A delegation of senior officials from central government were in Falmouth last week to meet those responsible for delivering the many initiatives which have drawn people to the town and boosted its profile nationally.

The group from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) led by Mark Livesey, met with Falmouth Business Improvment District (BID) manager, Richard Wilcox, and town manager, Richard Gates, from the Falmouth Town Team.

The officials were in Cornwall to review the active BID scene which exists across the county where there are seven such districts up and running. This is the highest number of BIDS in any local authority area in the UK, outside of London.

The visit was part of a UK-wide tour of BID towns and cities and will inform a report to be submitted to Government on the UK high street and BIDs, highlighting areas of good practice as well as challenges to growth.

The Town Team for Falmouth, which is made up of the BID working together with Falmouth town management, has been operational for five years and is the only such public-private partnership in Cornwall. It is the management resource for Falmouth, delivering the town’s major festivals, destination marketing campaigns, public realm improvements, business training and more.

Ahead of last week’s visit, a group from Southend BID visited the town team to look at the Falmouth partnership model and Belfast City Council made contact as it is also looking at the town team partnership idea.

Mr Wilcox said: “It was great to welcome Mark Livesey and members of his team from the DCLG to Falmouth and Cornwall. It gave us the opportunity to showcase our terrific town, highlight the importance of working in partnership and demonstrate how it |has enabled many exciting projects, festivals and marketing campaigns to be delivered.

“Given the well documented regional budget cuts and loss of service in key areas, it has been clearly demonstrated across the UK with towns that have town management or a BID resource deliver more town improvement schemes, events and marketing that in turn, help to attract footfall, reduce the number of vacant units, increase spend and encourage return visits.”