Town could be advertised in new TV campaign

An advert, which would see the town’s best spots highlighted to people living in regions such as the West Midlands and South Wales, could be up and running by the end of the summer.

It is just one idea proposed by the Weston Business Improvement District (BID) team, which wants to reinvigorate the town centre.

The BID scheme was voted through by traders in the heart of Weston earlier this year, with a percentage of their rates going towards implementing improvements in the BID area, which covers Grove Village, Marine Parade, Orchard Meadows and Dolphin Square.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Weston Chamber of Trade and Commerce, BID representative Tim Lamb said a steering group was working on a number of ideas.

He said one of its priorities was increasing visitor footfall.

He said: “We have a three-pronged objective when it comes to the marketing part of the BID – to attract more tourists, to try to get more people from the surrounding area to visit Weston and to get those locals who do visit Weston to do so more regularly.”

Part of that drive will be the creation of a television campaign, with �10,000 of BID money put aside for the purpose. That could be added to about �30,000 of money from private firms and Mr Lamb is hopeful the campaign adverts may even be screened on television later this year.

The BID team is also working on creating a tourism website with Weston Town Council.

The new marketing strategy is set to be brought together under the umbrella of Love Weston, which would have its own logo.

In other elements of the scheme, it is hoped BID-employed wardens could be on the streets of the town centre within the next two months, while a four-wheel drive vehicle will be leased to help with some elements of town centre maintenance, such as jet washing chewing gum stuck on pavements.

Another idea being looked at is the creation of a Wi-Fi ‘cloud’ covering the whole of the BID area, which would offer free internet access.