Romford BID Holds Second Term Launch Event
Romford BID invited several town stakeholders to a drinks reception and presentation about its second term launch on Thursday 14th September at Atik Nightclub in the town centre. Attendees included BID business levy payers, Town Councillors, Shopping Centre Managers, representatives from the Police, Havering Enforcement team and more.
On the night Romford BID Director, Julie Frost, talked through the BID’s objectives for the next five year’s including ‘shouting louder’ about Romford and promoting the town with innovative and creative means, as well as working in parallel with town centre stakeholders to increase the BID’s attractiveness to future inward investment.
Ensuring the town is a safe place to visit is key and Julie discussed how the BID is investing in the improvement of the physical environment to enhance the safety of the area. My Local Bobby and an undercover team from their sister company TM Eye, started patrolling the streets of Romford in August 2023 to tackle issues such as anti-social behaviour and shoplifting. They spoke during the evening about how they’ve already dealt with 69 incidents and recovered stock worth £6,077. The Bobbies also have access to DISC (the crime reduction app) which the BID funds - this is an online information sharing system which local businesses can use to submit incident reports, so this information can be shared with the police and used to identify prolific offenders. Romford BID also funds the Street Triage team, which offer support to injured or unwell people in the town centre on Friday and Saturday nights.
Julie reminded attendees of the incredible events that have been held in the town post pandemic – and how art and culture have helped bring people closer together in the town and create a sense of belonging and pride within the community, particularly the town wide event ‘Celebrate The Street’ and Chinese New Year. The events calendar is jam-packed moving forwards, including Halloween, Diwali and four weekends of Christmas events this year alone.
Romford BID will also continue to improve the look and feel of Romford through the installation of floral hanging baskets, planters, raised beds, community gardens and living walls - all encouraging sustainability, helping wildlife prosper, and making some areas of the town much more appealing and enticing. In October the BID will also find out what they have won in the best BIDS, Town Centres & City Centres category in the 2023 RHS Britain in Bloom Awards, which is the UK’s largest community gardening competition – if Romford gain a great result it would be an incredible achievement for the town. The BID is also championing cleanliness of the town and organising rubbish pick-ups, improving lighting, and looking at recycling reductions with First Mile.
The Department of Work and Pensions were also at the event to discuss their current priorities and technology company ITS spoke to the audience about how investment from the Government’s Levelling Up funding will greatly improve the fibre connectivity in the town, benefiting all visitors.
Julie Frost, Romford BID Director said,
“It was an incredibly well attended event – our best yet – and it was a great opportunity to celebrate our positive ballot result earlier in the year, which has enabled us to be retained for a further five years and make an even greater impact on the town.”
Julie continued,
“It was brilliant to have My Local Bobby and TM Eye at the event to discuss their phenomenal results – they are making a hugely positive impact in the town by working in partnership with the local council, the police, and other stakeholders to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour. Plans for improved connectivity in the town are also very welcome and thank you also to The Department of Work and Pensions who talked about the great services open to businesses and residents of the town.”
