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Bognor Regis a runner up in ‘Britain’s best high street’ awards

Bognor Regis needs the public’s help to be crowned Britain’s best improving high street

 

Bognor Regis has finished a runner up in the race to be crowned Britain’s best coastal high street.

Bognor Regis and Prestatyn made it into the top three but were pipped to the post by Amble at an award ceremony in London’s Admiralty House earlier on Monday, 30 November. 

A record number of 230 high streets entered and nearly 200,000 votes were cast across the seven categories. This year the public got the chance to vote for the first time, alongside a visit by an expert judge from the Future High Streets Forum.

As a runner-up in the Great British High Street Awards 2015, Bognor Regis will now receive a share of a prize pot worth £80,000.

Toyubur Rahman, from Bognor Regis Town Centre Management said:

“Whilst we’re disappointed not to have won the Great British High Street Awards reaching the final is still a fantastic achievement.

“We’ve made huge developments over the past year to make Bognor Regis look physically better and to be a better place to work and shop.

“Being a finalist in this competition has encouraged such a community spirit and we’ll make sure that we keep this up. We’re going to use our experience as finalists to do even more. We’ll be back next year, so watch this space.”

Bognor Regis was named a Runner up in the Coastal Community category because of their incredible improvement work.

Bognor Regis has transformed in the last few years, with the town centre partnership raising £650,000 to spruce up the centre of town.

The partnership also used some creativity in using the local Butlin’s to offer free customer training to businesses and in coming up with ways to encourage local students to come into town more.

A dash of inspiration was also used in Bognor Regis’ regeneration when the decision was made to run a zipline running down the centre of the high street and to hold a food market, both of which proved highly popular.

High Streets Minister Marcus Jones said:

“The excitement this competition has generated with a huge level of interest from the public vote is proof that high streets are the life and soul of towns, villages and cities across the country.

“Over the last year investment in property is up 30%, town centre vacancy rates have fallen to under 10% and retail sales have increased for the longest period on record – long may it continue.

“Bognor Regis deserves the very highest praise for being a finalist in this year’s Great British High Street Awards.

“Their innovative ideas and hard work on the ground really made them stand out and we’ll be sharing their excellent example to help others learn from their success.”

The Great British High Street Awards 2015 is run by the Department for Communities and Local Government and sponsored by Boots, Costa, Post Office, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and the British Council of Shopping Centres.

Now in its second year and is one of a number of initiatives to help champion high streets as the cornerstones of the community.

These include a billion pound package of investment ranging from targeted business rate discounts, sensible planning changes and action that reins in over-zealous parking practices.

There were seven categories in the 2015 Great British High Street Awards:

City Location – Winner St Giles Street, Northampton

Town Centre – Winner Rotherham

Market Town – Winner Helmsley

Coastal Community – Winner Amble

Local Centre – Winner Bishy Road, York

Village – Winner West Kilbride

London – Winner Pitshanger Lane, Ealing

Bishy Road was named winner of winners.

In addition because of the high-quality of this year’s new entries the Judges decided to create a special new prize of Best Newcomer – which was awarded to Faulkner Street, Hoole.

Winners were decided by a combination of an assessment by an expert judge from the Future High Streets Forum and the public vote. Each had a 50% say on who won the competition.