UPDATE ROYSTON F1RST UPDATE | WINTER 2021
Halloween Events We are happy to announce that Royston First Halloween trail was a huge success with over 250 entries from children in Royston and the local villages. The Halloween trail was designed to bring the community together bringing footfall into town and providing families with a fun activity during Halloween, particularly as many events had been cancelled due to Covid. Children had to search the town centre for pumpkin stickers that had been displayed in 12 local shops and businesses. A £100 family meal voucher at the Old Bull and a basket of sweet treats were up for grabs, which were won by Sophie and Isla Weatherhead. They were very excited by the winner’s prize of a goodie box of
The winning spooky Halloween window display by Trademark Kitchens & Bathrooms
sweeties saying there were more sweets in there than they’d collected from their trick or treating adventures! We also had another winner on the day, Trademark Kitchens & Bathrooms for their very spooky Halloween window display. Thank you to all the wonderful businesses who joined in with the decorated windows and brought so much fun to the town.
Keep up-to-date with Royston First’s news and activities Follow us on Facebook @RoystonFirst
COMING SOON... Look out for naughty elves in the next children’s trail from the 27th November to the 11th of December. Find out more at roystonfirst.com/elf
Visit our website www.roystonfirst.com or scan the QR Code
Well done to Sophie and Isla, winners of our Halloween Trail
Royston’s
Trail
02 Royston First | UPDATE
Christmas Plans
TURDAY SA
OV
E M BE
Royston First and Royston Town Council have been working hard behind the scenes to make this Christmas magical, ensuring the town has Christmas lights, which had amazing feedback last year. There will be a low key light switch on event on Friday 26th of November from 4pm to 7pm with many shops staying open until 7pm. Wetherspoons have offered 20% discount off all food for all staff in shops staying open and working later into the evening. Contact us if you haven’t already to let us know if you will be open! Email info@roystonfirst.com
Royston’s
Town Open Day
We are excited to announce this year’s children’s Christmas town trail - the Royston Elf Trail! The free-to-enter event will run from 27th November to the 11th December 2021. Children up to the age of 11 years can enter by searching for 12 naughty elves hidden in shop front windows for a chance of winning tickets for the Royston pantomime in January, with refreshments provided, and a hamper of sweets kindly donated by Ladds of Royston.
DE
CE M BE
Royston First is planning and supporting a Royston Christmas Town Open Day on Saturday the 11th of December. There will be lots of Christmas activities, mince pies and mulled wine together with special appearances from the Royston Town Band playing your favourite Christmas songs and lots of other surprises during the day. There will also be Christmas themed market stalls with lots of products for sale for that last minute Christmas shopping. TURDAY SA
Christmas Market
Trail
11th
18th
DE
CE M BE
R
26
N
R
Christmas Lights
th
R
FRIDAY
© Amy Murphy Photography
There will be a festive Christmas market on the 18th December where there will be a free raffle where shoppers can win beautiful hampers donated by traders. There will also be FREE cupcakes, home-made mince pies and mulled wine to get you into the Christmas spirit. What promises to be an atmospheric Christmas market will be completed by a local choir singing Carols and festive songs throughout the morning. Finally we will be decorating some shop windows throughout the town so definitely worth a visit to see the amazing artist that makes our town look like a Christmas wonderland!
Scratchcards
Royston First | UPDATE 03
We’re delighted to announce that we have extended the scratchcard scheme to Town Centre businesses.
OUT NOW Request your copy today
Request a pack of 25 FREE scratchcards, to give out to your customers. This is, for now, a one-off offer to help with footfall following the Covid lockdowns after the past year. If you haven’t already, please request a pack of 25 One Hour Free Parking scratchcards via email at info@roystonfirst.com
Positivity Messages The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted the little notes of positivity that have been popping up across the town centre. There are 12 of them in all, all designed to bring a little sunshine and happiness to your day when you visit Royston.
