Author: Sue Warren

Our Bury St Edmunds BID is pleased to invite our BID members to its upcoming Annual General Meeting which will take place on the evening of Tuesday 10th September 2024, at Bury St Edmunds Guildhall.

The official business starts at 6.30pm, however from 5.45pm there will be an opportunity for you to meet the BID team, the Board and other BID members.

The AGM is free to attend. Light refreshments will be provided. Please confirm your attendance by emailing Mark.Cordell@ourburystedmunds.com and please let us know of any dietary requirements.

To comply with Company law we have created an official notice for the meeting which outlines the agenda and how you can nominate a proxy to vote for you at the AGM, should you so wish.

Official AGM Notice 2024.

The ballot result to renew the Business Improvement District (BID) until 2030 was announced earlier this month and although I hope our member businesses are already aware of the outcome, I’d like to again thank everyone who took the trouble to vote. We had the highest number of businesses voting this time than in any of our previous ballots with over 78% voting yes. This means of course that it is business as usual for the next five years and Our Bury St Edmunds BID will continue to deliver support to improve the trading environment in the town centre.

Our ballot result was announced just hours after the general election count finished in Bury St Edmunds and I’d like to thank our former MP Jo Churchill for her service to the town and her support of our businesses – especially the independents. I look forward to working with our new MP Peter Prinsley for the benefit of our town centre.

Every year in July Our Bury St Edmunds BID celebrates our independent businesses on July 4 – Independents’ Day – and the few days around it. So I am naturally delighted to see that we are also welcoming some new independent businesses to the town at the moment too. The first of the commercial units in The Old Post Office will be a new café, Amici, opening before the end of the year. We’ve also welcomed a number of others including Pommodoro Italian restaurant at the bottom of Abbeygate Street overlooking Angel Hill. Phase Eight which has been on Abbeygate Street for many years has moved to larger premises as one of a number of new openings at arc Shopping Centre. Its former shop is already under offer.

The changing environment and new businesses emphasises the vibrancy of the town centre. Units become available for a number of reasons and in Bury we have seen some well known names announce their owners’ retirement recently including Sneezums, who we have worked with since the early days of the BID and know how much the shop is loved by its customers.

We are now only a month away from the Our Bury St Edmunds Food & Drink Festival over the August bank holiday weekend. This is one of our flagship events and celebrates the town as Suffolk’s foodie capital. This year we will be showcasing a number of local chefs on stage with cooking demonstrations and welcoming back Michelin-starred TV chef Galton Blackiston who has been hugely popular in our theatre kitchen at previous festivals.

Finally I, and all the team at Our Bury St Edmunds BID, would like to express our thanks and good wishes Bury Free Press Deputy Editor Graham Turner who’s recently stepped down. His support over the lifetime of the BID for many different initiatives that we have collaborated with the paper on has always been very much appreciated.

By Mark Cordell, CEO, Our Bury St Edmunds BID.

Suffolk’s foodie capital will welcome back the ever-popular Michelin-starred chef Galton Blackiston to the Our Bury St Edmunds Food & Drink Festival over the August Bank Holiday. Galton, whose TV credits include Yes Chef, Saturday Kitchen and Great British Menu among many others, champions seasonal produce from the region. This year he celebrated his Norfolk hotel and restaurant Morston Hall retaining its Michelin star for a 25th year.

Galton will take to the stage in the Stoves Cookery Theatre at the free admission event on Bank Holiday Monday (August 26) with three demonstrations. In between his cookery displays will be others from local businesses. On Sunday (August 25) the kitchen will play host to chefs from across Bury St Edmunds town centre. Establishments including Rustico, 1921, Maison Bleue and The Bay Tree will all take part.

The two day event will feature a range of stalls selling food from around the world. New to the festival this year are stalls selling Hungarian street food and Caribbean sauces. The award-winning English Whisky Company will also be at the festival for the first time. In addition, food lovers can enjoy a farmers’ market on Angel Hill and dozens of stalls in the town centre selling a range of cuisines for all tastes and everything those who love cooking could desire.

