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Welcome to the City Speak newsletter Firstly I want to apologise that this edition is a little later than planned, but as you will see
from the articles in this issue, we have been busy progressing some really exciting projects,
including branding for the city centre, more city events, a new website, mobile phone app,
city map, door stickers and more. Because we wanted to tell you all about these
developments and more, we delayed the publication of City Speak a little.
In this edition, we formally welcome Debenhams to the city. The arrival of the new store has
really lifted the city centre, and brought crowds of people to enjoy the store, as well as the
other delights the city has to offer, boosting many nearby shops and businesses. We also
welcome other new stores including Accessories in Tudor Row, and the new Ruby noodle bar
in the Corn Exchange - congratulations to all new businesses and welcome! Other empty
units are also filling up fast, which is fantastic to see, and we look forward to welcoming
these businesses as well! And, we wish Hindleys Bakery a very happy 120 years!
This edition also contains news of the city’s Heart of England in Bloom entry (see below)!
There’s also news of Lichfield Food Festival, free advice for your business, discount cards and
more. We hope you enjoy reading this edition of City Speak.
Richard Lewis President, Lichfield Chamber of Trade & Commerce
In this edition 2 Introducing the new city brand
3 Door stickers and city map
3 More events for Lichfield City
4 New home for the TIC
4 Friary Outer update
4 Friarsgate update
4 New city advertising pods
4 City centre paving update
5 Cathedral Christmas events
5 Get free business advice
5 Hanging baskets - get yours!
6 Lichfield Food Festival is back
6 Where next with city funding?
7 Boost your business with offers
7 Thanks for going ‘Buy Local’
8 Events, proms, and more
8 Calendar of key events
Heart of England in Bloom -
thanks for your support! Update from Lichfield Chamber of Trade & Commerce
Following last year’s runaway success, when the city
scooped a Silver Gilt award in the Heart of England in
Bloom competition, the Chamber of Trade &
Commerce once again entered the city into this year’s
floral festivities.
The competition is run by the Royal Horticultural Society and is widely recognised as the standard
bearer for floral competitions. This year our entry was supported by Lichfield District Council,
Lichfield City Council, local groups and businesses across the city, who all took part in the judging
day, including Tempest Ford which provided cars for the judges, as well as a light buffet lunch.
The day started at Mabel’s Tea Rooms at Curborough Craft Centre, where the judges heard short
presentations on recycling and sustainability. The winners of the schools wheelbarrow competition
were also presented with their prizes in front of the judges. The group then visited Christian Fields
Nature Reserve and the Netherstowe allotments. At around 11am the party arrived in the city and
visited the Garden of Remembrance, Minster Pool Walk, Bolt Court, Market Square, where a special
Farmers’ Market took, Lichfield Heritage Centre, Speakers’ Corner and the Cathedral Close. The party
then toured St John’s garden and Erasmus Darwin House herb garden. They then headed to Beacon
Park to see the woodland, teaching centre and community garden.
Richard Lewis, President of the Chamber of Trade & Commerce, said: “I’d like to thank everyone on
the Blooming Lichfield Team for helping to prepare for this year’s judging. It has been a huge team
effort. I’d also like to thank city businesses for helping us to prepare for the day by making sure their
business frontages were spic and span, purchasing hanging baskets, and doing a quick litter check
outside their shops on the morning of the judging. It would be fantastic to win another prize this
year, so thanks again to everyone, and fingers crossed whilst we await the result!”
To find out more email [email protected]
Bunting is back! Update from the Lichfield
Town Team
We had so much positive
feedback about the
bunting last year, that it
was back on the streets in
time for the Heart of
England in Bloom judging
day and the Festival.
Ruth Plant, Chair of the
Town Team, said: “We
bought good quality
bunting last year, so after
a quick check, we decided
it was in good enough
condition to re-use. The
Lichfield Town Team also
agreed to pay to put the
bunting up and take it
down at the end of the
summer.
Email elizabeth.thatcher@
lichfielddc.gov.uk
Issue 6 July 2013
1
Who’s the Town Team? The Lichfield Town Team is a city working
group that brings together representatives
from local organisations, the district and city
councils, and local businesses, including
Tempest Ford, Friary Shoes, Tudor Row and
others. The group meets monthly to discuss
ways to improve the city through small
projects and other ideas. The team is also
tasked with investing the High Street
Innovation funding to boost the city.
