Vote for DORNOCH in the Great British High Street Awards!
We are delighted to announce that Dornoch has been shortlisted in the Rising Star category of the Great British High Street Awards!
Dornoch’s application has been made to celebrate the various initiatives over the last three years of community, business, private and public partnership to attract more visitors to our Highland village, and to ensure a warm welcome once here.
The aim is to encourage longer stays in Dornoch, especially out of season, by promoting events and activities through the new Visitor Centre, on social media and via visitdornoch.com.
This year’s competition saw a record 900 entries across all 14 categories, including the new categories for individuals and shops. Now the shortlist has been drawn up and the public has the chance to vote directly for their best-loved high street online.
DACIC now invite people to vote in support of Dornoch’s bid at thegreatbritishhighstreet.co.uk from 18th October to 18th November, during which time everyone will be entitled to cast one vote per person per day.
If Dornoch wins, not only will they get a share of prize pot worth £100,000, but they’ll win expert training from Google’s digital taskforce for shops, bars and restaurants and a trip to Twitter UK’s London office to further boost their social media skills. High Streets Minister Andrew Percy said: “Our high streets are the life and soul of towns, villages and cities across the country and the record number of competition entries, this year is proof of their continued importance to local life. “From North London to Northumberland, great work is underway to adapt the high street to the needs of modern life. “I want to wish all who’ve entered the very best of luck.”
The Great British High Street Competition 2016 celebrates the great work that is being done to revive, adapt and diversify the nation’s high streets. It is one of a number of initiatives to help champion high streets as the cornerstones of the community. The Government is helping local business communities adapt to the changing face of high streets, with a £6.7 billion package of business rates support, to cut the rates for 900,000 businesses – with 600,000 now paying none at all. The second Great British High Street competition last year saw 230 entries and attracted over 200,000 public votes, with Bishy Road in York, a former finalist, crowned Britain’s best. Bishy Road found that winning not only boosted town pride, but also had a tangible economic impact with retailers reporting increased footfall.
Joan Bishop, Chair of DACIC, says “Our success in Dornoch is due to the support of the whole community. But to win this national award we now need everyone to vote daily. Help us make sure our small town packs a big punch!”
Alongside the public’s votes, shortlisted towns will also be inspected by the judging panel – made up of industry leaders from across retail, property and business – including British Land, the Post Office and Holland and Barratt.
To go online to cast your vote, visit the Great British High Street website and follow @TheGBHighSt on Twitter. Voting closes on November 18th. (Don’t forget that everyone can vote once a day!)