The Our Bury St Edmunds Food & Drink Festival is organised by the Business Improvement District (BID) organisation for the town. Our Bury St Edmunds BID Chief Executive Mark Cordell said: “Galton Blackiston has been one of our most popular celebrity chefs at the Food & Drink Festival over the years and we are delighted to welcome him back to Bury St Edmunds. It’s testament to the quality of food and drink businesses in the town centre that so many of them are also playing a part at the Festival. While we can’t put every one of them on the stage, throughout the weekend there is a good number taking a stall to immerse themselves in everything the two days have to offer.”

Another popular attraction over the bank holiday will be the much-loved virtual reality games which will be at arc shopping centre together with a racing car simulator and face painting. Children can also enjoy fairground rides (small charge) and free street entertainment across both days.

Full details about the event, which runs from 10am to 5pm on Sunday 25 and Monday 26 August, can be found at: www.ourburystedmunds.com/foodanddrinkfestival

Bury St Edmunds Shop&Drop will be extending its pedal-powered service to the town’s Wednesday Market.

Shop&Drop, operated by EcoCarriers BSE, currently offers a same day delivery from a number of businesses in town as well as from traders on the Saturday market and now it will introduce the Wednesday market. Just call Shop&Drop before 2pm for same day delivery.

A single 35L crate of goods costs £2 for delivery within the town including Moreton Hall, Lark Grange and Marham Park or £4.50 to nearby villages including Great Barton, Horringer and Nowton. It will be delivered by bicycle or cargo-bike by 6pm. The customer pays the rider on delivery (card or cash).

Shop&Drop, which currently has almost a dozen businesses participating in its initial trial, has been supported by West Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council as well as Our Bury St Edmunds BID.

On Wednesday 26th June Shop & Drop members will be at Marks and Spencer (just one of the retailers on the scheme) on the Buttermarket to tell customers about the service.

Director of Eco Carriers Libby said: “The service is proving successful, with over 150 deliveries made since we started, and we wanted to offer it to people who use the market on Wednesday’s too. Our cargo bikes can carry more than you’d expect, and for £2 we’ll deliver your shopping home to anywhere in Bury, leaving you unencumbered for a stroll round town or a café stop.”

To book a Shop&Drop pick up and delivery call 01284 413441, 07902 477833 or email hello@ecocarriersbse.co.uk for more information.

 

The wonderful hospitality sector that we have here in Bury St Edmunds has been very much in the spotlight this month with a visit from the Chief Executive of UK Hospitality Kate Nicholls. Accompanied by our MP Jo Churchill we were able to show a snapshot of our pubs, restaurants, hotels and the Greene King brewery to showcase why Bury is the foodie capital of Suffolk. It was therefore very pleasing to see Kate’s post on X with high praise after her visit to Lark and followed days later with warm words about the town and BIDs generally, when she gave evidence about town centres to a House of Lords committee.

As well as talking about hospitality, Jo Churchill also celebrated English Tourism Week with a visit to the Guildhall where she met tour guides and representatives of attractions associated with the Masters of The Air campaign which has been running alongside the Apple TV series. We’re also keeping our fingers crossed that the town’s tour guides will be successful in the English Tourism awards, which will be announced soon and thank you if you voted for them. Given that tourism is worth more than £50million to our local economy in and around Bury St Edmunds and supports over 1,000 jobs it was great to discuss these important employment sectors with Jo.

It’s been a big month for Bury St Edmunds with Primark opening in the former Debenhams building at arc shopping centre. When we’ve carried out town centre surveys in previous years, a lot of the answers to questions about what people would like to see here have mentioned Primark. And early evidence suggests that is the case. The first weekend that Primark was open, car park use in the town was up almost 20% on the previous year and we know that car park use was higher than usual on the second weekend too.

Giving people reasons to visit Bury St Edmunds is something we at the BID work hard at. During the Easter holidays we’ll be running a Dinosaur Egg Trail for all the family with a children’s competition in which they could win a lovely hamper of toys and goodies. I’m very grateful to the Bury Free Press which is supporting and promoting the trail and also to the large number of businesses who’ve signed up to be part of it. This trail has seen one of the highest levels of engagement from businesses in the years that we have been putting them on.

When the trail finishes we have a special Dino Adventure free event on April 10 in the heart of the market that day. There will be baby dinosaurs and other characters to meet and a family craft area. I hope you and your business have a good Easter weekend, whether you’re looking to be busy with customers or taking a well- earned break.

