04 Royston First | UPDATE
R YSTON BUSINESS AWARDS As an event designed to celebrate the businesses in our area, Royston First thought it was fitting to offer financial support.
Royston First UPDATE - Winter/Spring
Accordingly, the funding of the printed programme for the evening was selected as a suitably non-partisan gesture of support.
Market Stalls
The evening itself was a glittering affair, complete with a celebrity presenter. All in attendance agreed it was an outstanding success and eagerly await the next one in 2018. Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up.
Royston First is pleased to report the successful completion of another initiative to maintain/ improve our town’s attraction to shoppers. In close association with Royston Town Council (and on a match-funded basis) we have procured a new set of market stalls to replace the previous ones that were, at best, somewhat shabby and at worst unfit for purpose (e.g. many of them leaked when it rained).
FOCUS 2017 Our annual guide to Consumer Businesses within the Royston BID area was distributed to 15,000 local households at the beginning of January. The front page of this edition featured the 10 new businesses that opened in Royston during 2016. The 250+ entries printed inside have all been updated and list local consumer businesses by category and are located by grid reference on the maps on the back page.
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS Royston First delivered a number improvements to this year’s Christmas Lights, namely: new lights on the main tree at The Cross and new motifs on the surrounding lampposts (replacing others that had become increasingly unreliable over the years); new motifs on the lampposts at the back of Fish Hill Square (which is the first time the area has been lit in many years); hanging cross street icicles in Angel Pavement to replace the previous wall-mounted mini trees; and profile rope light was added to The Corn Exchange (with the kind permission of the landlord).
2017
The new stalls are UK manufactured with customised canopies in cream and green to complement the new Royston identity appearing on the website www.roystontown.uk and elsewhere.
Obviously the primary function of the stalls is to support the bi-weekly markets (Wednesdays and Saturdays) but they will also act as a valuable resource in support of other town events (e.g. the May Fayre). Continued promotion of the market is one amongst a number of projects designed to support general footfall in our town centre which include: parking initiatives (Free-After-3; one-hour scratch-cards); empty retail
RE-PRINT OF TOWN MAPS Our two maps showing respectively the Town Centre and then Royston in its entirety have proved so popular that we are already on our 3rd reprint! As an organisation we own full copyright which is how we are able to offer them for reprinting on our website www.roystontown.uk/travel-maps
Unseen work included the continuation of a major project to re-wire the Christmas Lights in the High Street – thereby ensuring a lighting display that is compliant with current regulations. We also leafletted all occupiers to warn them of late night working to install the display.
ROYSTON F1RST c/o Town Hall Melbourn Street Royston SG8 7DA t 01763 878 242 e info@roystonfirst.com
Photo credit: Clive Porter
property initiatives (window dressing; pop-up shops); town trails (now four per year); pavement deep cleans (three times per year); the Royston Information Centre (including supporting materials such as the Accommodation Guide, a Guide to Clubs and Societies, the Town Trail, and free, tear-off maps of both the town centre and Royston in its entirety).
02 Royston First | UPDATE
Royston First | UPDATE 03
Website Six Month Review
2016 Events
Royston First continues to update, amend and improve the ‘everything Royston website’ launched during 2016.
Despite the best attempts of the weather to replicate actual seagoing conditions, the third annual Pirate Trail event organised by Royston First was once again an outstanding success. With somewhere in the region of 400 children completing the trail, the town centre footfall including parents, grandparents and siblings was increased to over 1,000 during the 6 hours of the event.
This year, children were invited to find lanterns hidden in shop windows (and on one market stall). The lanterns were crafted out of willow and decorated by pupils at Bassingbourn Village College. Each lantern displayed a number for the children to record on their entry form together with the shop name. On the day over 371 children visited Santa and 268 participated in the craft activities.
The latest enhancement to ‘go live’ is the functionality for businesses to amend the way they are described in the online database of all Royston registered companies. In order to amend your 150 character description for free, or update any of your existing details, simply go to the database www.roystontown. uk/business-directory , select your company, click on the “edit entry” button and complete the form.
