Welcome to our March 2022 Newsletter
Safe, Clean and Welcoming are three of our key priorities for Harrogate Town Centre, and this week we welcomed back our cleaning contractors for the first deep clean of the year. And it is very obvious to the see where exactly they have aleady been washing away grime and gum.
In this newsletter, there is a report from our Town Centre Ranger, Chris Ashby, and what he has been up to – again helping to make Harrogate Safe, Clean and Welcoming.
There’s information about how Levy payers can access funding to improve the frontages, news about the 2022 Harrogate Beer Festival and also town centre entertainment over the Easter holidays.
And finally, this Sunday BID Manager Matthew Chapman will be taking part in the Paris Marathon. This is Matthew’s first Marathon and we wish him well and look forward to hearing all about it on his return.
Yours sincerely
Sara
Sara Ferguson
BID Chair
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Cleaning Big Guns Back In Town
Our cleaning contractors are back in town steam cleaning and jetting washing streets across Levy area.
The team from UK Cleaning will be spending ten nights removing grime and chewing gum in a number of hotspots – including Oxford Street, Market Place and Kings Road – ahead of the Easter holidays.
Harrogate BID Manager Matthew Chapman said: “Walking around the town centre it is clear to see where our cleaning team have been, giving pavements a much needed spring clean.
“Over the next two weeks, the crew will be working across numerous areas making sure the town centre looks in pristine condition for the start of the 2022 tourism season. In the first ever survey asking levy payers what they wanted us to do, cleaning was the priority.
“This is the third year that our cleaning contractors have been making a noticeable difference, and their work will be further boosted by our Street Ranger and his power washer.”
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Employee Rewards – Think Harrogate Gift Card!
Are you looking for employee reward and incentive ideas for the end of the financial year? Perhaps something a little different, that keeps spend local and locked into Harrogate.
Reward your staff this Spring with a Harrogate Gift Card, which you can help promote local spend within Harrogate Town Centre. The Harrogate Gift Card can be spent at over 90 businesses in the area, this includes food & drink, retail, accommodation, and leisure. The Harrogate Gift Card allows your employees to treat themselves and also support our local businesses.
There are several benefits of using the Harrogate Gift Card for your employee rewards and incentives:
- Take advantage of the UK trivial benefits scheme by giving staff a tax-free non-cash reward of up to £50.
- Give employees a wide choice of where to spend their reward – including retail, leisure, hospitality, and services.
- Staff can spend their gift card with big national brands and small independents too.
- Support local people, local jobs and local employment.
- Keep money locked into Harrogate.
Other ways to use the Harrogate Gift Card to reward your employees:
- A way to say thank you/reward
- Christmas rewards
- To thank volunteers/time bank initiatives
- Incentives throughout the year, such as employee of the month/targets achieved
- To encourage staff to live more locally, tying in with CSR efforts
- New staff packs; welcome them to the company
- As a thank you for your own clients/customers
To purchase a Harrogate Gift Card, click here OR visit the Harrogate Bus Station or Tourist Information Centre.
Each Harrogate Gift Card is a pre-paid Mastercard, giving your staff ultimate convenience and security in how they spend their reward. If you’d like to find out more about how you can reward your employees and benefit the local community at the same time, get in touch today by emailing Harrogate BID at info@harrogatebid.co.uk.
If you’re a business , within the BID area that would like to join the 90 plus businesses already accepting the Harrogate Gift Card, please email info@harrogatebid.co.uk.
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Apply for Your 2022 Town Centre Improvements Grant
We have opened our 2022 Town Centre Improvements Grant scheme, to help levy payers enhance their street frontages.
Qualifying businesses will be able to claim match-funded grants of up to £750 for making a variety of upgrades, including paintwork, signage, and accessibility, all designed to make Harrogate town centre safe, clean and welcoming.
Harrogate BID Manager Matthew Chapman said: “Harrogate BID is keen to support Levy paying businesses in making improvements to their street frontages, the accessibility of their premises and the gateways to the town centre, by providing financial support through match funding.
“We know that businesses in the town centre are facing unprecedented pressures, and we want to ensure that Harrogate remains a desirable place to do business by helping them deliver an aesthetic ‘Welcome to Harrogate’.
