BID Best Practice

British Retail Consortium – inclusion of Falmouth BID project in annual report

The BRC is the UK’s authoritative voice of retail, recognised for its powerful campaigning and influence within government and as a provider of excellent retail information. They produce an annual report on the UK High Street and are keen to include one of Falmouth BID’s projects as an example of best practice. 

They will highlight how the BID spearheaded Falmouth brand and destination marketing campaign helped to foster a unique sense of place and helped with the promotion and profile raising of the town. 

This is really good recognition on a national level again and follows on from the BID FREE car parking project being highlighted by the British BIDs in their annual report.

Falmouth video

Check out Falmouth video we've co-ordinated and thanks to John Waplington for producing this. The only downer is the fact you have to put up with my partner in crime at the beginning but don't let that put you off :)

Falmouth BID Updates

Richard Wilcox, Falmouth BID Manager

Falmouth Oyster Festival

The BID this year has funded a new event in an effort to grow and develop the Oyster Festival so that it ultimately encompasses many other venues across the town. The Food & Folk event will be taking place on the Saturday and Sunday on The Moor and will feature numerous food outlets from across Falmouth showcasing their wares. The BID has also provided PR and marketing support to enable us to promote Falmouth once again to as wide an audience as possible. Confirmed press trips and subsequent articles will include:

·         BBC Olive magazine

·         MSN Food

·         The Guardian

·         Reading Post

·         Delicious Magazine

In addition, numerous BBC Radio Cornwall interviews have been secured as well as features in regional newspapers and magazines such as Cornwall Today, Western Morning News on top of local newspaper coverage.

PR recent achievements

Following on from the above we are also continuing to drive at a rate of knots, the PR campaign for Falmouth. Our strategic efforts to promote Falmouth to a much wider audience in order to raise profile and attract extra visitors has meant we have now passed the £600,000 mark in terms of national coverage and 70 BID businesses being mentioned, profiled or supported. The latest two:

·         BA Highlife magazine – one of the highest profile in-travel magazines, this being the in-flight magazine for British Airways. Audience 3.4million. We featured in an article that profiled 12 great towns that the Olympic Torch passed through.

·         Birmingham Mail – we also target regional newspapers and this double page spread all about Falmouth is another great example of the sort of coverage that has been secured.

You can also view a much fuller range of coverage here – FALMOUTH COVERAGE

BID Letter to Transport Secretary

Mr P McLoughlin
Secretary of State for Transport House of Commons, Westminster SW1A 1AA

Dear Mr McLoughlin

I write with reference to the vital mainline rail service connection between London/the South East and the West Country, and on behalf of the Falmouth Business Improvement District (BID), a body that represents a community of over 400 businesses from one of Cornwall’s largest and most prosperous resorts.

The Falmouth area welcomes over 500,000 visitors annually and the BID drives forward numerous, innovative projects (www.falmouth.co.uk/media) that aim to give Falmouth a competitive advantage, support its diverse range of businesses and encourage opportunity despite the prevailing challenges arising from current economic conditions.

In addition, Falmouth’s maritime sector has a reputation for excellence that extends beyond the UK and the recently outlined Port of Falmouth Masterplan is seen as one of the most critical economic development strategies for the region. It is one that will see a multi-million pound investment in Falmouth Docks to ensure its viability and competiveness for a generation, securing thousands of jobs and livelihoods in the process.
Falmouth and its neighbouring town, Penryn have also seen multi-million pound public sector investment during the past decade in the development of a flagship university campus at Tremough.

Shared and jointly managed by University College Falmouth, which is regarded as one of the UK’s leading arts universities and the University of Exeter, that has recently been invited to join the Russell Group of leading research institutions, the Campus is the County’s Higher Education hub; the catalyst for Cornwall’s economic regeneration as part of the European-funded Combined Universities in Cornwall initiative; and is a key driver of new business incubation in the south west, particularly in the areas of environmental sustainability and the creative industries.

A reliable, frequent and speedy rail service between Penzance and Paddington is vital to the continuing success of our tourism, maritime, higher education, environmental and creative industry sectors. When you evaluate bids for the Great Western franchise shortly, we would therefore urge you to ensure that:

1. The number of trains operating the London Paddington – Penzance route remains at least the same as now and is not reduced.
2. There is a thorough review of service that focuses on ways in which the journey time between London Paddington and Penzance can be reduced. Faster trains, with fewer station stops at certain times of day/week would open up business opportunities for the region, ensuring synergy with the positive developments that are taking place in the County in the sectors referred to above.

