2024 Highlights from the Reading BID Team

January

The team worked hard to prepare for our ballot and in January the voting papers began to hit people’s desks.

We also saw the return of the Winter Warmer event, run by Southeast Community Rail Partnership and Reading Basingstoke Community Rail Partnership, with support from Reading BID. Hundreds of items of warm clothing were donated for those in need. This event is also running in 2025 – so if you have a clear out over Christmas be sure to donate to this cause in January!

February

The ballot continued throughout February and the 22 February deadline came around quickly. With a fantastic turn out and a resounding yes, Reading BID was voted in for another term!

A lot of businesses enquired about getting involved with environmental activities so we ran our first Business Clean-Up day.

We continued to support Launchpad’s Pancake Race, which a lot of town-centre businesses took part in!

We also had a Chinese New Year celebration in the town centre, which we are looking to have again in February 2025.

We hosted our first PA/EA Network of the year, and this month’s event was at Malmaison.

March

With the Easter holiday falling earlier this year, we launched our two week Easter egg hunt around the town centre. This is the first trail of the year and it was great to see a variety of businesses get involved.

We worked with Reading Borough Council and the University of Reading to introduce a mural into the town centre on Hosier Street. It showcases the history and future of the town. We also had volunteers from town-centre businesses join us to help paint the mural.

Our deep cleaners did a fabulous job preparing the town centre for summer.

April

WEEE collections took place this month, with the team collecting 400kg of small electrical items to be recycled. Remember, we will continue to collect every 3 months in 2025!

Thames Valley Police, the BID and Reading Borough Council’s licensing team collaborated closely to address the issue of shoplifting in the town centre. By sharing information and coordinating efforts, Thames Valley Police were able to successfully follow up on intelligence received regarding stolen goods. TVP attended a shop outside of the town centre and seized an estimated £15,000 worth of stolen products.

The first committee meeting was held following the successful ballot. If you would like to be part of the BID committee, please get in touch.

May

Alongside The Oracle, we hosted a ‘Fighting back against Retail Crime Day’ which was a great experience. The event provided an opportunity for businesses to engage with security experts, develop their active preventative measures and create safer working spaces.

Reading Food festival took place this month with 30+ street food stalls, featuring cuisines from all over the world, there was something for everyone. This is a yearly event, so look forward to next year!

We started our new gym partnership with Unleashed Performance, who provides a weekly free bootcamp session. We hope to see some of you in 2025.

Our PA/EA networking event was an artistic one, where everyone enjoyed the Sip and Paint event held at Reading Biscuit Factory.

We launched our training platform with SEEDL in May and the engagement has continued to grow. If you would like to have a look at the courses available, take a look here.

June

The BID update and Networking event was held at Siren. Alexa was able to provide an update on the ballot results, service update and upcoming plans for events and new courses. We also had guest speakers, including Nicki Butler from Beauclair, who gave insight into retail sales and spends in Reading and Imelda Reddington from Field Seymour Parkes who spoke about right-to-work checks, penalties for non-compliance and E Visa's.

We visited the night-time economy venues to carry out a perception survey of the town centre, which overall has given great feedback.

We also celebrated our joint win with Reading Basingstoke Community Rail Partnership for the Winter Warmer programme - Small Projects Award.

July

In July, we launched our first summer donations appeal. Reading town centre businesses generously donated huge quantities of food, clothes and summer essentials for the thousands of local children in need who were attending Brighter Futures for Children’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme. Donations included 103 water bottles, over 200 toothbrushes, 35 boxes of cereal, 70kg of pasta, over 200 cans of tinned food and 92 packs of sanitary products.

Our brick trail started at the end of the month, which was a fantasy theme this year! The installations were located across the town centre and within The Oracle and Broad Street Mall. Again, this free event attracted lots of visitors, and it was great to see the models in our stores.

A new in-person training session was launched – Fire Marshall and Awareness training. This will be continuing next year.

August

Our PA/EA events continued this month, with salsa dancing at Revolución de Cuba.

The brickworks trail continued to be a success this month and ended in the middle of August. Thank you to all businesses who participated in the trail.

We offered WAVE training to educate staff about customer welfare and vulnerability, supported by the campaign materials relating to Ask for Angela. The WAVE programme has been designed in partnership with security professionals, giving individuals the skills, knowledge and confidence to identify vulnerability and make appropriate interventions, either at work, home or socially.

September

The BID installed artwork panels on the hoardings surrounding the building affected by the fire on Union Street. We chose to focus the artwork on historic images of Union Street, using the photo archive held and managed by Reading Library. With their help we identified a handful of historic photos of Union Street throughout the ages, highlighting how its use has changed over the years. A few weeks after the installation of the panels, we were contacted by Mrs Denise Phillips and her sister Mrs Marion Hodges who had recognised their late Mum and sister in one of the photos, they were so pleased to see this photo and the panels depicting the alley and asked for a copy for themselves.

The BID and Walk Works celebrated the 2nd year of Wednesday Wellness Walks. Thirty-four walkers from town-centre businesses joined us for a scenic route walk that took us to the Holybrook Nook via Coley. Again, this initiative is continuing into next year so please join us on our Wednesday walks!

Pub Watch invited everyone to its 20th Anniversary Conference where we celebrated 20 years of partnership working.

October

October started with the unveiling of our brand new Paddington Bear Statue, located on Broad Street. It was a fantastic reveal with marmalade sandwiches!

The work for our wardens and the police never stops, but this month it was highlighted by Safer Business Week. We worked with Reading Borough Council and Thames Valley Police engaging with local businesses, highlighting the importance of partnership working.

During the half term we had our final trail of the year for Halloween! We installed a pumpkin patch for two days on Broad Street which was a fun free activity for our visitors.

November

At the start of November, we celebrated Diwali with a parade from Town Hall Square down Broad Street.

The festivities began with the installation of new Christmas lights and our Christmas market along Broad Street. The light switch-on event was great, and the lights have received excellent feedback.

Our final PA/EA event was hosted by Premier Suites and Vino.Vita. We also provided complimentary massages by the Massage Company.

We had our first Children's Business Fair which saw kids selling products they had created. This was a really buzzing weekend!

December

And just like that, here we are in December, rounding off the year with lots of Christmas events!

We hosted six events for levy payers only, which were fantastic and well attended. We also had weekend public events including stilt walkers, a story time and character visits. We still have visits from characters and Santa this weekend!

We also grew our BID warden team from two to three with the addition of Barry. We now have additional resilience and cover to provide this valuable service.

Finally, to top the year off, the warden team received a commendation from Thames Valley Police, a fantastic achievement that really highlights the great work they do for the town centre.