Month: May 2023

Sledgehammer sing-along hits and shameless live rock thrills: expect classic anthems like ‘Oblivion’, ‘Bad Actress’ and of course the no.2 hit ‘Tequila‘, when Terrorvision call in at The Apex next month!

Terrorvision were born in 1988 out of the remnants of a glam rock mess called Spoilt Brats. After three years of gigs and demos they were signed in 1991 to EMI Records on the strength of ‘Pump Action Sunshine’, a demo which featured what was to become their first Top-30 hit, ‘My House’.

Incessant touring followed, including support slots with long-time heroes The Ramones and Motorhead, backed up positive reviews of their debut album ‘Formaldehyde’. But it was their second album ‘How to make friends and influence people’ which catapulting the band into the mainstream, with five top-30 singles, including ‘Oblivion’, ‘Middle Man’, and ‘Pretend Best Friend’.

Appearances at Donington Monsters of Rock and Reading/Leeds cemented their reputation as the default festival bands of the 90’s. Kerrang awards followed, for Best Newcomer in 1994, Best Band the following year (and Best Single in 1999 for their song ‘Tequila’).

With third LP ‘Regular Urban Survivors’ (1996) Terrorvision continued on their upward trajectory and single ‘Perseverance’ earned the band their first top 5 hit, with further chart success for singles ‘Celebrity Hit List’ and ‘Bad Actress’, though real chart domination was to come in January 1999 with the number 2 smash ‘Tequila’ taken from the ‘Shaving Peaches’ album.

The band knocked it on the head in 2001 but reformed again for several sold-out album anniversary tours, live albums and a new studio album ‘Super Delux’.

Terrorvision are at The Apex in Bury St Edmunds on Friday 16 June at 7.30pm. Visit the website www.theapex.co.uk or ring 01284 758000 for more information or to book tickets.

NFU Mutual Agents and their staff at the Bury St Edmunds Agency recently nominated local charities Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) & Gatehouse Bury St Edmunds, to receive a donation from NFU Mutual’s national £1.92million ‘Agency Giving Fund’.

The leading rural insurer has launched this fund, now in its fourth year, to help local frontline charities across the country. The Agency Giving Fund forms part of NFU Mutual’s £3.25m funding pledge for both local and national charities in 2023, to assist with recovery from the pandemic and to help tackle the impact of the rising cost of living.

To ensure these donations reach all corners of the UK and are directed where they’re needed most, all NFU Mutual Agencies, with more than 295 offices nationwide, have been given the opportunity to nominate local charities to receive a share of the fund.

This donation has enabled Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) to continue providing advanced medical resources to the most serious medical incidents across Suffolk. SARS does not receive any central government funding and therefore relies on donations such as this generous contribution to ensure we are able to respond to those most in need. SARS clinicians volunteer their time to bring pre-hospital emergency medicine to the scene, saving lives, providing pain relief and improving patient outcomes.

Kim Turner, Fundraising Coordinater, Suffolk Accident Rescue Service, commented: e.g. “We’re so grateful to the Bury St Edmunds Agency of NFU Mutual for nominating our charity to receive a donation from the NFU Mutual Agency Giving Fund. Longstanding Partnerships with local businesses and organisations is essential for SARS to continue and grow.

David Blackwell, Senior Agent at NFU Mutual Bury St Edmunds agency “We’re extremely proud to support S.A.R.S for this donation, they do fantastic work assisting the emergency services and greatly improve the chances of survival when accidents happen in the local rural area, we have known them to often be the 1st responders to farm accidents.

Helps keep vital services going for the community

NFU Mutual Agents and their staff at the Bury St Edmunds Agency recently nominated local charities Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) & Gatehouse Bury St Edmunds, to receive a donation from NFU Mutual’s national £1.92million ‘Agency Giving Fund’.

The leading rural insurer has launched this fund, now in its fourth year, to help local frontline charities across the country. The Agency Giving Fund forms part of NFU Mutual’s £3.25m funding pledge for both local and national charities in 2023, to assist with recovery from the pandemic and to help tackle the impact of the rising cost of living.

To ensure these donations reach all corners of the UK and are directed where they’re needed most, all NFU Mutual Agencies, with more than 295 offices nationwide, have been given the opportunity to nominate local charities to receive a share of the fund.