The demand for cross-country and regional rail services clearly exists and this is no better exemplified than by the 90% increase in usage of the branch Truro-Falmouth Maritime Line over the past five years making it the fastest growing branch line in the country. Whilst we are relieved that the future of this branch line has been secured, as well as the sleeper service to Paddington, Cornwall’s future depends on improved rail services. Quite simply it is a lifeline that connects Cornwall to the rest of the UK.

The Falmouth BID very much hopes that the coalition Government and future West Country rail service provider can work collaboratively and innovatively with key regional business organisations to ensure that Cornwall is positioned to potential visitors and investors as an attractive proposition by rail.

We look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

Richard Wilcox Falmouth BID Manager

Cc Falmouth BID Board Mrs Sarah Newton, MP for Falmouth and Truro and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Mr George Eustice, MP for Camborne and Redruth Mr Kevin Lavery, Chief Executive, Cornwall Council Ms Suzanne Bond, Chief Executive, Cornwall Development Company Cllr Mr Alec Robertson, Leader of Cornwall Council Mr Peter Child, Managing Director, A&P Falmouth Mr Henk Wiekens - Joint Managing Director, Pendennis Shipyard Professor Anne Carlisle, Rector, University College Falmouth Mr Steve Trotter, Assistant Director, University of Exeter Cornwall Campus Mr Chris Pomfret, Chairman, Cornwall & IOS Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Cornwall Town Manager and BID Forum Mr Malcolm Bell, Head of VisitCornwall Cllr Mr Geoffrey Evans, Mayor of Falmouth Mr Richard Gates, Falmouth Town Manager

BBC Antiques Roadshow coming to town!

Fiona Bruce

13 SEPT 2012. 09.30am-16.30pm

BBC Antiques Roadshow is coming your way! Bring your treasures to the Roadshow experts in Events Square and the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. If you have large pieces of furniture and/or bulky antiques you‘re unable to carry, we may be able to help. Write now enclosing your address, telephone number and a photograph, if possible.Closing date for letters/emails: Tuesday 4th September Antiques Roadshow, BBC, Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2LR Email: antiques.roadshow@bbc.co.uk. 

More information on our website.bbc.co.uk/antiquesroadshow. Antiques Roadshow asks for 14 days notice if you need a sign language interpreter.

BEN AINSLIE’S LONDON 2012 GOLD MEDAL WINNING BOAT COMES BACK HOME

Olympic games may be over but there is one golden star from London 2012 who still has her moment to shine.

Rita, Ben Ainslie’s loyal Finn from the games is returning to National Maritime Museum Cornwall after helping Ben win his incredible fourth gold medal, cementing him as the most successful Olympic sailor in history.

Together, Ben and ‘Rita’ have won three Olympic Gold medals, in Athens, Beijing and now London and their partnership has become legendary.

Rita’s home, when she’s away from Ben, has been the Maritime Museum in Falmouth, along with Ben’s gold medal winning Laser from the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Visitors will soon be able to see all of Ben’s gold medal winning boats in the main hall of the Museum forming an installation in honour of what Cornwall’s great man has achieved.

The boats will be on display together as soon as Rita makes it back from Weymouth – expected in the next couple of weeks. They will feature in the heart of the Museum until the end of the year where they will then be ‘suspended’ in the Museum’s flotilla of flying boats.

“It’s coming home, it’s coming home, it’s coming, Rita’s coming home…”

Falmouth BID Updates

SPLASH 2012 7-16^th Sept
Significant efforts undertaken regards this new creative event for Falmouth in order to raise profile of Falmouth and drive additional footfall:

·         15,000 A5 flyer inserts into Falmouth Packet (today's edition) and West Briton (last week)

·         Bus shelter posters are in place, shop window posters we’ll distribute next week

·         The 16 page guide has been produced and looking good! 10,000 will be distributed next week. In the meantime do browse it here SPLASH GUIDE

·         Substantive PR effort with local and regional articles having appeared and due to appear over next few weeks

Falmouth Week

Clearly Falmouth Week is progressing well that includes a very good Music on the Moor event which the BID is providing support for, liaising with Pubs United on that initiative. Our support also ensures the event’s marketing and PR continues to grow and develop.

Falmouth.co.uk

We are seeing some significant figures in terms of unique visits to the BID funded and managed official website for Falmouth. We are also working well with the Visitor Information Centre to ensure its growth and visibility remains strong. This month we will see over 35,000 unique visits. 

Falmouth Oyster Festival

I am liaising with Pubs United to look at ways BID can support the Oyster Festival even more by hosting events around The Moor among other things. More to follow on this..

Best Town Award

You may have read that Falmouth has been shortlisted for a Town of the Year award. Richard Gates and I helped facilitate the judges visit and we are now further promoting Falmouth and the reasons behind our short listing as we speak, to maximise even further, the profile of the town.