Bury Free Press BID Column November 2025
The countdown to Christmas has well and truly begun following the Our Bury St Edmunds Christmas Lights Event this month. The magical Polar Bear and Snow Lion were huge hits and feedback from the event has been very positive. It’s lovely to see the town looking so bright after dark now and hopefully this will get everyone in the mood for Christmas shopping and festive get-togethers.
The event this year took place on St Edmund’s Day and it was good to see his flag or bunting displayed by a number of our businesses. Thanks also to the Crafty Foxes who celebrated at the event itself with a children’s workshop about St Edmund and lots wanted to have their picture taken with him and his wolf.
Meanwhile, on the same day our partners in the Dog Friendly Bury St Edmunds scheme were at an awards ceremony in London in which the UK’s most Dog Friendly Town was announced. Bury St Edmunds, which has been in the top three every year for the last three years, was the runner up. Thank you to everyone who voted for us and the recognition for our initiative is much appreciated.
The dog friendly focus continues on our new town map which has just been refreshed for the autumn and winter. They are always available at a number of places around the town including The Apex, but I know that businesses also like to stock them so do please get in touch if you’d like some for your premises.
With so much going on it’s also great to see that the three long term vacant units by Cineworld will soon all be filled and similarly the two units beside Market Thoroughfare. This clearly demonstrates how positively Bury St Edmunds is seen as a location for new businesses, which is a huge compliment considering that so many other places have rising vacancy rates.
Of course, this week we also had the Budget Statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. As ever – despite all the media speculation ahead of it – the devil is always in the detail. I’m sure many businesses will have points they want to make regarding this and – as always – I am happy to listen to them and work with them to raise these matters with our MP and ask him to forward them on to the Treasury.
Finally, it wouldn’t be Christmas without the annual Our Bury St Edmunds most festive window competition. The town centre businesses really do pull out all the stops with their windows and the standard seems to get higher every year. If you are a participating business make sure to tell all your customers and social media followers to visit the Our Bury St Edmunds website and vote before December 14. It’s by public vote only and every vote really does count.