By Mark Cordell, CEO, Our Bury St Edmunds BID.

 

Hospitality business owners in Bury St Edmunds have been talking about the key issues affecting their sector with the head of a leading trade organisation. UK Hospitality’s Chief Executive Kate Nicholls OBE was visiting the town – known as Suffolk’s foodie capital – alongside Jo Churchill MP for Bury St Edmunds earlier today (Friday 15 March).

Ms Nicholls met those working in pub, hotel and restaurant businesses in the town and also went to the Greene King brewery, which has been a significant part of the Bury St Edmunds economy for more than 200 years. She was also accompanied by UK Hospitality member Roxane Marjoram, who owns The One Bull and other local hospitality businesses with her husband David.

The visit began at the historic Angel Hotel. Owner Robert Gough said: “It was extremely valuable to sit down with Kate Nicholls and our MP to discuss the hotel sector and its current challenges. My family has run boutique destinations in Suffolk for nearly 60 years but that doesn’t mean we can ever take our eye off the ball.”

Joining the group and representing the town centre’s wider hospitality sector was Mark Cordell, Chief Executive of Our Bury St Edmunds BID (Business Improvement District). He commented: “We have around 100 hospitality business members of the BID and it is a critical element of our local economy. I’m in regular contact anyway with our MP about issues affecting the town centre but was delighted to have this opportunity talk further with Jo and Kate about why Bury St Edmunds is the foodie capital of Suffolk and discuss some of our members’ concerns such as VAT, staffing and the rising costs all are facing.”

Following the meeting at The Angel, the visitors were taken by Pedalcab to the Greene King brewery. Ms Nicholls was also given a short tour of part of the town centre during which a number of other hospitality businesses were highlighted before Roxane and David Marjoram welcomed her to The One Bull. The group then visited Lark run by award-winning chef-patron James Carn.

The UK Hospitality Chief Executive found her day in Bury St Edmunds extremely valuable and thanked Jo Churchill MP for the invitation. She added: “This has been an opportunity to visit long-established and much newer hospitality businesses here but it’s clear that collectively they all contribute to a sector that is so vital to Bury St Edmunds as a destination. As well as the names above the door at these establishments there are the behind-the-scenes staff who all play their part in making sure they offer the best guest experiences and UK Hospitality is here for all of them. While I have seen a lot of positives today, I know that businesses in Bury St Edmunds will still be looking to us to lobby Government and influence policy to help this sector thrive.”

Jo Churchill MP added: “It was great to welcome Kate Nicholls to Bury St Edmunds and for her to meet some fabulous business owners here. We do food better than just about anybody else in the country and we are definitely the foodie capital of the East. To have the lead voice of UK Hospitality here talking about not only the great foodie offer we have, but also some of the challenges to the industry was quite a marker for Bury St Edmunds and my thanks to Our Bury St Edmunds BID and all the businesses.”

Nationally UK Hospitality represents more than 100,000 venues across the UK. The sector contributes £93 billion to the UK economy, employs 3.5 million people and generates £54 billion in tax for the Treasury.

It’s always good to start a new year with optimism and Our Bury St Edmunds received good news from our footfall figures for December recently. In the week leading up to Christmas our data shows that the town was busier than at the same time in the previous two years. Coupled with the results of our benchmarking survey of businesses, shoppers and visitors to the town centre from which a couple of key points were that people tend to spend more money in town compared to the national average and that 70 per cent of businesses rated the prosperity of the town as positive – it’s very encouraging. While we know that there are still challenges in the economy, it is always useful to see how the town centre is performing compared to others nationally and regionally, especially when the results are so positive.

It’s a busy time of year in the town centre too next month with lots to look forward to not least the first ever Bury St Edmunds Comedy Festival which runs from 1 February. The Apex, Theatre Royal, Guildhall and The Hunter Club have been working hard to make this happen supported by Bury St Edmunds and Beyond and the BID. Matt Forde and Brian Bilston are just two of the big names to look forward to.

Meanwhile the eagerly anticipated Second World War series for Apple TV+, ‘Masters of the Air’ (launching today) has strong connections with the Bury St Edmunds area. The town’s tour guides have produced a special guided walk to coincide with it and it’s hoped that interest in the series will bring tourists and visitors to the town.

