Royston First Update - November 2022

UPDATE

Christmas in Royston

Christmas Lights Switch-On

Friday 25th November - 4.30 to 5.30pm

Come to Royston and get into the Christmas spirit as our official Christmas Lights Switch-On returns to the town centre! The event is taking place in front of Roisia’s Cross, next to the Jolly Postie. This year the lights will be brighter than ever with new lights covering Fish Hill Square. Special thanks to Abbot Travel, Flintshack and The Old Courthouse for providing the power.

Reed and Lift Off Choir will be singing all the old favourite Christmas carols and songs. There will be lots of Christmas treats and late-night shopping for all your gifts.

For more information, visit www.roystonfirst.com/christmas

Christmas Market

Saturday 17th December

Open from 8.00am to 2.30pm

n Raffle

n Cupcakes

n Home-made mince pies

n Mulled wine

n Local choir singing carols and festive songs

CHRISTMAS HAMPERS

Donated

Plus all our regular traders!

Entry to the raffle with every purchase made on the market. For more information about all our Christmas events, follow us on Facebook and Instagram

@roystonfirst

Christmas Shopping in Royston

This December, we are asking people to shop locally and buy their Christmas gifts for their family and friends right here in Royston Town Centre, to support our independent businesses.

We have created a Gift Shopping Guide for Royston Town Centre, which highlights what type of gifts are available from where, plus gift vouchers and where to eat and drink.

You can find the Christmas Guide by scanning the QR code.

Festive Window Decorations

The town has a lovely Christmas feel in December, partly due to the stunning Christmas window decorations. Bespoke Signs were again in Royston and decorated over 40 windows, so make sure to look round the town for the festive painted windows.

Free Christmas Lights Voucher

Royston First has been working with Royston Town Council to plan the Christmas lights since the start of this year. However, due to licences, three streets will not see commercial lights installed this year: Melbourn Street, Kneesworth Street and Baldock Street.

Royston First has supported businesses in these locations in the lead up to the festive season by helping to buy Christmas lights for shop windows, so our town sparkles as visitors drive or walk by and shop!

Saturday 26th November to Sunday 11th December

Once again, Santa’s elves have sneaked into the shops in town! Can you find them in the shop front windows? If you can, you’ll be in with a chance of winning a Christmas sweet hamper from Ladds of Royston.

For more information, visit www.roystonfirst.com/elf

by the traders

Halloween Trail

The Halloween Trail returned this year and we had so many children from Royston and the local villages taking part with over 500 entries, more than double when compared to last year!

We also trialled our first digital entry form alongside the traditional printed ones. We received over 50 digital entries which is 10% of entrants!

This year, the children had to search the town centre for potion stickers that had been displayed in 12 local shops and businesses.

The trail was designed to bring the community together bringing footfall into town and providing families with a fun activity during Halloween. Does it work? Well, it certainly helps - here’s some feedback from parents:

“We did the Halloween trail today and it was a great way to spend some time in town. Picked up a few bits from various shops and had a lunch out too - lovely afternoon in our lovely town. Thank you”

The new digital trail was a great success!

Halloween Window Competition

Another Halloween winner was Merlin Mica Hardware for their scarily spooky Halloween window display. Many of the props including the books of spells were hand-made by a Merlin Mica team member.

Thank you so much to all the wonderful shops and businesses who took part in our Halloween Decorated Window Competition. You did Royston proud!

Town Noticeboards

After months of working behind the scenes, we have taken over the large noticeboards in the town centre.

The noticeboards on Angel Pavement and the High Street near William H Brown Estate Agents have been cleaned and repaired. These will now be used to promote local events and projects in Royston.

& KHLOE

A £120 voucher for the Royston Cave and a cauldron of sweet treats were up for grabs, which were won by 5-year-old Miya and 8-year-old Khloe Stemp. They were very excited by the winner’s prize of a cauldron of sweeties and said this was the first time either of them had won anything.

James, the dad to Miya and Khloe said, “The children enjoyed taking part in the trail, we weren’t sure whether we would get a chance to do it, but we are so happy we did! Both girls can’t wait for the Christmas trail now”

Thank you to all the wonderful business who joined in with the trail and brought so much fun to the town. We plan to run both print and digital trail entry forms for the foreseeable future, and keep the trails running over a number of days.