This donation has enabled Suffolk Accident Rescue Service (SARS) to continue providing advanced medical resources to the most serious medical incidents across Suffolk. SARS does not receive any central government funding and therefore relies on donations such as this generous contribution to ensure we are able to respond to those most in need. SARS clinicians volunteer their time to bring pre-hospital emergency medicine to the scene, saving lives, providing pain relief and improving patient outcomes.

Kim Turner, Fundraising Coordinater, Suffolk Accident Rescue Service, commented: e.g. “We’re so grateful to the Bury St Edmunds Agency of NFU Mutual for nominating our charity to receive a donation from the NFU Mutual Agency Giving Fund. Longstanding Partnerships with local businesses and organisations is essential for SARS to continue and grow.

David Blackwell, Senior Agent at NFU Mutual Bury St Edmunds agency “We’re extremely proud to support S.A.R.S for this donation, they do fantastic work assisting the emergency services and greatly improve the chances of survival when accidents happen in the local rural area, we have known them to often be the 1st responders to farm accidents.

A scheme which enables residents and visitors to easily identify which shops, eateries, businesses, and attractions are Dog Friendly in Bury St Edmunds has celebrated its 5th Birthday.

Dog Friendly Bury St Edmunds was formed with a partnership between Bury St Edmunds Town Council, Camp Tails Doggy Daycare, Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District (BID) and the tourism brand Bury St Edmunds and Beyond 5 years ago.

Every shop, eaterie, and attraction that is dog friendly in Bury St Edmunds displays a window sticker and branded dog bowl for use by their four-legged visitors. A list of all dog friendly businesses who have signed up to the scheme, now 140 and growing, can be found at www.dogfriendlybse.co.uk.

The anniversary has been marked with a revamped Dog Friendly window sticker for businesses and the addition of blue branded dog bowls, supported with a £500 donation from the locality budget of former Bury St Edmunds Town Councillor Richard Rout, £500 from Our Bury St Edmunds BID and £500 from Camp Tails Doggy Daycare.

Cllr Richard Rout, who is a councillor for West Suffolk and Suffolk County Councils, said: “As the owner of five dogs, it’s fantastic to live in West Suffolk where our towns and villages are so welcoming of canine guests. Dog Friendly BSE is a fine example of this. For the last 5 years, businesses that allow well behaved dogs have been able stand out from the crowd with window stickers and much needed water bowls, which are particularly useful on those warmer days. It’s a pleasure to support this brilliant initiative and my congratulations to all those who have made it such a success, I’m sure it will continue to bring dog owners flocking to the town.”

Owner of Camp Tails Doggy Daycare, who championed the scheme from the beginning, has just recently opened Bury St Edmunds first Hotel for Dogs – a boutique luxury offering to care for dogs – at his premises in Eastern Way.

Jon said: “Bury St Edmunds is now one of the most dog friendly towns in the country. It helps assist dogs gain valuable socialisation and desensitisation skills whilst at the same time supports and promotes local businesses. There are now so many places that you can take well-behaved dogs when you visit.”

Mike Kirkham, Business Support Manager for Our Bury St Edmunds BID, said: “Bury St Edmunds is a great place to shop, eat and relax. We want as many people as possible to enjoy their visit to our historic town, so we are really pleased that so many businesses invite customers to do this alongside their canine companions.”

For more information about Bury St Edmunds Dog Friendly Scheme visit www.dogfriendlybse.co.uk

• Spring Fayre 28^th & 29^th May

The Spring Fayre is just around the corner!

We have created some graphics to be used over social media to further promote the event! We recently shared these as a news article on the BID Members News on our website but in case you missed this and would like to help promote this popular event you can download and use the images via this page: https://www.ourburystedmunds.com/latest-news . Also, we still have some A4 & A3 posters of the event so if you would like to display one in your window, just email mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com  and we will deliver to you.

• Burys Open Gardens in aid of St Nicholas Hospice

This year’s  Hidden Gardens will be held on Sunday 2^nd July from 11 am to 5pm in aid of St Nicholas Hospice Care. As you are probably aware this extremely popular events regularly draws in over 2,000 visitors and creates a lovely atmosphere throughout the town.

Businesses may want to adjust their staffing levels accordingly and may also like to consider fundraising for their local hospice.  If you do then please contact Heather Warren, their Community Fundraiser at Heather.Warren@stnh.org.uk who can provide you with more information including collection tins.