The Marketing Taskforce is a smaller group of
the Town Team, and includes Louie Clegg
from the Best of Lichfield, Brian Carruthers
from Tempest Ford, Anna Riley from Cure,
Becky Edwards from Stardust, Sally Osbourne
from Mooch Kids, Richard Lewis from the
Chamber of Trade & Commerce, Lisa
Prokopiou from Three Spires Shopping
centre, Paul Oakley from the Lichfield
Gazette, Judith Lundie from Room to Inspire,
and Louise Hall from Dame Olivers. To get
involved call Lizzie on 01543 308781 or email
Introducing the new ‘One Inspiring City’
marketing brand Update from the Town Team Marketing Taskforce City centre businesses have been working together to invest £50,000 High Street
Innovation funding and £10,000 Town Team funding to boost Lichfield City
centre. To help come up with the best ways to invest the money, over 60 city
businesses attended two open traders’ events at the Lichfield Garrick, where they
took part in workshops and voted on the ideas they would like to see taken
forward … see previous issues of city speak www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/cityspeak
The top idea voted for by traders was better marketing of the city’s lifestyle offer
through a new brand, and the need for Lichfield to compete with nearby shopping
areas by advertising on the back of buses, billboards, bus stops, in train carriages
and more. Traders also want a better way to help shoppers navigate the city, and
to make sure they discover its hidden gems, such as Tamworth Street, Bird Street
and Bolt Court, that new visitors to the city might easily miss.
Through the work with local traders, it was agreed that £2,000 would be set aside
to develop a new brand, £6,000 would be set aside for advertising and promotion,
and £3,000 would be set aside for a new website and a mobile app. These ideas
have since been taken forwards by the recently formed Lichfield Town Team, and
to kick start the process, six local design agencies were asked to come up with
design ideas for the branding.
Anna Riley from Cure and member of the Marketing Taskforce
commented: “All the designs submitted were fantastic, and we
were bowled over by the enthusiasm and commitment of the
agencies. On behalf of the Lichfield Town Team and the city, I’d like
to say a huge thank you to everyone who submitted their ideas.
After much deliberation, however, the team chose a design by
Bluflame, a city based design agency. The design is fresh, vibrant
and modern and we felt it will appeal to shoppers and visitors who
might otherwise not think about coming to the city, as well as to our
loyal shoppers and customers. We’d also like to say a huge thank
you to Development Securities, the developers of the Friarsgate
Scheme, who have contributed £2,000 to the brand development.”
The team is now working on key projects to drive the brand out across the city
and beyond, including a new city centre website that resizes to all mobile
devices, door stickers, a city centre map, and a suite of advertisements.
To find out more email [email protected] or call
Lizzie on 01543 308781.
2
Draft new website design
The team behind the design Update from the Town Team Marketing Taskforce
The team behind the new city centre branding is a company called
Bluflame Creative Design Solutions. Bluflame has been based in
Lichfield City for just over two years and has worked on local
projects ranging from the Staffordshire Hoard to St John’s House
marketing. The team working on the designs are Geoff and Vicky,
who have recently joined the Town Team Marketing Taskforce and
will be involved moving forwards to help deliver the project.
To find out more about Bluflame visit www.bluflame.co.uk
Door stickers and city map Update from the Town Team Marketing Taskforce
One of the first things you’ll see the new city brand
appearing on is door stickers (see below), that link people
through to the new mobile website, and a pocket-sized
city map.
We’re hoping that all city businesses will be happy to
display a door sticker, and in return we’ll be offering all
businesses a free listing on our new city website, including
a photo, map, description and more, and a free listing in
our new city map. We’re also hoping that lots of businesses
will be happy to stock copies of the city map to hand out to
customers. The maps are small (about 10cm x 7cm), so
they fit into a pocket or bag easily, and then they fold out
to A3 size and will include listings of all city retailers,
attractions, car parks and more. We’ll also be providing
point of sale Perspex display cases for the maps.
Would you like to advertise on the city
map? The map costs around £3,000 to print, so we’ll be
offering city businesses the chance to advertise in it from
around £100. To find out more call Lizzie on 01543 308781
or email [email protected] or look
out for the flyer included in this issue of City Speak.
