Driffield Town Council has agreed to ringfence up to £15,000 to help bankroll a series of projects aimed at injecting new life into the town centre.
The authority earmarked £10,000 for town centre projects in the financial year 2012/13. And a further £5,000 has been set aside for this financial year.
The East Riding of Yorkshire Council previously commissioned a consultancy firm to produce recommendations as to how the town centre could be revitalised and, from that, a Town Centre Group started to put together proposals for the funding.
The town centre group comprises the members of the Renaissance Partnership, the town council, business people and traders and a report from them to the town council on Tuesday said that due to time constraints, promotion would begin with a small summer time events programme.
During July, August and September on the third Saturday of the month, it is proposed to hold a market on Cross Hill. Local food producers, crafts people and traditional market traders would stand and initial investigation shows that there is likely to be considerable interest.
From 3pm in Market Place, the town centre group would like to see musicians playing to encourage people to stay in the town during the late afternoon and early evening.
On the first Saturday of each month, Driffield hosts a Farmers’ Market at the showground and the town centre group would like to hire an open topped shuttle bus to bring people from the showground into the town centre.
According to the report to the town council, a similar exercise was carried out recently in Market Weighton when the Kiplingcotes Derby took place and proved very successful.
On the evenings of Driffield Show and the Steam Rally parade, the town centre group hope to encourage town centre pubs and restaurants to provide special menus or events to make the most of the fact that the town is full and so enhance the evening economy.
During the Thursday street markets which are held in the summer holidays, the town centre group propose to include children’s entertainment.
The report included loose costings totalling £9,600 which included £500 on the shuttle bus, £600 to stage the Saturday market, £1500 to pay for Saturday live music and £1000 for Thursday children’s entertainment.
Branding, banners, publicity, leaflets, posters and promotion would cost around £6,000.
The town council was told that although this was the largest cost, it would only have to be produced once.
Although the market would incur costs it was envisaged that the pitch rent would counter balance that to some extent.
Mr Nigel Robinson, a graphic designer, has been asked to give some indication of cost for branding, banners, posters and leaflets in order to promotion the season and the events.
The town centre group hope to forge links with Northern Rail in order to promote the town and its events farther afield.
Mr Matt Lewer, who had previously contacted the town council with regard to social media, is setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts to promote the events on a voluntary basis.
The town council agreed a recommendation to approve the plans, with expenses coming from the already earmarked town centre projects fund. Invoices will be presented to town councillors on a regular basis so that councillors are continually aware where and how the money was being spent.