The BID In A Year

The Year

Delivering the BID’s business plan, and its key objectives of driving more footfall to the Harrogate town centre.

January

The year started with the first meeting of the new board, elected at the 2019 AGM the month before. A number of new members came from the ‘independent’ sector, representing retailers, restaurateurs and commercial property owners, all with a vested interest in the success of the town centre.

John Fox, the driving force behind the creation of Harrogate BID, stood down from his role as Chairman and Acting BID Manager. We acknowledge that without his enthusiasm and dedication, the BID would never have got off the ground. February

Robert Kennedy, the owner of G23 and Porters, was elected as the new Chair whilst restaurateur Sara Ferguson, co-owner of Sasso and Caffe Marconi, was appointed his deputy.

During this month, the Board members were co-opted onto various ‘working groups’ to deliver the BID’s business plan, and its key objectives of driving more footfall into Harrogate town centre.

In addition to supporting the ‘Sunday Freeway’ for the last three months of 2019 -giving a much-needed boost to town centre shops last Christmas - we partnered with The Harrogate Bus Company again this month ensuring the Freeway was able to complete a year of valuable service for passengers in Jennyfields, Bilton, Woodfield and Pannal Ash.

We sought to better understand the assistance businesses required -and more importantly what support they would need once lockdown ended.

March April

Former Harrogate Convention Centre director, Simon Kent, who With all but ‘essential’ retail businesses open, we began ramping was briefly involved in the BID in 2019 as Harrogate Borough up our communication to members via newsletters, the website, Council’s representative on the Board, was contracted on a social media posts and the media. We sent out a coronavirus temporary and part time basis to take on the role of Interim BID impact survey, to better understand what assistance businesses required then Manager. Contracts for cleaning, Christmas lights and floral - and more importantly what support they would displays were written. need once the lockdown ended. (A deep clean of the streets was cited as the number one priority for the BID to undertake). The And then on March 23, the country went into lockdown! Board also began meeting weekly on Zoom.

However, the last day of the month saw the resignation of four directors, Chair Bob Kennedy, Chris Bentley, Robert Ogden and Rob Spencer, who said the accumulation of negative impacts from the UCI Road World Championships and the Covid-19 lockdown, as well as a more general crisis for retail, had led them to take the decision.

The ‘Harrogate Welcomes You’ pack –which was free to all businesses within the BID district –contained window graphics, posters and floor stickers to assist with social distancing.

May June

With news the lockdown was to be lifted later this month for shops After the surprise and disappointment of the resignations, Deputy Chair Sara Ferguson became Acting Chair, ensuring the and early July for hospitality, this was a particularly busy month for us. work the Board was tasked with delivering continued. It was also To aid businesses in re-opening we produced a series of posters and decided to co-opt a number of non-executive businesspeople to floor stickers to assist staff and customers with social the Board, and we began recruiting for a BID Project Assistant and distancing measures. The ‘Harrogate Welcomes You’ pack – which two Harrogate Hosts. were free to all businesses within the BID district –contained window graphics, posters and floor stickers.

We also awarded the cleaning contract to Yorkshire based UK Nationwide Cleaning Services, who began the task of power washing over 40,000 square metres of pavements and street furniture in the retail heart of the town.

We urged our BID partners, Harrogate Borough Council and North Yorkshire County Council to ‘cut red tape’ and assist pubs, bars and cafes with limited outdoor space to be able to use the pavements outside their properties to aid with social distancing. We also purchased 180 outdoor tables and 380 outdoor chairs for these businesses to use.

Levy-paying businesses were able to claim a match-funded grant of up to £750 to assist with reopening costs.

July

We began the month by announcing the setting aside of a budget where levy-paying businesses were able to claim a match-funded grant of up to £750 to assist with reopening costs.

The first of a two-part advertising campaign to re-acquaint Harrogate residents with the Harrogate Gift Card resulted in plenty of sales, plus more town centre businesses joining the scheme, which is free for them to sign up to.

We were delighted to welcome two new co-opted advisors to the Board; Lesley Wild, the former Chief Executive of Bettys and Taylors Tea; and Jim Mossman, co-owner of Cold Bath Brewing Company.

For the last weekend of July, we teamed up with Harrogate International Festivals to bring a smile –and a spring in the step – to residents and visitors in Harrogate town centre, courtesy of The New York Brass Band and an open top bus! This was to be the first of three events staged by the renowned arts charity that we sponsored in the latter part of the year.

191 planters and flower baskets were installed around the BID area, helping to make the town centre a more pleasant and attractive environment for all who use it.