3
More events for Lichfield City ... Traders also voted to bring new events into the city to boost
footfall in shops and businesses. This was the second most
popular idea following the recent traders’ meetings.
To help deliver new events, £6,000 was set aside from the High
Street Innovation funding, and in May local organisations were
invited to pitch for a share of the money to deliver new city based
events.
An Events Taskforce was set up to review the pitches in June, which
included ideas for a gardening and growers festival, a treasure hunt
and more. On this occasion just one event was selected, which was
an idea put forwards by a local event company called Blue
Strawberry.
Lucy from Blue Strawberry explains: “Our idea is to host a
Gardening Festival in August 2014. We’ll be bringing colourful stalls
into the city, linking up with market traders and businesses, and
hosting talks and speeches from experts, including TV gardening
experts. Gardening is so popular at the moment, and the event ties
in really well to the city's entry into the Heart of England in Bloom
competition, as well as the recent parks makeover. We’re also
hoping to turn the event into an annual occasion to bring more and
more people into the city each year.”
Marie from Rieve, who is
on the Events Taskforce,
added: “We were thrilled
with the pitches put in by
local organisations and on
behalf of the Town
Team I’d like to thank the
organisations who
submitted a tender.
We’re looking forward to
working with Lucy and her
team and seeing the plans
for the gardening and
growers festival
unfold.”
To find out more email
elizabeth.thatcher
@lichfielddc.gov.uk or
call Lizzie on 01543
308781.
Draft door sticker design, linking people to the
new mobile website
4
Friary Outer update Update from Lichfield District Council The development of the new car park and housing is now in
its finishing stages, which includes installing internal
fixtures and fittings and snagging work. Work on the new
hotel is also set to start soon.
Lots of people have been asking about when the footpaths
will reopen, and here’s an update:
� Once the car park is open, we’ll reopen the footpath on
The Friary.
� The footway closure order has been extended to allow
the new Premier Inn hotel to be built.
� This means the footpath on Swan Road will remain closed
whilst the work on the hotel is underway.
Thank you for your patience whilst the building work takes
place, and to find out more about the development please
email [email protected] or call 01543 308252
New home for the city’s
Tourist Information Centre Update from Lichfield District Council & Visit Lichfield Lichfield’s Tourist Information Centre moved from the
Lichfield Garrick into Lichfield Heritage Centre on 1 July 2013.
The move will boost the visitor experience in the city, provide
a rent free home for the Tourist Information Centre, and it’s
hoped the 40,000 visitors the Tourist Information Centre
attracts every year will help to safeguard the ongoing survival
of Lichfield Heritage Centre.
The move is taking place in a staged way. The first stage was
to move the team and to make sure all the services are up and
running. The team will now spend the summer getting up to
speed in their new home, as well as serving this summer
season’s visitors.
David Wallington, President of the Guild of St Mary’s, said:
“We’re then looking forward to a joint re-launch in late
summer, early autumn, and we’ll be working with other
partners to see what improvements and enhancements we
can make to support their activities as well. To find out more
email [email protected] or call Lizzie
on 01543 308781.
New advertising &
information pods
coming to Three Spires
Shopping centre Update from Three Spires Shopping centre &
Wonderworks Media As part of the recent make-over of Three
Spires Shopping centre, which has seen new
signage and eye catching window graphics
installed, as well as repainted benches, street
furniture and more, the team at Three Spires
is installing three new advertising pods in the
centre.
The pods will be located by Boots, near Raw
Menswear/Two Seasons, and near the Gresley Row car park
entrance. Each pod houses two 46 inch high definition plasma
screens that will promote a variety of advertising and information
for shoppers visiting the centre. The pods also give businesses
across the city a chance to advertise their products to shoppers in
Three Spires and encourage them to visit all the city streets.
How does it work and what does it cost?:
� From just over £400 a month, your advert could appear up to
96 times a day (over a 24 hour period), every day, for three
months*
� The team at Wonderworks Media can help you to create
your advert.
� Because the content is digital if, during your campaign, you
want to run a special offer or promotion, you can do this
easily and quickly - although there could be a small cost for this.
� The pods also feature weather and local messages, together with
local promotional and charity advertising, so people will regularly
stop to read them to find out more and see your ad.
