Boom time for Brighouse as annual report highlights success stories for town's economy

The Business Improvement District’s annual report has just been published for 2021-22 and highlights both the challenges of emerging from Covid lockdowns but also the opportunities of hosting events and activities which bring people together after a time when they were forced to be apart.

The organisation has three aims which build on the town’s rich history and strong character to make Brighouse a destination town which is vibrant, lively and interesting, family friendly by welcoming and encouraging shoppers and visitors to the town and to be clean, safe and secure.

In 2018, over seven in ten businesses voted yes to becoming a BID town with the organisation starting work for a five-year term in 2019. Every town centre business is a member with any outside the BID boundary able to sign up as voluntary members.

Among the successes highlighted by the annual report were:

Over 70,000 visitors to Brighouse over the 1940s Weekend and Jubilee Celebrations in June 2022.

A family-focused Dinosaur Event which led to August 2022 having 1.5 times the footfall across the town centre of the same time the year before.

Dwell time, the length of time spent in the town centre during a visit, increased year-on-year and is now an average of 52 minutes.

Lesley Adams, co-chair of Brighouse BID, said: “As business owners, we know it is important that every pound spent delivers for Brighouse which is why we take our responsibility to use the BID levy appropriately extremely seriously.

“At times, this means we have to take difficult and controversial decisions, and we’ve had to think outside the box to achieve the objectives which our town centre shops, cafes and business community voted for when saying yes to the BID.

“We’re confident we’re making a difference and that the past 12 months has set the foundation for what Brighouse can achieve, with the return of some of our most popular events, the launch of new initiatives and plans to deliver even more in the months and years ahead.

“Thank you to every business, every shopper and every visitor for being part of making Brighouse a clean, safe, family friendly destination we can all be proud of.”