Update your business entry for free
VISIT US AT www.roystontown.uk
Royston Town Literature Update
DRESSED WINDOWS
To offer an Information Centre that is useful to visitors it is necessary to have printed materials available for distribution.
Royston First launched a new window dressing initiative this year designed to assist retailers with their Christmas displays.
As such, brochures need to be both current and accurate. Royston First is committed to satisfying both of these requirements in the range of brochures it produces in support of our display in the library.
The scheme launched in October with a shop window hired expressly for the purpose of framing a display designed by a professional window dresser. The team then offered themselves to town centre businesses that might be interested in having a Christmas window installed on their behalf. In total over a dozen retailers participated and windows were created at the end of November for display throughout the festive season.
The results you can judge for yourselves...
As an additional attraction, pupils at Bassingbourn Village College were invited to help dress the window of a vacant High Street shop. In response, over 100 handmade decorations were created from recycled materials including transformed pine cones, cotton snowmen, coke cans and wool. As sponsors of the initiative, Royston First were so impressed with the quality and effort on display that they decided to award prizes of chocolate Santas to the 10 most original and seasonal designs.
Accordingly, updated versions of the Accommodation Guide, the Guide to Clubs and Societies, and the guide to the Royston Town Trail have all been completed and delivered during the final quarter of 2017. (Further updates are planned to keep the information current and up to date).
Town Trail Having completed repair works to the Town Trail (three of the thirty-one markers had been lost or damaged), Royston First then turned its attention to re-designing the printed Trail Guide. The end result is a revamped document that is hopefully a little easier to follow whilst, at the same time, somewhat fresher in design (which matches the other materials currently being produced in support of the town). The new brochure is now available from the Royston Information Centre (in the library), Royston Town Hall and Royston Museum. At 2.5 miles in length and 90+ minutes in duration, the current trail represents something of an undertaking for the casual visitor. Accordingly, Royston First is working to produce a ‘cut-down’ version designed to be completed in 40 minutes. Further information will follow in a future edition.
02 Royston First | UPDATE
Royston First | UPDATE 03
Website Six Month Review
2016 Events
Royston First continues to update, amend and improve the ‘everything Royston website’ launched during 2016.
Despite the best attempts of the weather to replicate actual seagoing conditions, the third annual Pirate Trail event organised by Royston First was once again an outstanding success. With somewhere in the region of 400 children completing the trail, the town centre footfall including parents, grandparents and siblings was increased to over 1,000 during the 6 hours of the event.
This year, children were invited to find lanterns hidden in shop windows (and on one market stall). The lanterns were crafted out of willow and decorated by pupils at Bassingbourn Village College. Each lantern displayed a number for the children to record on their entry form together with the shop name. On the day over 371 children visited Santa and 268 participated in the craft activities.
The latest enhancement to ‘go live’ is the functionality for businesses to amend the way they are described in the online database of all Royston registered companies. In order to amend your 150 character description for free, or update any of your existing details, simply go to the database www.roystontown. uk/business-directory , select your company, click on the “edit entry” button and complete the form.
Update your business entry for free
VISIT US AT www.roystontown.uk
Royston Town Literature Update
DRESSED WINDOWS
To offer an Information Centre that is useful to visitors it is necessary to have printed materials available for distribution.
Royston First launched a new window dressing initiative this year designed to assist retailers with their Christmas displays.
As such, brochures need to be both current and accurate. Royston First is committed to satisfying both of these requirements in the range of brochures it produces in support of our display in the library.
The scheme launched in October with a shop window hired expressly for the purpose of framing a display designed by a professional window dresser. The team then offered themselves to town centre businesses that might be interested in having a Christmas window installed on their behalf. In total over a dozen retailers participated and windows were created at the end of November for display throughout the festive season.
The results you can judge for yourselves...
As an additional attraction, pupils at Bassingbourn Village College were invited to help dress the window of a vacant High Street shop. In response, over 100 handmade decorations were created from recycled materials including transformed pine cones, cotton snowmen, coke cans and wool. As sponsors of the initiative, Royston First were so impressed with the quality and effort on display that they decided to award prizes of chocolate Santas to the 10 most original and seasonal designs.