Don’t be caught short when you need to spend a penny! We are pleased to announce that Royston Town Council’s Community toilet scheme has re-started. The general public are able to use the toilets at the Jolly Postie and Banyers House. The public toilets at Fish Hill are open too.
Royston First is now on Instagram! Keep up-to-date with initiatives we have planned for the town and industrial areas in the up-and-coming weeks by following us on Instagram. Don’t forget we are on Facebook too. Find us at @roystonfirst There’s lots more coming up so keep looking out for emails and join our WhatsApp group for businesses with premises in the town and industrial areas If you would like to join, please send us your phone details to info@roystonfirst.co.uk
Pocketbook Directory For several years we have developed and distributed The Focus yearly with lists of all the premises based businesses in the town centre and industrial estates. This year we decided to change the format and the size of the business listing and developed the pocket book of businesses. This was delivered to all houses in the SG8 area so we hope it is something the general public will keep and refer to it for information. We have had fantastic feedback from businesses and members of the public so we will endeavour to produce one on a yearly basis. If you would like some to hand out in your business/shop please do contact us for some copies at info@roystonfirst.com
Have you visited Royston Town’s website recently? We have re-designed and relaunched the Royston Town website, including a new film clip showing Royston at its best! We get nearly 3000 visitors per month to the website so it was well worth an update and we also wanted to re-develop the business directory to enable the general public to search more specifically for services available in Royston. Soon to come is a job advert page for all premises-based business in Royston town and the industrial estates so you will be able to advertise your jobs on the page. Take a look and let us know if you want to change or update your listing in the business directory. You can also send your job vacancies in to us to put on the website – email info@ roystonfirst.com for more information Scan the QR Code or visit
www.roystontown.uk
04 Royston First | UPDATE
We’re open 8.00am to 2.30pm
MARKET MANAGER CORNER Royston Market is delighted to welcome a vast array of traders, offering a really wide choice of commodities throughout the month of December. Look out for: Ladies fashion and accessories Hand-made jewellery Christmas decorations including beautiful handmade reindeer and snowmen ( Royston Reindeer Company)
Giftware including candles and soaps Cushions and fabrics Toys - ideal stocking fillers Upcycled furniture Christmas trees and wreaths
Street-food Winter warmers including bangers and mash, turkey, stuffing and pigs in blankets, all day breakfasts and Mexican options!
We will also have all your favourite food stalls where
orders can be taken for produce ahead of the big day! These include our fantastic fruit and veg stall, superb produce from our resident butcher and fresh catches of fish from Great Yarmouth. The market operates from 8am, shop early to avoid disappointment.
So, what’s coming up...? Social media training Look out for on-line social media training that will be available to all premises based businesses in January. Digital communications have obviously increased during the pandemic with businesses using social media much more, so requests have been made for some training. We are in the planning stages but the training will be on-line. Make sure you are members of the WhatsApp group, the FB business group, or you send us your email address to receive communications via email. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for further information @roystonfirst
Eatery promotional video We are re-shooting the eatery video that can be found on the Royston Town website as it is very out of date now. If you are a new eatery in town then we will be contacting you to see if you would like to be filmed! Here is a link to the existing film www.roystontown.uk/businesses/ categories/eat-drink/ Please contact us at info@roystonfirst.com if you are a pub, restaurant or café and were not in the previous video filmed in 2019.
ROYSTON F1RST c/o Town Hall, Melbourn Street, Royston SG8 7DA 01763 878 242 info@roystonfirst.com Royston First www.roystonfirst.com
TOWN SURVEY You will probably be aware that NHDC recently did a town survey to gather business opinions regarding the Covid measures that have been put in place over the past year. Some businesses did complete the survey, however we felt quite strongly that we needed more feedback in order to get a clearer picture of the businesses and their views. In order to get this, representatives from NHDC visited businesses in the town and we are now working with them to address some of the issues.