Pedi Bikes in Leamington #LiftLeam

by Stephanie Kerr | Oct 4, 2022

Pedi Bikes in Leamington #LiftLeam

Delivered by BID Leamington and Partners

Ambitions to meet important sustainable development, health and well-being, environment, mobility, climate change and air quality goals are being actively discussed by the BID Leamington team, alongside practical, technical, financial and social considerations.

We want to #PowerPositiveChange and see opportunity to improve research, dialogue and for greater business leadership as part of our emerging future agenda in this space. We also welcome the opportunity to collaborate with local partners and to experiment with ideas to gauge feedback – a tactical urbanism approach.

One such collaborative trail called ‘#LiftLeam’ that we were very proud to support was with University of Warwick’s free Creative Futures Incubator, which is based in Leamington Spa’s co-working space 1 Mill Street. Two e-trikes, from Hail Services arrived in town to promote the programme and power customers up and down the Parade whilst it was closed (during Covid).

Building on this success BID Leamington once again worked with Hail Services and arranged for two Royal Leamington Spa branded e-trikes to transport visitors around our town centre during the Commonwealth Games. These were loaded with maps and guides promoting local businesses and provided over 700 lifts! They were also featured on ITV News (below).

This is just the beginning of our thinking, so please let us know if you have ideas or would like to play a role in future.

BID Butterflies – Supporting Business & Community Engagement

by Stephanie Kerr | Sep 30, 2022

BID Butterflies – Supporting Business & Community

Delivered by BID Leamington

In July 2020, as a result of the Covid Pandemic the Parade in Leamington was closed to traffic to create additional space for social distancing. This presented an opportunity to install some street dressing and engage both the business community and the wider community in dialogue around the idea. As always, our approach was to embrace creativity whilst acknowledging the vulnerability that exists in the town’s communities.

BID Leamington surveyed the businesses community on their views and from 75 responses found there was greater support (70%) for the closure from businesses on Parade compared to the side streets, were less than 30% felt the measures were helping them.

Alongside this, Leamington introduced Leamington Butterflies who took on a similar ambassadorial role as our Christmas Angels. With a 2m wingspan and a creative touch, the butterflies personified the approach to reopen Leamington in a safe, kind, and welcoming way. They were visible in town every weekend until the end of August 2020 with a remit to help people feel safe, watch and manage social distancing and assist people where possible.

The butterflies also helped to monitor and understand changing community sentiment and signpost support to reinforce the role of the town centre as a community hub – and carried out customer surveys on the road closure (253 responses), which we compiled alongside business feedback and shared with Warwickshire County Council.

Our butterflies were also featured in a Local Government Association Case Study.

Say it with Flowers! Our Covid Approach

by Stephanie Kerr | Sep 30, 2022

Video: Social distancing with flowers in Leamington

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:

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.

Business Support through Covid-19

by Helen Clark Bell | Sep 23, 2022

Support Offered Through Covid-19

Delivered by BID Leamington

In March 2020, businesses faced huge uncertainty as they were told to close their doors. Some grants had to be applied for, whilst other funding was paid out, new regulations had to be complied with, it was a time of enormous confusion and stress.

Throughout this devastating time, BID Leamington was interpreting, translating and communicating the latest announcements so businesses could easily understand what they were eligible for and how they needed to respond. Our communications became a regular and trusted source of information for many businesses that didn’t know where else to turn, particularly through the enormous amount of change being imposed.

In the meantime, we were also lobbying central government through our national business networks to secure support for those sectors that had been left behind, by joining campaigns such as #RaiseTheBar and the #BounceBackBetter.

Providing Expert Information and Clarity

During this ‘unprecedented’ time, BID Leamington re-focussed all our activity to respond to the needs of our businesses.

New regulations and ways of working needed to be understood and adopted at a rapid rate. BID Leamington produced weekly updates that were emailed to hundreds of businesses and posted online, aimed at decoding regulations, business support and grants advice – and team was available and ready to answer questions on the other end of the phone.

BID Leamington also hosted a number of free on-line workshops with sector experts to help businesses understand the wide variety of changes that were being introduced. Answering questions such as: what is furlough? who is eligible? how to claim? through a live Q & A webinar with local HR company Absolute Works provided answers enabling businesses to move through these challenging times with clarity. The BID team also secured other critical support including financial, legal, and health and wellbeing advice from partner businesses and organisations.

Building consumer confidence

BID Leamington initiated a number of campaigns to help build consumer confidence during this time to help footfall return when businesses were able to open.

Some of these projects gained us great publicity such as our Social Distancing Flowers and Spa Stars.

These were consumer based campaigns in partnership with the business community to keep everyone safe and expressing gratitude to some wonderful people.

Spa Stars

by Helen Clark Bell | Sep 23, 2022

Spa Stars

Delivered by BID Leamington

The Spa Stars walk of fame was warmly welcomed when Covid restrictions were being lifted in 2020. It featured the names of local people nominated for being a shining light. Friends, family members, neighbours and colleagues were nominated, each with a short reason whether it be for a kind act, for their friendship or simply because they are loved.

The sparkly star pavement stickers decorated walkways around the town centre, including spaces around the Royal Priors Shopping Centre, Regent Court and the Town Hall.

Over 800 responses were received, nominating around 250 individuals. Each nomination had their own star which when promoted on social media attracted received comments that they will be coming into town to see them!

Feedback from the community was very positive and this promotion lifted community spirit and helped to make the town centre a community centre.

Advertising and Promotional Campaigns

by Helen Clark Bell | Sep 21, 2022

Advertising and promotions

Delivered by BID Leamington

Attracting tourists and visitors

BID Leamington understands the value of ensuring that Royal Leamington Spa is featured on tourist and visitors must visit list. Local and regional advertising campaigns across a wide range of media, including radio, magazines, local papers, digital platforms as well as through coach trip providers helps to promote tourism to our beautiful town.

