Great year in prospect for town centre
THIS is set to be another very exciting year in Stockport and Totally Stockport have some great plans to attract new people and businesses into the town centre.
Before the BID launched, we asked people across the ‘villages’ of Stockport and across the borough about their perceptions of their town centre: what is important to the people of Stockport and the surrounding area. Why do people come into Stockport? How often do they visit? What is their primary reason for coming into the town?
Among our findings, we found that an alarming number of people hadn’t visited the town centre for many months if not years!
Through the introduction of new family events, such as the Totally Foodie Festival in June and the BIG Day Out in September, we attracted ‘new’ visitors and shoppers who had the opportunity to see the many positive changes that have been taking place over the past year.
Totally Stockport’s new quarterly news magazine has gone a long way to introduce a whole new audience to Stockport, a guide to what’s on, who is here and new businesses that have chosen to locate here.
Back in January last year, the research also told us that security, policing and car parking were concerns and had some impact on why people chose to visit alternative out-of-area retail areas. Stockport’s perceived lack of a nighttime economy was also highlighted as a reason not to come into Stockport.
Twelve months on, our teams will be back in the Stockport villages to find out how perceptions have changed, how many more people have visited and what else they want to see in Stockport in the future.
High on our agenda in 2018 are a number of key projects; to invest in town centre policing; to consult with key partners to create a car parking strategy that is fair for everyone and to run a customer services programme that will improve the customer experience and help the retailers to develop a highly regarded workforce.
Digital is an intrinsic cog of our daily life; we want to provide free town centre Wi-Fi and, through the Totally Stockport App, retailers can attract shoppers with special offers, specifically targeted to drive more sales.
But it is important that every BID levy paying business gets involved in the plans, too. Join one of our steering groups - Experience, Business, Marketing & Digital - we welcome your ideas and input.
If you or your business is a BID levy payer and you would like to get involved, please email Paul Taylor, BID manager for Totally Stockport, at paul.taylor@totallystockport.co.uk.