Bradford on Avon in Chippenham is in the running to win up to £10,000 in prize money as part of a nationwide search for Britain’s best high streets.
Although there is 2 weeks to go until applications close, Bradford on Avon is one of the first areas off the starting block to apply for the small market town category.
Bradford on Avon is among the first thirty applicants in the national celebration of individual communities’ efforts to revitalise their local areas. The community of shop owners is a very tight-knit bunch who take pride in helping each other out and contributing to the betterment of the town as whole.
Michelle Donelan MP for Chippenham, who nominated Bradford on Avon, said:
“Bradford on Avon is wonderful, unique and exciting. It’s lucky enough to have a market town that is virtually all independent shops. I recommend that everyone visits because it is quite an experience, not just for the retail
outlets but for the wonderful and majestic views as well. Fingers crossed our entry will be successful so Bradford on Avon will get its name recognised as a great place to live, shop and work.”
Now in its 3rd year, the competition celebrates the great work that is being done to revive, adapt and diversify the nation’s high streets. Alongside the cash prize, Google are offering all category winners a visit from The Digital Garage on Tour – a skills training workshop for retailers and small businesses.
High Streets Minister Andrew Percy said:
“Last year’s competition was a massive success, helping to showcase the very best high streets across the country, with thousands of votes cast and winning high streets reporting an increase in shoppers. Our local high streets remain the life and soul of towns, villages and cities across the country and I’d encourage as many of them as possible to enter this year’s competition before the closing date”.
New to 2016, the competition is also looking for individuals to win a ‘high street hero’ award. With categories for store managers and employees from national or independent retailers to ‘under 25’s’ and market traders, high streets are able to enter the individuals who are making a difference to their local community.
On top of this, Twitter is backing a new ‘digital’ category in order to find independent shops that are using social media to drive footfall to their local high street and support their local community.
Members of the general public, as well as retailers themselves, will be able to nominate entrants in the ‘Best Shop on Twitter’ category ‘by simply sending a tweet using the hashtag #BestGBTwittershop.
The category winner will receive a special prize – one thousand pounds’ worth of advertising credit, as well as a trip to Twitter UK’s London Office to further boost their digital skills.
Nominations for all competition categories are now open across England, Wales and Scotland. The top 3 shortlisted in each category will be announced in October. They will then go through to a public online vote and places will be visited by the Future High Streets Forum judging panel made up of industry leaders from across retail, property and business.