Highlights From The Last Five Years

The Plymouth Welcome

Highlights:

  • A new and colourful Christmas lights scheme

  • Brightly painted murals to transform one of the busiest gateways into the city centre at North Cross

  • Extra funding for 7-day-a-week and hotspot Plymouth Against Retail Crime (PARC) patrols

  • Drop-in meetings with police, businesses and other agencies

  • The creation of a Crimestoppers UK action zone

  • Improved street lighting, CCTV and Help points

  • Safer Plymouth Engagement Events

  • Support for Purple Flag accreditation, recognising the safety of our night-time economy

    In the new BID there will be a dedicated Safer Plymouth theme, recognising the requests from businesses for more focus in

    this area.

The West End

Highlights:

  • A family-friendly public space with new planting, spectacular tree-lighting and colourful street furniture in Frankfort Gate

  • Created a West End Plymouth brand and identity with colourful banners, murals, signage, dedicated website and social media channels

  • Established the West End Carnival as a significant annual event

  • Provided individual business support through shop improvement grants

  • Set up networking and advice meetings to foster a sense of community

  • Lobbied the council for more investment, including the new £25m Community Diagnostic Centre now under construction

  • Extra on-street parking spaces and wider bays in car parks

Events & Marketing

Highlights:

  • We secured £80,000 over two years from the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund to help develop and add to our events

  • A bigger and better Christmas Market with a new lay-out, more live entertainment and more than 50 stalls

  • A new-style Flavour Fest, our free 3-day food and drink festival with a new lay-out and evening entertainment

  • The West End Carnival

  • Mayflower 400 funding for projects including The Box at more than £45m and Arts Council funding of £16m over five years

  • Summer and Christmas marketing campaigns targeted at visitors and residents, focusing on shopping, eating out, events and things to see and do

  • PR reach of above campaigns 2.5 million and Advertising Value Equivalent of more than £62,000

You said, we delivered

You asked us to develop and extend our events programme and marketing to increase footfall. COVID affected some of our plans but footfall and visitor numbers are increasing again with events playing a major part in the city centre’s recovery.

More than 25,000 people visited Plymouth to see The Hatchling, part of the city’s Mayflower 400 commemorations with an economic impact of £770,000 over one weekend and global media coverage with an advertising value equivalent of £10m.

The BID has partnered with and contributes to Destination Plymouth’s Cruise Ship programme bringing thousands of extra visitors to the city.

We partner with Destination Plymouth and the Plymouth Waterfront Partnership to market the city locally, nationally and globally with targeted campaigns throughout the year.

Business Support

Highlights:

  • Shared recycling bins for small and medium-sized businesses at no extra charge, saving £500 a year.

  • Plymouth Against Retail Crime (PARC) membership, including DISC app with real- time crime information and reporting tools

  • PARC officer visits to your stores

  • Business promotion via our own and partner social media channels.

  • Free city centre promotional spaces and poster sites

  • BID networking events and business information via regular newsletters

  • A new CCTV camera for Mayflower Street after business requests

  • Shop improvement grants worth a total of £45k awarded to 18 small businesses

You said, we delivered

You asked us for more direct help to keep business costs down and to help with urgent concerns as they arose.

The BID was there for you when you needed us most, during COVID. We lobbied for quick and generous support and worked closely with the city council to ensure you got the financial support you needed, including:

  • Working with the city council to create
    a COVID resource centre with real-time updates, government information and downloadable documents.

  • Securing government funding for a Buy Local marketing campaign #GeddonPlymouth and Shop4Plymouth website to promote your online sales and services, click and collect and deliveries.

Placemaking

Highlights:

The City Centre Company has positioned itself over the last five years as a Voice for Change in shaping the future of the
city centre.

We have supported the city council and other organisations in efforts to attract inward investment and to recognise the need for change in the light of the changing nature of the high street.

Major interventions included the UK’s biggest new cultural attraction The Box and the new restaurant, cinema and leisure complex The Barcode.

But the City Centre Company has also:

  • Transformed the West End with its colourful new branding

  • Commissioned and supported street art in neglected areas

  • Added planters and street furniture

  • Found new uses for empty buildings with our Meanwhile Use Programme

We need a more diverse city centre with more homes, leisure, service businesses, health and education providers, and development of the evening and night-time economy.

That change is on the way which will lead to a more attractive and prosperous city centre for everyone.

In the new BID this theme will be part of The Plymouth Welcome.