Also in February we’ll see the opening of Everyman Cinema in the basement of the former Debenhams at arc Shopping Centre. The building will also house the eagerly awaited Primark branch which is due to open just a few weeks later.

Of course the shopping centre also hosted the Bury St Edmunds family ice rink over the Christmas holidays. This attraction was made possible by a partnership formed of the BID, arc Shopping Centre, Bury St Edmunds Town Council and West Suffolk Council. It was also an opportunity to support Gatehouse which runs the food bank for the town and early indications suggest around £2,500 was raised to support their work.

All of us at the BID were shocked and saddened to hear of the unexpected death of Maria Broadbent the former owner of Casa. She joined our Board in 2016 bringing an energy and enthusiasm that would see her go on to chair the organisation. Our condolences to Maria’s family and loved ones.

By Mike Kirkham, Business Support Manager, Our Bury St Edmunds BID.

 

It was with great sadness that we recently heard about the passing of Maria Broadbent, former Our Bury St Edmunds BID Board member & our Chair between 2021 and 2023.

BID Chief Executive Mark Cordell said: “I had the pleasure of knowing and working with Maria, in my capacity of BID CEO, for over 10 years.

“She was one of the most entrepreneurial, enthusiastic, creative, innovative and hard working business owners I have had the pleasure to work with.
Her contribution to the BID during her tenure as a Board member and for her last couple of years in Bury St Edmunds, as our Chair, was considerable.

“She had a very varied employment history and used the experiences and qualities she had learned and developed elsewhere, to the benefit of her business, Casa and the BID.

“She left Bury St Edmunds a year ago to start a new business and move nearer to her family who she adored.

“Maria was a larger-than-life character, with a great positive personality, a can-do attitude and was someone who frequently saw opportunities where others saw difficulties.”

The photo below is of Maria in action at our Food and Drink Festival doing what she loved.

The thoughts and sympathies of our team are with Maria’s family at this very difficult time.

As the year draws to a close it’s still a very busy season for many of our town centre businesses. In retail customers are heading for the sales, hopefully looking to spend Christmas money and Our Bury St Edmunds Gift Cards and hospitality businesses will be celebrating New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile the Bury St Edmunds Family Christmas Ice Rink is still in place at arc Shopping Centre and will be there until Wednesday, offering a great free attraction for families in the school holidays.

Earlier this month we held our annual competition to find the town centre’s best dressed festive shop window. Everyone makes such an effort with their Christmas displays and customers and visitors to the town centre select the winner by voting on the LoyalFree app. Edit Clinic, which has been based in Risbygate Street for around two years was a runaway winner this year for owner Victoria, with Gerald Boughton Formal Hire and River Island our two runners up. Congratulations to them all.

And talking of winners Bury St Edmunds was crowned England’s most dog-friendly town at a ceremony last month and runner-up for the UK title. The dog-friendly destination initiative has been a success thanks to the hard work of Jon Kay from Camp Tails Doggy Day Care with support from us at the Business Improvement District (BID) and also Bury St Edmunds Town Council.

The Town Council has partnered the BID in a number of initiatives for the benefit of the town centre in recent years, including the current ice rink attraction. Much of this has been made possible with the help and encouragement of the retiring Town Clerk, Greg Luton, and I wish him well and thank him for all he’s done to enable this productive partnership.

Although during 2023 the economy has never been far from the news headlines, Bury St Edmunds – while not without its challenges – has still been attracting new businesses. With the number in double figures for this year, we have more to look forward to in 2024 with Primark and Everyman Cinema as the eagerly awaited new tenants of the flagship building at arc Shopping Centre.

Big ‘High Street’ names are critical for the success of a town centre but just as important are the smaller independent businesses – and Bury St Edmunds and especially St Johns Street is well known for its eclectic mix. Small Business Saturday is an initiative to celebrate and promote the independents and I was pleased to accompany our MP, Jo Churchill, on a visit to Hatter Street recently so she could see first hand how important this element of the local economy is. Another small business celebrating success is Lark which has been featured in the latest Michelin Guide.

Finally, all of us at Our Bury St Edmunds wish you a happy and prosperous New Year and thank all who have supported our town centre businesses in 2023.

By Mark Cordell, CEO of Our Bury St Edmunds BID.