer is Managing Director of Het Opzet and was the town centre

WORLD

Urbain Belgium

manager at the city of Kortrijk between 2009 and 2012. Nowadays he consults cities small & large with regards to Smart City Management, with an emphasis on intelligent City Management rather than just ‘smart city’. With Urbain both the city council and its high street can go totally hands-on to manage the shopping scene in a way they see fit, by not only keeping their clientele updated on what’s going on, but more importantly, interested and loyal. Their ultimate goals obviously remain attracting more visitors and increasing retention, increasing turnover and streamlining communication. Urbain continuously evolves as well and plans to go even further in the near future. Given the fact that almost 100% of smartphone users have access to the internet both in the high street and at home, the use of beacons and other new technology will offer the high street the opportunity to really go to town in (digital) city and retail marketing. Urbain: http://urbain.hetopzet.be/en


A Digital Ecosystem for towns and cities

Realise New Outcomes for your Town.. Harness the power of mutiple capabilities and deliver a local difference where everyone can benefit

Digital Technology Consulting

Programme Management

Full System integration

Digital Ecosystem Implementation

A complete service and system solution to deliver outcomes StreetClouds Digital EcoSystem comprises multiple components that enable a town to communicate with local residents, and serve the entire community to maximise inclusivity by removing barriers for use. Integrated components include : mCommerce, Payment Gateways, Wifi, Apps, iBeacon, Apple Wallet, Social Media, Augmented Reality, TripAdvisor, Apple Watch, Geo Navigation, Notifications. Its all possible ! Contact us to discuss which Outcomes a Digital EcoSystem could bring to your town.

Website: www.streetcloud.co.uk Email: [email protected] Linkedin : https://uk.linkedin.com/uk/streetcloud Twitter: https://twitter.com/streetcloud


How the 1950’s Changed our High Streets The evolution of our modern day high street was chartered in a recent BBC2 series ‘Back in Time’. The programmes featured a modern family, the Ashby-Hawkins, as they journeyed through the decades, starting in 1950 and ending in the year 2000. In the first programme the family swapped their gadget filled lifestyle for the austerity of the 1950’s. As they experienced the decade, they witnessed the birth of modern day consumerism and the arrival of revolutionary household appliances such as washing machines, fridges and vacuum cleaners. These new products drastically changed not only people’s lives, but also how they shopped for home furnishings and heralded the introduction of higher purchase (HP). In the 1960’s, the family immersed themselves in the cultural explosion of music, fashion and clothes which again altered the face of the high street and gave birth to a new breed of independent retailer. In each subsequent decade it became increasingly obvious how three factors were dictating the fortunes of the high street. Firstly, each year the level of people’s disposable income grew which meant that luxury products previously out of reach, such as colour televisions, became affordable to the average family.

This increase in spending power went hand in hand with the second factor, a growth in the amount of leisure time people had. With shorter working hours and freed from many domestic duties by new labour saving gadgets, the nation embraced all things DIY and decided to go on a fitness drive. The final factor was the pace of technological innovation which was particularly apparent in the 1980’s and 90’s. The constant flow of new inventions from CD’s to mobile phones, brought a boom time for high street retailers as consumers constantly upgraded to the latest technology. This rise in consumerism also led to increased expectations as to how people shopped and was instrumental in the arrival of an American import that would challenge the high street - the shopping mall. These vast destinations provided retail on an unprecedented scale and increased dwell time by offering shopping, food and entertainment in one covered location. To go shopping was no longer the necessity of the 1950’s, it had evolved into the leisure pursuit that it is today. Of course the UK’s High Streets can’t turn back the clock, shopping online and retail parks are now established consumer spending patterns. The secret to the future of the nations high streets is for them to remain relevant to the communities they serve. If consumers are focused on value and price then their local high street needs to reflect that. The purpose of Local Government is

to serve communities, to make them better places and to improve the quality of people’s lives. In Caerphilly County Borough Council we are conscious that our town centres remain at the heart of the community. To support the maintenance and development of our towns we have developed a model of Town Centre Management called ‘Unique Places’. In addition we have also created a brand ‘Choose the High Street’©, to raise awareness of the power of consumer choice. These two initiatives are now underpinned by a new website: go2mytown.com The site contains a host of information about the towns and includes a ‘Property Index’ listing vacant shops for sale or rent, as well as a ‘Pop Up Shop’ guide and articles telling the stories of some of our independent retailers. Looking back over the years it is obvious how shopping patterns have changed and to stay relevant the high street will need to keep evolving. Realistically when consumers want something they will crave a shopping experience, but for the things they need each day the message must be ‘choose the high street’. Andrew Highway Andrew has worked as a Town Centre Development Manager for Caerphilly County Borough Council since 2004 and was previously the Operations Manager for Cardiff City Centre Management.


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