To find out more call the team at WonderWorks on 0207 630 3330
or email [email protected] * based on a three month campaign commitment
Friarsgate update Update from Lichfield District Council The proposal to build a new shopping and leisure complex
on the site of the bus station, police station and multi-
storey car park is being taken forwards by the developers,
Development Securities Ltd. The team is currently
reviewing the plans and working with potential retailers
and the district council to map out the next stages in the
scheme’s development. New plans will be presented to
Lichfield District Council during the summer months and
we’ll bring you an update in the next issue of City Speak.
To find out more about the development please email
[email protected] or call 01543 308252
City Centre paving update Update from Lichfield District Council Market Square and a number of city centre streets were paved with
heritage stones in 2007. On completion, the project was widely
praised by local businesses and local people, and it has helped to
boost the attractiveness of the city centre.
Since then, a number of paving stones have deteriorated and patch
repairs have been carried out. Recently, the number of broken
paving stones has increased to a point where we agreed with
Staffordshire County Council, as the highways authority, that a full
review is needed. We’ve been working with Staffordshire County
Council, the landscape architect and the materials supplier to
understand the cause and extent of the issue, and to look at the
possible solutions.
We’ll keep you posted in future editions of City Speak, or for
further details, email [email protected] or call
01543 308060.
It’s not to
late too get a
hanging
basket! Update from the Chamber
of Trade & Commerce
The Lichfield Chamber of Trade and Commerce has once again
supplied businesses in the city centre with beautiful hanging
baskets that are just starting to bloom! So, if you are eyeing
your neighbour’s baskets with envy, and want to help brighten
up your shopfront and the city, order yours today!
For just £53, the Chamber will deliver and
hang your basket(s), and then water* it
throughout the summer, and take it away in
the autumn!
Last year over 130 red, white and blue baskets decorated our
streets and, along with the bunting, helped to celebrate the
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in style! We’re hoping to top the
number of baskets in the city this year, and we’re grateful to all
the shops and businesses who purchased theirs ready for Heart
of England in Bloom judging on 4 July (see page 1).
To book your baskets, which are multi-
coloured this year, call Rob Young on 01543
473183 or email [email protected] *The watering is paid for by Lichfield City Council and carried
out by Lichfield District Council, so thanks to them both!
Christmas
at the
Cathedral -
dates for
your diary! Update from Lichfield
Cathedral Whilst summer hasn't
really hit yet, the
cathedral is already
planning for the chilly
months, and wants as
many businesses to get involved as possible in their range of
fantastic festive activities. Here’s how to ...
Enter a tree into the Christmas Tree Festival
Back by popular demand, the cathedral will be hosting a
Christmas Tree Festival in partnership with the Forestry
Commission between 7 & 15 December. Groups, businesses
and more from across the city and district are invited to
decorate themed trees for visitors to enjoy - last year saw trees
decorated in chains and hazard tape (Tippers), and cotton reels
and handmade decorations (The Sewing Shop) and more.
Entering a tree is a great way to support this fantastic
community event and a great way to promote your business to
thousands of visitors across the nine-day event.
Take part in the Advent Window Trail
Business across the city are being invited to sign up to take part
in an Advent Window Trail. The trail will see shops decorating
their windows in the run up to Christmas. The festive trail
around the shops will be promoted to thousands of visitors that
pass through the Cathedral and visit the city over the Christmas
period. Over 30 shops are already signed up to the trail, but if
you are interested in finding out more, contact the team.
Festive Food & Gift Fair
New this year is a Festive Food & Gift Fair on 14 December in
the Cathedral Nave and just outside. The fair will showcase the
best in local and regional produce and crafts. If you would like
to take part in the fair, contact the team.
Come along to Songs for the City
The cathedral team would like to invite all businesses from
across the city to put a date in the diary for the ever
popular ‘Songs for a City’ on Tuesday 3 December. Everyone is
welcome for a fantastic festive affair, where members of the
business community are recognised and thanked for their work
to provide jobs, boost the economy, and for their contribution
to the life of our city.
For more information on any of the above events,
or to take part in the cathedral’s Christmas
activities, please contact Judith Ayton, Fundraising
& Database Officer, on 01543 306106 or email
Free business support
and advice Update from Lichfield District Council
Thanks to funding from the Lichfield District Strategic
Partnership, we’ve teamed up with a local company,
Business Development Services Ltd, to offer businesses like
yours a free advice and support service called Lichfield 4
Business.
