Love Running is proud to belong to Newport Business Association, and has been a member since the current Association formed in 2011. We believe retailers need to pull together in town to make shopping a pleasant experience, to make our wonderful, historic town a lovely place to visit and to make our voice heard in the council offices with regard to parking, building, town pride, town maintenance & planning, safety and green spaces within town and all the other matters that affect us all. Independant retailers are also stronger if they can coordinate events, promote each other and each do their bit to make our little shops and businesses unique, pleasant to visit and successful.
2018 has been busy for the NBA as we have been working with ARC consultants to help produce the big “Reshaping Newport” project. The council are currently reviewing all aspects of the town with a view to alteration and improvement, but we only have a narrow window of time to encourage change. ARC carried out a huge survey of local people, students, workers, retailers and employers at the start of the year (thank you if you took part), and the NBA is helping to finance the final report of this survey. The report will be formally presented to the Council this summer and includes quick and easy improvements, logistical reports, long-term suggestions and all kinds of exciting ideas to improve the appearance, the traffic-flow, the parking and the longevity of this historic town.
Also this summer we have been discussing many environmental improvements such as “Plastic Free Island” (in conjuction with Surfers Against Sewage) https://www.sas.org.uk/region/south-east/ , the SYSTRA car-share plan and the Chamber of Commerce “Green Impact” plan, which was launched by the NBA’s Vice Chair Julie Jones-Evans: https://www.iwchamber.co.uk/news/green-impact-scheme-launched-at-conference/
Love Running signed up to Green Impact in June 2018 and we now have the rest of 2018 to work through the step-by-step ideas, recommendations and advice to make our business as environmentally-friendly as possible, and earn points towards the ultimate goal; a Gold Award. We already considered ourselves environmentally-friendly to a high degree, but Green Impact has shown us just how much we hadn’t considered and what more we can actually do at Love Running, and every change we make – and point we earn closer to that Gold Award – gives us a warm glow!
If you have a local business and would like to join the NBA or attend the next meeting (they are the first Wednesday every month at different venues) please contact us for more information.
Christmas Competitions
Since 2014 I have been the organiser of the town Christmas Window competition every year. In 2014 we did a themed window dressing competition (won by Readers Interiors, Doris Pinks and Take 2 hairdressers), but in 2015 we tried something different – a “Spot the Song” competition!
The idea was that participating shops (we had 27 in 2015!) each were given a random song lyric to display in their windows, and members of the public were asked to identify the Christmas songs they were from. The one who got the most correct would win, or it would go to a draw.
We were delighted to receive more than 50 completed entry forms (forms created free of charge courtesy of our friends at Crossprint and the County Press) by the end of 21st December, and the winners were notified by the County Press on 22nd December ready for the grand presentation on 23rd – just in time for Christmas!
The prize in 2015 was a huge bundle of gift vouchers contributed by all the participating shops, plus a pair of complimentary tickets very kindly donated by Cineworld Newport, and was worth more than £300!
The same competition (but with a whole new set of lyrics/songs of course!) was repeated in 2016, but we had THREE amazing prizes up for grabs!
- A gift & voucher hamper put together by the participating shops and worth over £200
- A “Taste of the Wight” hamper of local produce worth around £45
- A pair of Cineworld cinema tickets
In 2017 we held a brand new “Elf Days of Christmas” competition. Mandy Rawlings from Bijou Hairdressing designed a series of colourful and cheeky Elves, and each had a different name and character. Every participating shop displayed an elf and members of the public spent December spotting every elf, recording their names on the entry form and working out the “Christmas Conundrum”. All correct answers went into a big prize draw.
2016 Euro Competition
Competition time again! This time Newport businesses, led by Readers Interiors, have each adopted one of the countries taking part in the UEFA Cup “Euro 2016” football tournament. The competition is for you to work out which country is represented by each shop from the clue placed in their window displays!
We are one of the 24 businesses taking part, and entry forms are available inside our shop, so come and grab one for your chance to win Club Kit of your choosing!