“These grants, which help support one of the key objectives in our business plan, namely Safe, Clean and Welcoming, can be used for a variety of different projects.
“As long as the work enhances a façade, or makes it more accessible for disabled customers, we will consider it. As there is a limited budget for the 2022 Town Centre Improvements grant scheme, they will be awarded on a first come, first served basis.”
Businesses should submit their request for grant support to Harrogate BID via email to: info@harrogatebid.co.uk including a brief description of the proposed work to be undertaken, or equipment needed, along with quotations/proposals and expected completion date. |
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Be a Part of Harrogate Beer Week 2022
Sponsored by Harrogate BID, Harrogate Beer Week is one of Harrogate’s coolest new initiatives and a new annual event billed as a town-wide celebration of Harrogate’s craft beer, brewing heritage, and beer in the local community.
The Harrogate-based organisers are inviting you to a special free event to find out more about how your business can be involved in year two at STARLING INDEPENDENT BAR CAFE KITCHEN on OXFORD STREET on WEDS 27th APRIL at 6PM.
Come along and hear about what the inaugural HARROGATE BEER WEEK looked like in 2021, and the impact it had on participant businesses and the wider town.
Hear the vision for HARROGATE BEER WEEK 2022, which will take place from 19th to 25th September.
Find out more about how you can get your business involved, whether you are:
– a Harrogate or Knaresborough area based bar or brewery
– a food establishment or other drinks space
– something else and you have a creative beer-related idea for a special event or collaboration…
YOU’RE WELCOME TO JOIN US!
We’d love as many local businesses as possible involved for another brilliant year.
PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE AN ALTERNATIVE ONLINE EVENT ON WEDS 11TH MAY AT 5PM FOR THOSE WHO CAN’T MAKE THIS. |
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‘Window on the Past’ gives shoppers glimpse of medieval medical treatments
Medical treatments in medieval times will be put under the public microscope this April at an interactive pop-up museum in Harrogate town centre.
Being staged within Victoria Shopping Centre, the Window on the Past will give shoppers a chance to compare modern cures and living conditions with those from almost a thousand years ago.
In a partnership between Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID) and The JORVIK Group of Attractions, this temporary glimpse into history will feature archaeological finds, replica objects, scenic elements and more.
The display also considers elements of medieval life in the Harrogate district, such as where locals may have gone to seek medical help, and whether people were aware of the benefits of clean water even before Harrogate’s springs were discovered.
Visitors can explore a wealth of information online and consider the display’s themes in more detail. Reconstructions, videos and an exclusive short film, written by Terry Deary – author of the Horrible Histories series – entitled A Touch of Plague, can all be accessed via QR codes.
Online viewers can also learn more about disease and illness through a facial reconstruction of a skeleton found in York, showing signs of leprosy, helping the public understand how this individual may have looked as the disease developed.
The full story can be read here:
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Easter Entertainment In Harrogate Town Centre
There will be three different sets of streets entertainers in Harrogate town centre over the Easter holidays.
Starting on Saturday, April 9, it’s an Easter Egg-Stravaganza as Pete and Ged Moss the Gardener’s lead an Easter Egg Walkabout Special. The pair will entertain visitors with their musical wheelbarrow, brimming over with colourful Easter eggs of all shapes and sizes. Lots of hilarious audience interaction with guessing the origins of some of the more unique eggs in the collection.
Good Friday (Friday, April 15) is the turn of Enchantica and The Easter Bunny, and the following day, Easter Saturday, Harrogate plays host to Val & Halla! Travelling in their musical longboat, Val and Halla plunder, pillage and pirouette their way through the town. These two Abba-obsessed Scandinavians bring mayhem and mirth wherever they go. |
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April BID Club – Jubilee Celebrations & Cultural Change on the Menu
Join us 5.30pm on Thursday, April 14, at Hustle Co, Prince Albert Row, for our latest BID Club when Jubilee celebrations and implementing cultural change within a business are both on the menu.
Whilst BID Manager Matthew Chapman will outline plans to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubille within the town centre, Jane Slimming from Culco and CEO of Zeal, will talk about organisational culture and the future of the workplace.
Culco helps businesses implement a culture programme to increase staff retention, support employee growth and help owners run genuine culture-first organisations.
If you wish to attend, please email info@harrogatebid.co.uk
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