Say it with Flowers! Our Covid Approach

Delivered by BID Leamington

Our approach to supporting social distancing in the town centre during the Covid pandemic made national and even international headlines as we looked to nature for inspiration, and adopted a creative approach whilst acknowledging the vulnerability that exists in the town’s communities.

Our flowers were positively embraced by the local community and inspired many other places, and organisations, such as schools, to be similarly creative. The learning from our ‘Social Distancing’ flowers was also featured in High Street Task Force and a Local Government Association (LGA) case studies, and in a presentation now available on You Tube.

Our flowers and the thinking behind them were featured in numerous national and international press articles:

• Landscape Architecture Aotearoa (New Zealand)
• The Guardian
• The Daily Mail
• Coventry Telegraph
• Warwickshire World
• Business Innovation Magazine

BID Leamington as quoted:

Stephanie Kerr, executive director of BID Leamington, said: “We wanted pavement graphics that would be less authoritative and more welcoming, and came up with the idea of colourful flowers as we felt it reflected our town and would be enjoyed and embraced more.

“As we plan for the gradual opening up of the town centre, it is important to us that our community knows we are thinking about ongoing safety.

“Fostering trust and loyalty is more important than ever as more people start to return, and we see creative signage as part of that.

“We installed a first bunch as a trial to gauge feedback and the response was incredibly positive.

“Where possible, we will be using them throughout the town centre and are working in partnership with businesses and other stakeholders to help manage other public space challenges, such as queuing.

“I think there was tangible relief that the interventions being installed to protect them were also attractive, colourful and lifted the spirits.

“Parents have told us that it is also easier to get their children to stand by them, as they are fun and interesting.

“We have also been contacted by schools, who have also identified the value of using them to reduce stress and anxiety for returning students, which is relevant to us all.”

This creative approach then fed into lots of other Covid-19 placemaking interventions that we delivered.