The busy Norwich Market in fron of City Hall. Picture: Denise Bradley

Businesses urged to make Norwich the east of England’s best city

Richard Wheeler Thursday, February 16, 2012
9:27 AM

Businesses are being urged to promote Norwich beyond the borders of Norfolk and establish it as the east of England’s best city.

Traders met Norwich South MP Simon Wright yesterday to discuss how to help the area realise its full potential in the years ahead.

Talks focused on the creation of a business improvement district (BID) in Norwich and the 28 recommendations made in a government High Street review conducted by Mary Portas, pictured.

Suggestions in the retail guru’s report included improving park and ride, making it easier for people to become market traders and establishing a “Town Team” to manage individual high streets.

Norwich is ranked ninth in the country for shopping with £1.1bn spent by visitors last year and is believed to be coping better than most cities with the economic downturn.

And Liberal Democrat Mr Wright said there was an opportunity for the city to continue bucking the trend.

He said: “It has been a challenging couple of years for many businesses but in the city we have a fantastic success story to tell with the vibrant retail offer we have in Norwich. We are in the top 10 retail destinations and we have a fantastic, diverse mix of different shops and we attract visitors from far afield as a result.”

Mr Wright said his aim for yesterday’s meeting was to find out how to help Norwich achieve its potential and continue to grow. He said this includes improving rail links to make it easier for people outside Norfolk to visit.

Mr Wright said: “I think Norwich is certainly a stronger retail centre than what neighbouring counties have and I think there’s a reason to think we can promote Norwich as much more than just the city of Norfolk but a city for the whole of the eastern region.”

Representatives of the Norwich City Centre Partnership yesterday updated Mr Wright about the BID.

BIDs aim to bring businesses together to identify how the trading and shopping areas can be improved. It is predicted £3m could be raised by a Norwich BID over a five-year period.

Stefan Gurney, Norwich’s city centre manager, visited Lincoln last week to talk to the city’s Business Improvement Group established in April 2005.

Funding for Lincoln BIG is collected in the form of a levy, paid by businesses, and this allows the group to organise events and pay for services, such as street wardens.

Mr Gurney said: “We are looking at national best practice and seeing some of the correlation between what other cities have focused on and whether they are of some value to Norwich or whether there are lessons to be learned. It’s also to see how people have developed their business development district and how it’s working in reality.”

What do you think should be done to help Norwich fulfil its potential? Write to Evening News Letters, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich, NR1 1RE or email eveningnewsletters@archant.co.uk

14 comments

Is Yarmouth a City? Lowestoft? Ipswich? Thetford...Kings Lynn... Bury St. Edmunds, Beccles, Bungay....Briston?? Are we competing in an imaginary contest with Cambridge, Lincoln and Peterborough etc? Where is East? Who is getting the big fees for this non-event? Anybody read "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists"? I expect the Usual Suspects will cream it.

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Mad Brewer

Friday, February 17, 2012
Encourage business with lower rent and rates,and make parking easier and free. Before the council turned norwich in to a one way road humped dog's breakfast,you coul park in a 30 minute spot and nip into shops for impulse purchases. Now much easier and cheaper to go on line,no parking, no astronomical petrol charges and no hassle.

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Harry Rabinowitz

Friday, February 17, 2012
Could somebody name the other eastern England Cities in competition with us for this honour?

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Mad Brewer

Friday, February 17, 2012
Whenever I go to Norwich most of the car parks are nearly full. Therefore free car parking will just result in lost revenue. Free parking also encourages visitors rather than shoppers which means that the average spend per car parking space will reduce.

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AE

Friday, February 17, 2012
Vital that Norwich has better links westwards towards the Midlands both by road and rail. As for free parking, most spaces in the shopping centre are owned by private companies. If the municipal car parks were free [at a cost to the council taxpayers] it would put pressure on the commercial operators to do likewise. The immediate benefit would largely go to residents of Broadland and South Norfolk of course but the City residents might gain from greater prosperity in the long run as business rates revenues would gradually rise. Maybe.

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JCW

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Norwich is already east of England’s best city. Shame it has Simon Wright and Chloe Smith as MPs - it deserves better!

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DrJB

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Norwich came 7th in a nationwide poll of the happiest places to live.does this include shoppers up the city?Is it due to Norwich having a large proportion of prescribed "happy pills"?

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bookworm

Thursday, February 16, 2012
for what its worth i agree with Mary Portas about having free parking.

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bookworm

Thursday, February 16, 2012
i rarely shop up the city. i agree that there are balloon faced folk arguing and shouting at each other. plus i cannot bear to see happy faces or smell the fish stall on the market.

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bookworm

Thursday, February 16, 2012
I agree with mary portas and billie.there should be free or much cheaper car parking as an incentive. I see Norwich came 7th in a nationwide poll to see which places were happiest.very disappointing. i want to move and live in the most miserable.

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bookworm

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Billy, who's going to maintain these 'free car parks', non driving taxpayers? and with what money? Also the £4.60 it costs to park in Norwich all day or £2.30 return on the park and ride does not preclude person x from spending £££ in a shop, they're generally out to buy a product anyway, so what difference does it make paying for a car park?

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NorthCity

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Improving the p*ss poor train service and sorting out the A11 would be a start. Anyway, I can't see what's so great about Norwich shops. It's all mobile phone and clothes shops, full of moon-faced people arguing with other.

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ds99

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Silly Billy, not one single person thinks "I'm going to spend £100 in town now that I can save a fiver on car parking". It just doesn't work like that. If you want to spend money, you'll do so....if you can't afford the car park fee then you aint gonna be able to spend anything in the shops anyway are you? Honestly, the stupidity of some people scares me.

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merrydancer

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Norwich is already east of England’s best city so no need to waste millions of pounds on this scheme paying expensive consultants etc. The best thing for the East would be to have a very fast rail service between Norwich and Birmingham to help attract tourists etc. to the East.

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I LoveNorfolk

Thursday, February 16, 2012