Welcome to our Huddersfield BID town centre blog where every month BID manager SAM SHARP looks at some of the exciting things going on in the town.
This month Huddersfield BID is focusing on how we can help town centre businesses in the fight against retail crime.
The Huddersfield BID Street Rangers are on the streets six days a week patrolling the BID zone. They are there to help traders and the public alike.
Our Rangers are helping businesses tackle and prevent retail crime, recording incidents of anti-social behaviour, intercepting suspected shoplifting and providing a point of contact with Huddersfield BID and town centre stakeholders.
So far this year, Huddersfield BID Rangers have retrieved stolen goods worth £4,808.90 for businesses within the BID zone.
Huddersfield town centre has issues with crime, vandalism and anti-social behaviour, just like other towns of a similar size up and down the country.
But Huddersfield BID is working collaboratively with Kirklees Council, West Yorkshire Police and the local town centre policing team to tackle these issues. We want Huddersfield town centre to remain a safe and welcoming place for everyone.
As well as our work on tackling retail crime, Huddersfield BID also offer a free jet-washing service to levy payers in the BID zone. We can remove graffiti pretty quickly and also clean up paths, pavements and grotspots.
If a place looks neglected and uncared for, it brings out the worst in people and sends out the wrong message. This is where Huddersfield BID can make a real difference in lifting the appearance of the town centre and show that people do care.
We are holding our first retailer engagement group meeting on Monday September 11 which is specifically aimed at updating retailers within the BID zone on actions and services provided by Huddersfield BID and the local policing team.
We aim to discuss how we can all work together in tackling the town centre issues which most towns experience. What makes Huddersfield different to other towns is that Huddersfield BID and its partners want to help and empower businesses to improve the trading environment for everyone.
We aim to have monthly meetings with retailers to engage, plan, update and discuss relevant issues and work together in making the town stronger and a better place to live, work and visit.
If you are a levy payer and feel that your business would benefit from being part of this group, please reserve your place HERE.
Here at Huddersfield BID we’ve had another busy summer and our successful Huddersfield Lego Trail ran throughout August and brought lots of families into the town centre with over 5,000 location check-ins.
Our next event is really exciting too – HuddersFeast – Get Your Feast On! This is a first for Huddersfield BID and it’s a laid-back and relaxed street food festival held in St George’s Square.
The event is over three days – Friday September 22, Saturday September 23 and Sunday September 24 – and there is food to try from around the world.
Entry is free and we hope people will drop by for a bite to eat or drink and go off and enjoy everything else that the town centre has to offer. Find out more about HuddersFeast HERE.
On the Sunday the focus will be firmly on families and there will be fun, free activities for children including face-painting, a magician, a balloon artist and giant lawn games.
HuddersFeast will run 11am-9pm on the Friday and Saturday and 10am-4pm on the Sunday so put the dates in your diary – and we’ll see you there!