Royston Arts Festival

We encouraged businesses to decorate their windows once more for the Royston Arts Festival weekend after the success of our decorated Jubilee Windows earlier this summer.

Businesses were tasked with creating a window display that interpreted the Royston Arts Festival’s “Circle of Life” theme, but which was relevant to their business.

The prize included a fantastic grazing board from The Honest Fig on Royston Market and a bottle of fizz from Cambridge Wine Royston.

On September 24th, we went with the Mayor of Royston to view the shopfronts and choose a winner. The displays for this competition were outstanding, notably former winner No. 3 Royston, who created a beautiful window featuring a hand-crocheted Simba and sunshine.

However, it was Ladds who were declared this year’s winner. We loved their ‘Circle of Life’ display using age birthday cards up to 100, plus major life events such as births, driving lessons, weddings and graduations, to name a few.

MIYA

Accommodation Leaflet

The Accommodation leaflet has been updated and now includes two new properties in the town.

Copies are available at Royston Information Centre in the Library, the Town Hall and also on-line with this QR code.

Town Maps

We’ve recently updated both the town centre and town maps of Royston to reflect the changes in our growing town.

Become a Plastic Free Champion or Ally

Royston is striving for plastic-free status. To do this, they need businesses and organisations to remove THREE items of single-use plastic from their business.

To show our support for this initiative, Royston First signed up and is now an official Community Ally. We have since been exploring further ways that we too can be more environmentally friendly.

Royston is very close to being accredited as a Plastic Free Town now, so please support this initiative if you can.

Trying to find local talent?

If you are a premises-based business in Royston and have a job vacancy to fill, you can advertise on the Royston Town Job Listings page free of charge.

Simply send your job description and contact details to info@roystonfirst.com to get your vacancy on the website for a month.

Parking Scratch cards

Scan the QR code to download the updated maps.

These updated maps have been distributed to Royston hotels, estate agents and the Royston Information Centre, where members of the public can pick up a copy and find their way around Royston to discover local businesses.

You’ll save money too!

By posting your vacancy listing on our website, it could be seen by the 3,000 website visitors we receive each month, at zero cost to you.

We still have parking scratch cards available for businesses based in town to give to your customers while they do their Christmas shopping, and for the industrial estate businesses. Please contact us if you would like more supplies.

You can request a pack of 25 One-Hour Free Parking scratch cards via email at info@roystonfirst.com

Scan the QR code to find out more.

Eateries Video

This has been updated to feature the new eateries in Royston.

Royston Town has launched a series of initiatives to make Royston a better place to live, both now and well into the future.

The first initiative is focused on reducing the amount of single-use plastic throughout the town to help minimise Royston’s overall carbon footprint. To achieve this, all customers and visitors are being encouraged to use reusable water bottles.

If you are a local cafe, pub or restaurant, please let us know if you would like to take part and become a free water refill station. So far, businesses taking part are Kooky Nohmad, Tasty Bites, Flintshack and Days of Ashwell.

If you have any questions about the campaign, contact us at info@roystonfirst.com

Historic Town Trail Leaflets

Again, lots of behind-the-scenes work has now resulted in the three missing town trail arrows being replaced and others cleaned to make them more visible on the pavement.

We have now started to promote both the full and shortened Town Trail, a guided walk around Royston town centre which highlights Royston’s fascinating past.

The leaflets are placed in the Royston Information Centre in Royston Library, Royston Town Hall and Royston Museum.

If you would like any leaflets for your own business, please email us and we will get some to you.

CRIME CORNER

Burglaries

There have been two burglaries in Royston Town Centre within the last two months. Hertfordshire police are currently investigating a shop burglary in the Royston Palace Ward. The incident happened in Melbourn Street on Monday 12th September, when money and two laptops were taken from the store. There was also a technical burglary recorded on 30th September on the High Street. A coffee shop was broken into and pictures were taken of their safe, but nothing was taken from the premises.

Shoplifting

There has been an increase in shoplifting in the town. Most of these occurrences tend to be organised criminals targeting shops that sell beauty and pharmaceutical products that can be resold online. Hertfordshire police have put measures in place to deter shoplifters.