Accordingly, updated versions of the Accommodation Guide, the Guide to Clubs and Societies, and the guide to the Royston Town Trail have all been completed and delivered during the final quarter of 2017. (Further updates are planned to keep the information current and up to date).
Town Trail Having completed repair works to the Town Trail (three of the thirty-one markers had been lost or damaged), Royston First then turned its attention to re-designing the printed Trail Guide. The end result is a revamped document that is hopefully a little easier to follow whilst, at the same time, somewhat fresher in design (which matches the other materials currently being produced in support of the town). The new brochure is now available from the Royston Information Centre (in the library), Royston Town Hall and Royston Museum. At 2.5 miles in length and 90+ minutes in duration, the current trail represents something of an undertaking for the casual visitor. Accordingly, Royston First is working to produce a ‘cut-down’ version designed to be completed in 40 minutes. Further information will follow in a future edition.
04 Royston First | UPDATE
R YSTON BUSINESS AWARDS As an event designed to celebrate the businesses in our area, Royston First thought it was fitting to offer financial support.
Royston First UPDATE - Winter/Spring
Accordingly, the funding of the printed programme for the evening was selected as a suitably non-partisan gesture of support.
Market Stalls
The evening itself was a glittering affair, complete with a celebrity presenter. All in attendance agreed it was an outstanding success and eagerly await the next one in 2018. Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up.
Royston First is pleased to report the successful completion of another initiative to maintain/ improve our town’s attraction to shoppers. In close association with Royston Town Council (and on a match-funded basis) we have procured a new set of market stalls to replace the previous ones that were, at best, somewhat shabby and at worst unfit for purpose (e.g. many of them leaked when it rained).
FOCUS 2017 Our annual guide to Consumer Businesses within the Royston BID area was distributed to 15,000 local households at the beginning of January. The front page of this edition featured the 10 new businesses that opened in Royston during 2016. The 250+ entries printed inside have all been updated and list local consumer businesses by category and are located by grid reference on the maps on the back page.
CHRISTMAS LIGHTS Royston First delivered a number improvements to this year’s Christmas Lights, namely: new lights on the main tree at The Cross and new motifs on the surrounding lampposts (replacing others that had become increasingly unreliable over the years); new motifs on the lampposts at the back of Fish Hill Square (which is the first time the area has been lit in many years); hanging cross street icicles in Angel Pavement to replace the previous wall-mounted mini trees; and profile rope light was added to The Corn Exchange (with the kind permission of the landlord).
2017
The new stalls are UK manufactured with customised canopies in cream and green to complement the new Royston identity appearing on the website www.roystontown.uk and elsewhere.
Obviously the primary function of the stalls is to support the bi-weekly markets (Wednesdays and Saturdays) but they will also act as a valuable resource in support of other town events (e.g. the May Fayre). Continued promotion of the market is one amongst a number of projects designed to support general footfall in our town centre which include: parking initiatives (Free-After-3; one-hour scratch-cards); empty retail
RE-PRINT OF TOWN MAPS Our two maps showing respectively the Town Centre and then Royston in its entirety have proved so popular that we are already on our 3rd reprint! As an organisation we own full copyright which is how we are able to offer them for reprinting on our website www.roystontown.uk/travel-maps
Unseen work included the continuation of a major project to re-wire the Christmas Lights in the High Street – thereby ensuring a lighting display that is compliant with current regulations. We also leafletted all occupiers to warn them of late night working to install the display.
ROYSTON F1RST c/o Town Hall Melbourn Street Royston SG8 7DA t 01763 878 242 e info@roystonfirst.com
Photo credit: Clive Porter
property initiatives (window dressing; pop-up shops); town trails (now four per year); pavement deep cleans (three times per year); the Royston Information Centre (including supporting materials such as the Accommodation Guide, a Guide to Clubs and Societies, the Town Trail, and free, tear-off maps of both the town centre and Royston in its entirety).