Based in Elmhurst in Lichfield District, BDS Ltd has over 24
years experience supporting local businesses, and is now
offering a range of free advice and guidance, including
business and employment growth, workforce development,
improved access to finance and general business development
advice, until June 2014.
To find out more about the free support and
advice available to your business email
[email protected] or visit
www.bds-uk.co.uk
5
Last year’s Christmas Tree Festival
Photo credit Lichfield Camera Club
6
Have you offered a
special offer yet? Update from Visit Lichfield Hundreds of business across the city and
district regularly submit offers to the Visit Lichfield special offers
card scheme. Why? Because your special offer gets included in a
monthly email to over 3,000 signed up card holders for free, which
then encourages card holders to visit you to claim your special
offers. Submitting an offer is easy - call Emily on 01543 308215 or
email [email protected] for details.
Lichfield Food
is back! Saturday 31 August and
Sunday 1 September Update from the Lichfield Garrick,
Lichfield District Council &
Lichfield City Council
Following last year’s success, Lichfield Food Festival is
returning this year and will help to end our summer in
delicious style! Boasting expert cookery demonstrations
and producers’ stalls, together with a weekend Farmers’
Market and The Best of Local Brewers festival in the
Guildroom, this year’s event will celebrate the very best of
local produce and talent.
Last year’s festival attracted well over 5,000 people across
the two days and local shops and restaurants reported an
uplift in trade. This year’s event aims to attract even more
visitors to the city, and the team will be working with local
businesses to help encourage festival-goers to enjoy the
other retail and refreshment delights the city has to offer.
Entry to Lichfield Food Festival is free, and across the
two days people can also attend a wide range of free
demonstrations in the Lichfield Garrick, The Kitchen Shop
and at Tippers, where celebrity chef Rachel Green from Kill
it! Cook it! Eat it! will share her love of local produce. A
baking competition will also take place in the Three Spires
Shopping centre. The event is organised in partnership by
the Lichfield Garrick, Lichfield District and City Councils,
Lichfield Arts, Simon Smith Chef and Three Spires Shopping
centre. It’s sponsored by local businesses, including the
Co-op, The Kitchen Shop and Tippers.
Calling all restaurants, pubs, bars and
coffee shops
Be part of the £10 Menu Trail Over the festival weekend,
we’re keen to encourage visitors to sample the delights of
local restaurants, coffee shops and eateries. If you can
offer a ‘special Lichfield Food Festival £10 fixed price menu’
we’ll promote it at the festival, and in other promotional
material for free. Your menu could be a main course and a
glass of wine, a starter and a main, or a main and sweet -
it’s up to you.
Be part of the £3 Wine Trail We’re also keen to encourage
people to sample the quality drinks on offer in the city. If
you can offer a ‘Festival tipple’ for £3 a glass (you decide
the size of glass), we’ll promote you at the festival as well.
Register to take part at www.lichfieldfood.co.uk or email
[email protected] or call 01543 308778
Please note:
There will be some city
road closures over the
weekend.
Where next with the High Street
Innovation Fund money? Update from the Lichfield Town Team
Last year we were awarded £50,000 High Street Innovation Funding.
The aim of the funding is to help boost the city centre. Since then
local businesses have been helping to come up with ways to invest
the money. So far we:
... have spent around £3,000: Christmas lights, shopping crawl,
traders events and bunting the city.
… are currently investing £17,000 in projects: £2,000 branding*,
£6,000 on advertising and marketing, £3,000 on a website and
mobile app, £6,000 on city events.
… have set aside £5,000: Covent garden entertainment.
*Because Development Securities has offered to fund the branding
work (page 2), this leaves us with around £27,000 left to spend, so
the big question is what to invest the remainder of the money in?
A BID Workshop? At the last traders’ meeting at the Lichfield Garrick, we heard from
Julie Moss from the Birmingham City Partnership. Julie described
how Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have helped to boost
over 11 areas across Birmingham, including Broad Street, Colmore
Row and some shopping areas on the outskirts of the city. Julie
explained that a BID involves businesses paying a small amount on
top of their business rates each month, which is put into a shared
pot, and used to boost the city centre through a range of initiatives -
from hanging baskets, to marketing, signage and more. Find out
more about BIDs at www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/cityspeak and
download February 2013’s edition to read the article on page 7.
