Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The Great British High Street competition 2016 has revealed the final 27 towns battling to be crowned the best.
The contest, sponsored by British Land, Post Office, Holland & Barrett, Boots the Chemist, Marks & Spencer, Wilko, Revo, Ellandi, Google and Twitter, celebrates the work that is being done to revive, adapt and diversify the nation’s high streets.
Not-for-profit and government-funded, The Great British High Street aims to provide resources for high street regeneration and commemorate innovative work going on in high streets across Britain.
Judges have now visited each town. with their votes making up 50% of the vote. The other 50% of votes were cast by the public. The public voting phase closed last Friday (November 18) and a record-breaking number of votes were received – doubling last year’s total.
This year’s categories and finalists include:
*City: Derby, Norwich, Bristol
*Coastal: Prestatyn, Falmouth, Cleethorpes
*Local centre: Hoole, Tunbridge Wells, Claygate
*London: Romford, Lower Marsh Waterloo, Myddleton Road Haringey
*Market town (small): Thame, Chipping Norton, Hebden Bridge
*Market town (large): Hinckley, Market Harborough, Bridgnorth
*Town centre: Hemel Hempstead, Banbury, Blackburn
*Village: Langport, Kirby Lonsdale, Pateley Bridge
*Rising star: Dornoch, Stockton on Tees, Leominster
The winners in each category will get a share of a prize pot worth £100,000 and receive training from Google’s digital taskforce for shops, bars and restaurants, and a trip to Twitter UK’s London office to boost their social media skills.
The announcement of the category winners and the overall winner of winners will take place at an awards ceremony in central London on Monday December.12.
High Streets minister Andrew Percy said: “Our high streets are the life and soul of towns, villages and cities across the country – and the record number of competition entries this year is proof of their continued importance to local life.”
Edward Cooke, chief executive of sponsor Revo, said: “This year’s competition is set to showcase some great examples of ingenuity, innovation and partnership which enhance the vibrancy and vitality of urban places and village communities up and down the country. The shortlist has some incredible examples of how retail, leisure, restaurants and bars, civic amenities and urban living work in tandem to create places people want to live and work in and visit.”
The Winner of Winners in the Great British High Street Awards 2015 was Bishy Road in York, which wowed the judges with its ‘passion, innovation and community spirit’. The 2014 winner was Belper in Derbyshire.