Quad Bike

The quad bike paid for by Royston First has been deployed a lot recently by Hertfordshire police, specifically in the industrial estate, to help officers patrol the area effectively. The quad bike covers 7 times more ground than a car as it can go into parks and down alleyways. It was notably useful during the Halloween patrol to help tackle anti-social behaviour.

Welcome back PCSO Penny Tomsett!

We are happy to say Royston’s local PCSO Penny Tomsett will be coming back after recovering from knee surgery. Penny is well known within the community after 20 years of service and helping run initiatives such as the ‘Business Watch’. We are glad to have you back Penny!

Industrial estate signage

For the past six months, we have been working on introducing clear, zoned signage for Royston Industrial Estate.

The aims are to make it easier for visitors to find companies, to smarten up the Estate and to make it look more cohesive. Due to Highways requirements, our original designs for signage have hit a snag, but we are still working behind the scenes and committed to delivering on this project.

Royston Saturday Screen

The Brian Leslie Racher Charitable Trust has provided funding to the Hertfordshire Police to host a private screening at the Picture Palace Cinema once a month on a Saturday afternoon. The private screening will be for 120 children between the ages of 12 and 16 from King James Academy, and it will allow the children to watch a movie for free.

The aim of this project is to increase engagement with young people in the community and let them know the police are there to support them when needed.

Thursday Club

Her tfordshire police have worked to create a safe and fun environment for the young people of Royston. They have now joined with Limitless Academy to create a monthly event called the ‘Thursday Club’ that will offer a safe and fun environment for the youth to socialise and connect with the community.

The event started on 21st July and has continued every second Thursday of the month. It has been deemed a huge success with teachers from King James Academy, who have already noticed a difference in the pupils who have attended the club. The hope is that this event will lead to bigger projects for young people in Royston.

This project has been funded by Royston First along with Herts CC, as we firmly believe that investment for the youth of our town now will directly benefit Royston’s economic prosperity in the future.

MARKET MANAGER CORNER

There will be plenty of festive cheer on Royston Market throughout December and shoppers will be spoilt for choice when it comes to great produce and ideas for Christmas gifts.

Cambridge Wine and Pinkster Gin will both have stalls selling their outstanding range of wines, beers and spirits which are sure to prove popular at this time of the year.

Orders are now being taken by the butcher for turkeys and any other meat accompaniments while the fruit and veg on offer are of the highest grade and second to none. Also, look out for pitches selling an enormous range of cheese, olives and nuts and homemade Christmas cakes and puddings.

There will be traders selling toys and an array of craft stalls offering a variety of gift ideas, including beautiful handmade Christmas decorations and options for stocking fillers.

Thank you, Julia

In August we announced that our dear friend and colleague Julia Brooks had sadly passed away after her courageous battle with cancer. So many of you will have worked with Julia or met her at various business networking events.

For those looking for something to eat whilst they take a break from shopping, there is a ‘pop-up’ cafe on the market offering all-day breakfasts, brunch and street food, including Chinese delicacies and pizzas.

On 17th December, the market will enjoy live music appropriately themed for the season, along with a local choir adding to what should be a very busy day. Additionally, free mulled wine and cakes will be available from the Royston Town Council pitch.

There will also be a FREE raffle open to all shoppers, with beautiful hampers of produce provided as prizes by the traders. The prize draw will be made by the Mayor at midday.

STAY IN TOUCH

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to keep up to date with initiatives we have planned for the town and industrial areas. You can find us at @roystonfirst

Julia was extremely motivated and made things happen here in Royston. Whether it be the Royston Town Trails, the Christmas window decorations or the Christmas lights switch-on last year, all were projects driven forward by Julia with a tenacity and determination that knew no bounds!

She will be a very great loss to the Royston First team. We all miss our dear friend and colleague so very much, as we know so many of you do too.

Our thoughts go to Julia’s husband Simon, their children and all the family at this time.

We also communicate directly with businesses in the town and the industrial region estate via regular emails, through the Royston businesses WhatsApp group and in our private Facebook group, Royston Come Together.

You can send your mobile phone number to info@roystonfirst.com to join the WhatsApp group and request to join the Royston Come Together Facebook group.

We are planning a whole range of exciting projects for next year, so please ensure that you are receiving our communications and following us to stay in the loop.

ROYSTON F1RST

c/o Town Hall, Melbourn Street, Royston SG8 7DA 01763