Julie also explained how setting up a BID is no small task - and that it
takes patience, determination and lots of legwork. Because of this,
and because we have no one in post to help set up a BID, one option
for us is to invest some of our remaining High Street Innovation
funding to appoint someone to help us set up a BID. That said,
deciding whether or not to spend some of our remaining funds on
this is a big decision, not least because if a BID isn’t successful, you
could argue that the funding invested in trying to set one up could
be lost or wasted. To help us decide whether or not we want to
invest money in trying to set up a BID, we are holding a BID
workshop in September. All city centre businesses will be invited to
the workshop, so watch this space for details or call Lizzie on 01543
308781 or email [email protected]
City Arcade Window Art Gallery set to launch
this summer Update from the Untitled Art Collective, Lichfield
District Council and the Lichfield Town Team
We’ve just heard the exciting news that, thanks to the landlord of the
empty units in City Arcade, and thanks to the Town Team, that is making
a small financial contribution to the project, we can turn the empty units
in the City Arcade (next to Michael’s and Friary Shoes) into a Window Art
Gallery this summer. As well as brightening up the windows with
stunning local art, members of the Untitled Art Collective, supported by
Celia Houghton, Lichfield District Council’s Arts Development Officer, will
be hosting weekend arts workshops to encourage more people to visit
the upper end of the city.
Simon Lumb of Friary Shoes said: “This is fantastic news. We’ve had
quite a few shops around us become vacant over the past months, and
the Window Art Gallery will brighten up the area and make it a more
enjoyable place to visit and shop. We’re looking forwards to seeing the
project unfold.”
To find out more, or get involved in the Window Art Gallery, display
your work, or help out, please email [email protected]
or call Celia on 01543 308224.
7
Thanks for
going Buy Local! By Louie Clegg, Best of Lichfield For those of you who have met
me, you will know how passionate
I am about supporting local retailers and businesses by
encouraging local shoppers to ‘Buy Local’. So it was
with great enthusiasm that, together with my partner
businesses across the city, we hosted our first ‘Buy
Local’ week (3 - 9 June)! We adorned shop-fronts with
blue and white bunting, posters and ‘Buy Local’ stickers
to ensure we were getting the message across to our
lovely Lichfield shoppers and residents about how
important it is to support our high street businesses to
drive our local economy right here in Lichfield.
The Farmers’ Market was great fun and our Buy Local
bags went down a storm. Then we did it all again at the
Three Spires Shopping centre, showing off our mini
During the week people who pledged to ‘Buy Local’
were entered into a daily prize draw to win £100 in a
local shop. One lucky winner Frankie Chapman can’t
wait to spend hers in the Kitchen Shop!
We would like to say a huge thank you to all of you
who supported us and let’s hope next year it will be
bigger and better! To support Buy Local or find out
more, visit www.thebestof.co.uk/thebestoflichfield or
call Louie on 01543 304441 or email
Tempest Ford’s new website Update from Brian Carruthers at Tempest Ford
We are delighted to announce the launch of
www.tempest-ford.co.uk which promotes not only
our dealership, but also our beautiful city, and we
think the designers have done a super job. The site also
promotes retailers and traders who are working so
hard to help revitalise the city centre by taking part in
the Lichfield Chamber of Trade and Commerce, the
Town Team and the Business Connect team at Lichfield
Rugby Club, and who are all featured in the partners
section of the website. Finally, we have introduced a
section that promotes the wider city, including events,
shopping, eating, drinking and more. There’s no charge
to be included, so if you want to be featured, please let
us know. Email [email protected]
or call the team on 01543 414451 for more details.
Heritage Weekend 21 & 22 September Update from Visit Lichfield
The Heritage Weekend is back again this year, and
attractions across the city will be throwing their doors
open for free to encourage people to enjoy the delights
of the city. If you want to promote a special offer to
Heritage Weekend goers, email emily.robinson@
lichfielddc.gov.uk
Defence Discount Service - a great way to get
your business noticed Update from Cllr Bernard Derrick, Armed Forces Liaison Member at
Lichfield District Council
Over the coming years, thousands of new service personnel will be based
at the new Defence Medical Centre that is being built on the site of
Whittington Barracks. We are keen to make sure the new personnel and
their families are welcomed to our district, and can enjoy the delights
the local area has to offer, which is why we have been working hard to
find ways to build links with the new centre and its personnel.