• Make Music Day & Suffolk Day – 21^st June

As I have mentioned previously we will be celebrating both International Make Music Day and Suffolk Day on Wednesday 21^st June. We will providing opportunities for musicians, bands, singers & choirs to perform within either the Provisions Market and/or Charter Square between 10.30 & 4.30pm.

We have had a great response so far but there are still more performance spots available for anyone who is interested and all they need to do is contact me for more information. So if you know of anyone who might be interested please make them aware.

• Bury Free Press Business Awards

Nominations for the above are open from today for the awards that will be held on the 13^th October. The BID are once again delighted to be sponsoring the Customer Service award.

I would though encourage you all to click on this link Bury Business Awards 2023 – Enter Now! – Bury Free Press (iliffemediapromotions.co.uk) to see which categories you think might be appropriate for your business and/or an employee(s) and you can either nominate yourself or one of your customers can.

If shortlisted for an award there are considerable promotional benefits available to you, as the event is organised by our local weekly paper, who also have a considerable digital presence.

Best of luck!

• Our new website

Our plans are progressing well for our new website to go live before the end of the month. Next week I will be in touch about how you can access and amend your business listing and also add details of any jobs, events or offers you wish the public to be aware of.

I will circulate a single subject email explaining all you have to do and how you can discover how you can update the issues I mention above.

Believe me it is pretty straightforward as even I could do this!

Have a great weekend

Download the Spring Fayre 2023 social media graphics to use in your marketing and let your customers know about this great event in the town centre.

These can be downloaded from our Members Marketing Assets Portal.

 

Instagram and Facebook Story:

Instagram and Facebook Mini Ad:

Instagram and Facebook images:

Facebook/ Twitter Info post:

Facebook Header:

Twitter Header:

 

• Spring Fayre

At the end of this month (28^th & 29^th May) will see our first significant town centre event for 2023, the Spring Fayre (previously The Whitsun Fayre).

Our events bring in significant additional footfall which ensures more people discover the town centre and BID businesses. Also, as a Free Entry event with many Free Activities and Free Games, visitors will hopefully be more inclined to spend locally and boost the town centre economy.

Marketing for this event has already begun and will ramp up as we approach the date so in support of this it would be great if you could display the attached A4 Event poster in your business window.

It is also available in A3 and if you would prefer us to deliver a hard copy to you just email mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com

 

• Place Promotions App

You may have seen across social media our latest results  highlighting that we have exceeded 46,000 interactions and 3,000 registered users in Bury St Edmunds which continues to grow. We are very pleased with these results and wish to thank member businesses for their support and engagement with this free service that we provide in partnership with LoyalFree www.loyalfree.co.uk . App – Bury St Eds Headline Stats

If you would like to become involved, then please contact mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com who is happy to assist.

 

 

• Training Courses

We are pleased that so many members are taking advantage of our free training courses. We have places left for.

Mental Health Awareness on Monday 26th June (half day)

Mental Health Awareness on Monday 25^th September (half day)

Fire Marshal on Monday 2^nd October (half day)

Emergency First Aid at Work on Tuesday 24^th October (full day)

If you’d like to take advantage of any of the above, please contact mike.kirkham@ourburystedmunds.com

• BID Members accessing our new website

With the launch of our new website later this month I wanted to let you know let you know about its new updated features and how they can aid you in your business.

Each business will be given a unique account to log in, to manage its business listing.

The business physical address, telephone number, email address, social media handles, website link, description, and images can be changed or updated at the click of a button.

Not only this, but through your profile, you can add events, offers, the latest news and job listings.

These will appear on your own page, as well as the main over-view pages gaining extra exposure for you.

To set up your account will require you to input an email address you are happy to use for this purpose.

I am working on the assumption that this will be the email address you use to receive my weekly emails but if this is not the case then please let me know which email address you would prefer to use so we can get the back office records set up for when we go live.

 

We are currently creating guides for the website, including How to update your business listing. These will be coming to you soon.

 

• AGM

Just a reminder that the above will be held at The Guildhall from 6pm on Thursday 15^th June. To reduce our printing costs, an environmental footprint, we will be looking to send, electronically, to those who inform us they are attending, the papers for the meeting with limited copies available on the night.

Also, if you have any questions you would like to raise please let me know, so we can ensure providing the best informed answer.

If you intend attending then could you let my colleague Jackie know, jackie.regan@ourburystedmunds.com and also if you have any dietary requirements as refreshments will be provided.