Elves in Leamington

by Helen Clark Bell | Sep 21, 2022

Elves in Leamington

Delivered by BID Leamington in partnership with Gibsonhaus

During Covid, all normal festive activities had to be abandoned, but in Leamington Town centre CCTV captured footage of a naughty elf who has been let loose in Leamington in the run-up to Christmas – and families were invited to discover his antics and be in with a chance of winning a prize.

In 2021, BID Leamington launched an ‘Elf Hunt’ in partnership with the creators of ‘Atmap’, where participants followed the footsteps of a cheeky elf to decipher his clues. The elf trail was followed by downloading the local events app Atmap onto a smartphone, and participants located the elf’s trail of destruction around seven Leamington shops. The app allowed people to scan a QR code in a shop, giving them a secret letter and a clue to where to find the next one. Once the codeword was revealed – participants went to the final location to pick a mystery treat and enter the prize draw where a grand prize of £100 to spend in Leamington shops could be won.

The Elf Hunt ran throughout December and coincided with Small Business Saturday, a national campaign to highlight small businesses and encourage people to use them over the Christmas period. All off-street car parks were to park in on the day (Saturday 4th December 2021), and BID Leamington’s ‘Christmas Angels’ gave away 250 ‘goody bags’ full of vouchers for town centre businesses.

View the naughty elf below.

Pumpkin Path

by Helen Clark Bell | Sep 21, 2022

Pumpkin Trail

Delivered by BID Leamington

Bringing families to Leamington during Hallowe’en, our pumpkin trail is now an annual event in our BID Leamington calendar. Over 50 businesses get involved each year, by hosting pumpkin clues in their shop windows and offering prizes to the winners. By following the trail, visitors explore parts of Leamington they may not usually frequent building loyalty and spending time in our lovely town centre.

We receive hundreds of entries from families who have enjoyed the trail from Warwick, Coventry and Rugby with the majority from North and South Leamington.

Watch This Space

by Helen Clark Bell | Sep 21, 2022

Take a look at the story behind the window design …

Watch This Space!

Delivered by BID Leamington

Watch this space is an ambitious, vibrant campaign to bring unused high street windows to life in Royal Leamington Spa.

The initiative spearheaded by BID Leamington aims to temporarily transform the windows of empty stores and bring a touch of style to exteriors while properties find new purpose and tenants.

The ‘Watch this Space’ campaign is a collaborative effort between BID Leamington, local agents, property owners and local businesses Craig Spivey Creative, TonyG and Gallery Photiq. Together they have a wealth of global retail and design experience to draw on and wish to inspire anticipation as the town is poised for a range of exciting developments in the town centre.

The eye-catching images have been developed by taking photographs of cut-glass vessels in the Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum to capture the town’s sparkle.

First on the list for the smartening-up treatment are the ground floor windows of the former House of Fraser store on the Parade. The property is being refurbished into a high-quality office and design space called Bedford Street Studios with video gaming company Sumo Digital set to occupy the first and second floors over the next few months.

Stephanie Kerr, Executive Director at BID Leamington, said: “We were increasingly concerned about key sites looking unloved and when we contacted local agents and property owners, we received a positive response to our ideas to help support their transformation.

“We want to surprise and delight residents and visitors with these colourful and intriguing images and maintain the celebration of our beautiful town centre whilst businesses are developed for new uses.

“It’s the first stage in a new approach which we hope in future may lead to including Augmented Reality activity, pop-up art and working with new tenants to explain their plans for each site.

“Similar windows campaigns have been run in towns and cities throughout the UK with vinyl graphics being used to brighten up stores that have closed down, so here in Leamington we want to build on this and take it a step further.”

Nat Coalson of Gallery Photiq photographed the beautiful historic assets, and working with Craig Spivey Creative and TonyG, the images have been transformed into high-quality vinyl graphics to adorn the windows.

Coalson said: “I’m grateful to be involved with this project, which has been an exciting opportunity for me to create abstract photography that conveys the beautiful essence of our special town.”

Heather Golding from TonyG added: “As a Leamingtonian, it’s been really rewarding to add something of value to this project. Our work takes us across the UK from Edinburgh to Bicester Village to Bond Street, so being able to apply some premium retail experience to our hometown is very fitting.

“Working with the glass photography was great fun, creating illustrative treatments for an abstract and painterly effect. Taking historic patterns from glassware and putting them back on glass in a different form over 100 years later, was also a nice circle!”

Craig Spivey, Independent Creative Director, said: “One of the new ways we have developed to express Leamington’s sparkle is through the photography of the glass collection in our local museum. Leamington Spa’s fortunes were built on water and these beautiful images of vessels from its heyday as a resort capture the many colourful facets of the town.

“It’s a dynamic way of presenting Victorian decorative arts with a fresh, contemporary edge that’s very unique to Leamington and adds a little extra layer of meaning to the designs we produce.”

For more details see:
Bedford Street Studios: www.bedfordstreetstudios.co.uk

Santa’s Postbox

by Helen Clark Bell | Sep 21, 2022

Santa’s postbox

Delivered by BID Leamington

Seeing the magic of Christmas through children’s eyes, when they post their letters to Santa is priceless, so each year we install this special postbox in a new location.

First launched during Covid, with careful promotion this allowed engagement with Leamington town when other festive activities were not available.

In 2020, over 2,700 beautiful letters were posted from adults and children, some of which have been archived in the Royal Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum as they reflect an unforgettable point in history.

Santa’s postbox returned in 2021 and this time was placed in Regent Court Shopping Centre with around 900 letters posted over the four weeks it was in place.

In 2022, the postbox will once again return in a new location with new surprises to delight town centre families.