September’s been a busy month for the Business Improvement District (BID) team. We held our AGM at the Guildhall and it was good to have the chance to meet and chat with representatives of member businesses and to look forward to working with them over the next five years. This was the first AGM since our ballot to continue operating until 2030 and we appreciate that businesspeople gave up their time to attend and talk to us about their views on the trading environment in our town centre.
We’ve also had some exciting news about ‘Paddington Visits’ a national trail of Paddington statues – one of which will be situated in Bury St Edmunds. More details about this very soon.
One of the big success stories for the local economy recently has been the Our Bury St Edmunds Town Centre Gift Card. We launched this four years ago and it’s really been embraced by businesses and customers alike. The card can only be spent at those shops, restaurants and others – currently more than 70 – in our town centre that accept it, thus locking spending into our businesses. Next week we’ll announce more news about the Gift Card which we hope will encourage even more shoppers to use it and indeed more BID member businesses to sign up to accepting it.
If you run a business – even if you are out of town and thus not eligible to accept the card – and like to reward staff or clients at Christmas, the Our Bury St Edmunds Gift Card is a great way to do so. Please contact me in the BID office if you’d like to know more about this opportunity – or indeed if you are a BID member and would like to accept it – www.ourburystedmunds.com.
It seems to be awards season at the moment. Bury St Edmunds is once again in the running to be crowned the most Dog Friendly Town or City in the annual Dog Friendly Awards. These are decided by a public vote with the winners being announced in November. As well as the town centre itself, a number of our BID members are nominated in their own sector categories such as restaurants and cafes or shops. If you have time to spend a few minutes on the site voting for the town or perhaps your near neighbour businesses I’m sure it will be appreciated.
And on the subject of awards, you may well have been reading about the Bury Free Press West Suffolk Business Awards, which we have always been delighted to be involved with as sponsors of the Customer Service Award. Last year Ellisons Solicitors were the winners in this category and I look forward to meeting the finalists for 2024 at the awards night in a couple of weeks’ time.