We’re also keen to find ways for local businesses to benefit from the
new development, which is why we’re pleased to share with you a
scheme called The Defence Discount Service which gives local
businesses the chance to offer their goods and services to service
personnel and their families.
Adding an offer is really easy - here’s how:
1. Decide on the discount/promotion you want to offer.
2. Log onto www.defencediscountservice.co.uk
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to where it says Supporters.
4. Click on Offer a discount under Supporters.
5. Fill in the online form, adding details of your company and discount,
and press Add Company.
6. Once you have filled in your form, your offer will go live on the
website and you will get a confirmation email.
7. Make sure all your staff know about
your offer and show them the card
(right) so they recognise it when
people come in.
If you have any questions, contact the
Defence Discount Service team on
01509 233446 or email contact@
defencediscountservice.co.uk
July events
4 Heart of England in Bloom judging day
4 - 14 Lichfield Festival
6 Lichfield Festival Market, The Close & Dam Street
6 & 7 Cars in the Park, Beacon Park
12 - 14 Fuse Festival, Beacon Park
16 Chamber of Trade & Commerce meeting
7.30pm, George Hotel Interested in joining? Come along!
19 Schools break up
21 Sunday closure of Bird Street (old Woolworths car
park) to allow for line repainting and maintenance
26 Lichfield Rugby Club Business Connect Breakfast
Meeting Call Tempest Ford on 01543 414415 for details
August events
10 Fake Festival, Beacon Park
23 Lichfield Rugby Club Business Connect Breakfast
Meeting Call Tempest Ford on 01543 414415 for details
26 August Bank Holiday
31 / 1 Sept Lichfield Food Festival
September events
7 Lichfield Proms in Beacon Park
7 Sheriff’s Ride www.lichfield.gov.uk for more info
17 Chamber of Trade & Commerce meeting
7.30pm, George Hotel Interested in joining? Come along!
20 Lichfield Rugby Club Business Connect Breakfast
Meetings Call Tempest Ford on 01543 414415 for details
21 & 22 Heritage Weekend & Dr Johnson Birthday
Celebrations (Saturday)
Get your business noticed and sponsor
this year’s Proms in Beacon Park Update from Lichfield District Council
Thousands of people crowd to Lichfield Proms in Beacon Park
every year to enjoy an evening of food, drink and fantastic music.
As the night draws in, the big screens either side of the stage
shine out in the dark, promoting a range of local and regional
businesses - in style! And, from just £250, what better and more
cost effective way is there for you to advertise your business to
thousands of potential local customers?
What’s more, when you sponsor proms, you can be proud that
your contribution will be used to help host this year’s event,
which is only possible due to the kindness and generosity of its
many sponsors and the district council.
If you want to come along on the night, it’s free to attend, but if
you would like to entertain your family or your customers in style,
why not book a table next to the stage for just £10 per head*.
Email [email protected] to find out
about all the opportunities on offer. And, don’t forget to put
Saturday 7 September in your diary and come along to
Lichfield Proms in Beacon Park. Visit www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/
lichfieldproms for more info! *Advance booking essential
The editorial team Partners and organisations
across the city provide articles for City Speak. These are brought
together and published by the communications team at Lichfield
District Council. If you would like to include an article in future
issues, email [email protected]
Distribution City Speak is distributed free to businesses
across Lichfield City. If you are not on the mailing list and would
like to be added, email [email protected]
When is it distributed? We aim to issue six editions
of City Speak a year. In between these times we update
www.cityspeak.info
Feedback We hope that you’ve enjoyed reading City Speak
and that it’s been useful to you. If you have any feedback on or
want us to include particular topics in future editions, please
email [email protected]
Keep up to date with events,
or promote yours for free in
What’s On What’s On is the events guide
for Lichfield City and district. It is produced
by Visit Lichfield and you can list up to five
events for free. It is distributed to most local
homes twice a year. Email
8
City Speak is brought to you in partnership by Lichfield District Council, the Chamber of Trade & Commerce, the TownSafe
Partnership, Lichfield City Council and other city partners.
Works to Bird Street car park
& Minster Pool Bridge Maintenance work on Bird Street car park will take place on
Sunday 21 July and the car park will be closed all day.
Works to Minster Pool Bridge are also planned by the highways
team in the coming months and we’ll keep you posted on
www.cityspeak.info