BID Update – Support, Resources & Projects: 4th September

Hi everyone,

We hope you are well. Please read on to find out about a NEW Grant funding opportunity! for small retail and leisure businesses. Please note this is different to the LEP Growth Hub one we emailed you about last week (and which you may have already heard back).

Other things in this update include:

  1. Support for Business Owners and Staff – Heath & Wellbeing
  2. Stickers and Posters Still Available
  3. BID Recovery Planning & Projects, Invoicing, Highways & Next Steps

 

1.  Business Owner and Staff Health & Wellbeing

Warwickshire County Council has extended its Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support owners and staff in town centre micro and small businesses with their health and wellbeing.

The programme will be available from Tuesday, September 1 to businesses with 10 or fewer employees operating in the towns of Warwickshire who may need help.

This includes access to information, support and guidance (including coaching and counselling where appropriate) on a wide range of topics including work, career, relationships, family, money management, debt and health and wellbeing.

Please get in touch with us or email business@warwickshire.gov.uk if you would like to learn more about this. All enquiries are confidential.

 

2.  Stickers and Posters Still Available

As well as our floral pavement stickers, we now have posters available. We are happy to drop some in if you specify which ones you need, so just drop us a line.

This includes:

  • Inside Instructions (A4 Poster)
  • Spa Space – Fill in text (A4 Poster)
  • Spa Space – Parade Safely (A4 Poster)
  • Plus – floral pavement / window stickers

 

3.  BID Recovery Planning & Projects, Invoicing, Highways and Next Steps

As always, there is a lot happening …

Projects & Marketing:

The ‘Little Book of Offers’ has just been published featuring 63 offers from local businesses and 4000 of these are going into circulation and preparation are underway for Halloween! We continue to be active on social media – communicating your news and offers to our audience of over 25,000 followers on various platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) so please continue to send or signpost your content. Our various websites also remain a source of valuable local information.

Finally, we were pleased to support The Frontline Project led by Creative Leamington, which includes a mural in Spencer Yard and a website showcasing and celebrating Covid-19 key workers and their stories. This provides a town centre destination for people to visit and reinforces the ongoing challenges. For more information please visit:

Invoicing:

Firstly, in respect to the BID annual invoice distributed in July, we wish to express our thanks to those who have paid. As explained on the invoice, there was an option to differ the payment until October, then begin a payment plan, so you may be contacted in the near further to discuss this. Please do not hesitate to make contact with us to discuss your individual circumstances also. We are very conscious that some businesses are not yet trading and we wish to do everything we can to minimise stress and help businesses get back to business at this time.

Road Closures:

We continue to gather feedback about the road closures and are in regular dialogue with Warwickshire County Council, who is controlling this – so please continue to email us your views or questions. Thank you to the 76 business who have fed back to us already. At this stage we understand the closure will be in place until the end of September, though this is being reviewed in the coming week and we will keep you updated.

Looking Forwards … Footfall and Christmas:

We know times are still strange – for us, today we would normally be on site setting up for the Food & Drink Festival. As you can see in the image below, the two footfall cameras on Parade show visitor numbers are steadily increasing but we have some way to go and remain careful.

We are now beginning to focus on Christmas and welcome any ideas about how we embrace this special time of year in new and innovative ways. We will continue to work closely with the BID Board of Directors and collaborate with local partners, including the Royal Priors, as there has never been a more important time to work together and support each other. We welcome your feedback.

THANK YOU! … as always … we remain inspired by everything we can see you doing to navigate a path forwards.

Don’t forget to join our Leamington Town Centre Facebook Group if you haven’t already. We will also post updates on the BID Leamington Facebook page – and the Royal Leamington Spa Town Centre Facebook page is where we will showcase what you are now doing. You can also find this email update as well as previous ones on our website: www.bidleamington2022.mystagingwebsite.com.

Best wishes and we look forward to seeing you out and about,

Steph & Alison