August September

Jo Caswell joined the BID team as the first of our two We welcomed Dawn Gennery as Project Administrator, whose role is to assist Harrogate Hosts. What is a Harrogate Host, you may ask? the BID manager in the day to day running of BID activities, liaise with levy The answer is a Harrogate Host is our ‘eyes and ears on payers and members, and our partners Harrogate Borough Council and North the ground’, the visible presence of the BID, who are in Yorkshire County Council. the town centre speaking with businesses on a regular basis and reporting any issues to HBC, NYCC and North Our second Harrogate Host, Sara Hartley, joined the team to work alongside Yorkshire Police, as and when needed. Jo Caswell. This month, we announced Gala Lights as our Christmas Lights partner for the next four years. They are Christmas lighting specialists and It was also revealed this month that Harrogate Borough work with towns, cities and BIDs throughout the UK. And for the first time in Council had requested North Yorkshire County Council many years the lights were custom-made for us. to undertake the temporary pedestrianisation of James Street. As soon as we were made aware of this proposal, We also announced details of this year’s BID Board elections, which were we canvassed businesses on the street for their views. It communicated to BID members and levy payers, posted on the website and was a three-way tie; a third of businesses were totally published by local news organisations. against any form of pedestrianisation, one third were in favour of it, and one third were in favour of partial pedestrianisation from beyond the junction of Princes Street. A month later, NYYC announced it had decided to postpone the pedestrianisation scheme until the New Year and committed to further consultation with the The month ended with large floral planters, supplied by local company Dodsworth’s, being placed outside the doors of the top 20 levy paying businesses in the town centre, including Primark, Barclays Bank and River Island. Town Centre businesses.

‘The whole family loved the story of Harrogate, what a great event to bring the town to life!’

October

The first of the Christmas lights to be installed by Gala Lights were red pea lights in the four trees flanking Harrogate’s town centre war memorial. These were switched on just before the end of the month, and have attracted many comments about how they are a fitting feature to this prominent part of the town.

We were contacted by family-centred website, Harrogate Mumbler, asking if we would consider sponsoring their Halloween trail, which we readily agreed to. This debut partnership proved a great success, and brought many families to the town centre during the school half-term holiday.

And as the authors at this year’s Raworths Literature Festival took to the digital stage, we provided the funding for a large light installation in the form of a book to be a two-night feature in Library Gardens, which helped bring well-known tales, and the story of the spa town to life alongside providing a spotlight for local businesses, as part of an awareness campaign.

‘Shop Harrogate Online’ encouraged Harrogate residents to uses the services of local businesses before turning to national online retailers.

November multi-coloured tunnel on the piazza in front of Victoria Shopping With the Government announcing the second national Centre. The tower of St Peter’s Church has also been lit, and streets lockdown, we partnered with the Stray Ferret to launch ‘Shop not included before lit for the first time. Harrogate Online’ a campaign to encourage Harrogate residents to use the services of local businesses before turning to national and To complement the planters outside shops, ‘barrier baskets’ are now international online retailers for their immediate needs. Businesses in situ around the town centre, which are again helping to make the within the Harrogate District were invited to upload their details town centre a more pleasant environment for all who use it.onto a specially created microsite for free, which was then promoted by The Stray Ferret and us via social media. During the middle of the month, we enabled Pubwatch to sustain their activities through financial support for the We also re-activated our re-opening grants for businesses either development of an app. Once pre-pandemic normality has returned, without an ecommerce website, or those who were looking to this will assist with making Harrogate a safer place, day and night.upgrade existing ones during the lockdown.

The second part of the Harrogate Gift Card promotion took place We have supported the expansion of the Harrogate Homeless this month, encouraging people to purchase them as Christmas Project through an annual grant, committed for four years. presents. In addition to the various online and in-print adverts, the message was pushed out on social media, and this will continue for a This month saw the ‘switch on’ of Harrogate’s Christmas Lights, but number of weeks. due to Covid restrictions this event took place in the early hours of Saturday, November 14, with no one present! A total of 520-man The month ended with the announcement that we were teaming up hours, and more than 100,000 LED bulbs, have gone into with the Rotary Club of Harrogate to sponsor their Christmas Shop installing this year’s display. This year’s lights have cost in the region Window competition. To date, more than 30 shops are taking part, of £100,000, with a large investment in repairing and upgrading the with the main judging taking place on the afternoon of Thursday, infrastructure for future years. In addition to a giant illuminated December 10. Christmas present near Bettys Cafe, and a programmable and

A total of 520-man hours, and more than 100,000 LED bulbs, have gone in to installing this year’s Christmas lights display.

December

During the first week of December, we announced two major Festivals. Located in front of their Cheltenham Parade office, it has initiatives to help bring customers into town. become a magnet for families with young children keen to experience a bit of pre-Christmas magic. The first is seeing us once again partnering with The Harrogate Bus Company to sponsor its ‘Sunday Freeway’, offering passengers the We have also begun “wrapping” the windows of empty shops in the chance to ride its Harrogate Electrics buses on services 2A, 2B, 3 town centre, in preparation for them starring in a new Harrogate and 6, which link Bilton, Dene Park, The Knox, Jennyfield and story trail. Not only will this make the units look more attractive, Pannal Ash with the town centre, free of charge. they will be another reason to visit Harrogate town centre.

We have also launched a ‘free after three’ car parking scheme, And finally, tomorrow sees us taking the wrappers off our last event where motorists arriving after 3pm at the Victoria Car Park on of 2020 –a ‘showstopper’ that will take place over 9 days, ending on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, between Wednesday. December 7 and 24, will be able to park for free.

This week, our second partnership with Harrogate Mumbler – a family friendly Christmas trail around Harrogate town centre –gets underway. Again, it’s a fun way to bring families into town to find images hidden in ten shop windows.

An integral part of our ‘Harrogate at Christmas’ campaign has been the opening of the North Pole Post Office, which is our third and final collaboration of the year with Harrogate International