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).