Bridgnorth crowned one of Britain's best high streets
Bridgnorth has beaten hundreds of high streets across the country to be named one of Britain’s best.
Bridgnorth took on the challenge of Hinckley and Market Harborough, both in Leicestershire, and won the ‘large market town’ category of the Great British High Street Awards, following a public vote.
Bridgnorth received £5,000 and was awarded a trophy by High Streets Minister Andrew Percy at a ceremony in London earlier today.
High Streets Minister Andrew Percy said: “Bridgnorth deserves the very highest praise for being a category winner in this year’s Great British High Street Awards.
“From their spectacular social media campaign to their innovative park and ride scheme, we’ll be sharing Bridgnorth’s excellent example to help others learn from their success.”
Sally Themans from Love Bridgnorth said: “This Awards means everything, we’re thrilled and so proud of our town!”
Bridgnorth’s MP Philip Dunne expressed his delight at the win.
Following the awards ceremony at Lancaster House in London, Mr Dunne met Sally Themans of Love Bridgnorth, and Sarah Stevens of Buy Big in Bridgnorth, at the House of Commons to congratulate them on coordinating the successful campaign to recognise Bridgnorth as one of the country’s best high streets.
Mr Dunne said: “This is a spectacular result for Bridgnorth. The quality of the competition was incredibly high, so to be recognised as the best large market town in the country is a remarkable achievement, justly deserved.
"I pay tribute to Sarah Stevens and Sally Themans on the amazing work they did to show off the best of Bridgnorth, with a strong media campaign and massive public support. Another top accolade in South Shropshire shows how fortunate we are to live in such a wonderful place.”
The Great British High Street Competition 2016, run by the Department for Communities and Local Government, celebrates the great work that is being done to revive, adapt and diversify the nation’s high streets. It is one of the Government’s initiatives to help champion high streets as the cornerstones of the community.
This includes helping local business communities adapt to the changing face of high streets with a £6.7 billion package of business rates support, cutting the rates for 900,000 businesses – with 600,000 now paying none at all.
Over the last year town centre vacancy rates have fallen. Retail sales have shown continued to rise year on year each month since May 2013 and footfall to high streets increased by 2.8 per cent on Black Friday 2016 compared to last year.
This year’s competition saw a record 900 entries across all 14 categories, including the new categories for individuals and shops. On 18 October 2016 a shortlist of 27 places was drawn up to go through to a month long public vote.
Shortlisted high streets were visited by a judging panel made up of retail experts, including British Land, the Post Office and Holland & Barrett, which accounted for 50 per cent of the overall score.
