• The market is home to 40 businesses and provides a great opportunity for people to start up. The traders have been pivotal in helping establish the Student Makers Market.

• The Canterbury Market is the most successful in east Kent and drives footfall into the city. Some retailers are concerned over congestion on these days, others welcome the additional trade.

• The Market is run by the Council and it generates income for the city, including Business Rates. Gary Davies is the Market Manager and has been for some 25 years. He has a very strict management regime (I’ve seen it myself) and regularly invites Trading Standards in to ensure all merchandise is legal and appropriate.

• The traders pay £45 per 5m pitch and buy their own gazebos, contracting to re-new the canopies every year to ensure visual standards are maintained.

• On Wednesdays at 11 there is a NAAFI break at the tea stall in Iron Bar Lane for ex-Servicemen and women, encouraged by Gary’s service background and the military connections of a number of the market stall holders.

• There is a Planning Application for another market day, Thursday, for a Development Market to encourage new types of stall and local artisans to establish themselves. This will run from 10 until 7 in the evening to support Late Night Trading on Thursdays. This market will be smaller and only certain stalls will be allowed to trade on it.

So, if you haven’t been to the market recently, do have a look, talk to the traders and get to know a bit more about this vibrant, and for some contentious, part of our city’s business community.

Chair of the organisers, Canterbury City Partnership, Bob Jones said:

‘When we first decided to enter this prestigious competition we were a little nervous about how well we would do. After all, the city centre had been pretty much flower free for a long time! But our local businesses didn’t let us down and with a bit of encouragement helped us win a Silver Medal which was way above our expectations. The businesses we are celebrating here have all gone above and beyond in supporting the Bloom and are a great example to everyone in the city. We look forward to working with them and others in 2013 to make the city even more floral and fun to be in for visitors, residents and the business community.’

The Winners were as follows:

Best Large Business: Fenwick
Best Small Independent Business: Siesta
Best Restaurant: Café de Soleil
Best Business Grouping: Kings Mile Traders Association
Best Hotel: Victoria Hotel
Best Public House: Seven Stars
Best Service Business: Homespire House
Innovation Award: Whitefriars, Impact PR & Canterbury Bee Keepers

Whitefriars Marketing Manager Julie Holness and PR and creative consultant Martyn Barr from Impact PR & Design collected a coveted Purple Apple Merit at a glittering awards dinner held on 10 May at The Brewery alongside London’s Barbican Centre. The annual awards, organised by the British Council of Shopping Centres, recognise marketing achievements by shopping centres across the UK. The 2012 awards were presented by former English rugby union player and Strictly Come Dancing quarter-finalist Austin Healey.

Pictured (left to right) are Austin Healey, Martyn Barr, Jason Boyce (Henderson Global Investors, representing Whitefriars’ owners), Julie Holness and BCSC Chairman Peter Drummond.

The Whitefriars Amazing Advent Calendar was a daily online competition to win prizes donated by retailers in the run-up to Christmas 2011. The competition attracted a record 6,463 entries. During the competition period, which was promoted with giveaways in the form of 2,500 bespoke chocolate advent calendars, posters and in the Whitefriars magazine, page views to the shopping centre’s website increased by 160% and footfall to the centre rose by 11.6% over the previous year.

Judges were highly complimentary of the Whitefriars entry, describing it as “an innovative and interesting approach to an event with fantastic results on a small budget”, a “good creative, modern with a traditional feel” and “a very clean simple idea providing great buy-in by retailers and great rewards for shoppers”.

Sue Boor, Associate Director: Shopping Centre Marketing at PRUPIM, is Chair of the BCSC Purple Apple Judging Panel. She adds: “The categories this year were as competitive as I can remember and, despite our consistently strict criteria for marking entries, we have handed out more than 50 awards. This year’s winners have really gone above and beyond in promoting their centres.”

Her views were echoed by Michael Green, BCSC Chief Executive, who commented: “The best and most engaging campaigns can go some way to offset the challenging market conditions the industry is currently facing.”

Peter Scutt, Whitefriars Manager, paid tribute to his marketing team, saying: “The Purple Apples are the shopping centre industry’s equivalent of an Academy Award, so we are delighted to have won one for the first time this year. This was an excellent marketing campaign designed and executed by Julie and Martyn and its recognition by the industry as such is richly deserved.”

Pictured (left to right): Alex Ridings (Think Agency) and Cllr John Gilbey (Canterbury City Council) at the launch of the 2012 Canterbury Food and Drink festival

The 2012 festival takes place in the Dane John Gardens from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 September. Several businesses have already booked their spot in anticipation of a major boost in trade from the tens of thousands of people that attend each year.

Organisers Canterbury City Council, Produced in Kent and the Canterbury City Partnership are confident that the rebranding of the festival will result in an even bigger event in 2012.

Council Leader Cllr John Gilbey said: “As the festival has evolved over the years, it has become evident that an increasing number of the businesses attending are from Canterbury and the surrounding area. And while we will still have traders coming over from the Continent, the event now has much more of a local feel, so that when visitors spend their money, they are giving a big boost to the district’s economy.

“We are proud to have a city that is so well known across the globe, so when it came to thinking of a new name for the festival, there was really only one choice. Preparations for this year’s event are going very well, with plenty of interest from traders, so I would urge any business that wants to attend to get in touch as soon as possible.”

To find out more about trading at the Canterbury Food and Drink Festival, please contact caroline.hicks@canterbury.gov.uk. To keep up-to-date with preparations, search for the Canterbury Food and Drink Festival on Facebook and Twitter, or visit the website.

I hope that you are able to find out about CCP, our plans, our members and our city from the site, but if you would like to find out more, then do get in touch. Nothing beats ‘face to face’ and the website can only provide so much information.

We believe that Canterbury is on the cusp of a truly remarkable period in our history. The growth of Higher and Further Education in our city in the last 10 years, the growth of city centre resident numbers, the opening of the Marlowe Theatre in 2011 and the Beaney Institute later in 2012 and the HS 1 Service to St Pancras in under an hour all combine to make Canterbury a ‘hot spot’ for business, for residents, for students and for visitors.

Our job, as Canterbury City Partnership, is to ensure that this happens and that, when it does, we make sure it is ‘great’ for everyone!

Our strategic goal is to drive sustainable growth, jobs and inward investment. After all, without a thriving business community there wouldn’t be any money for anything else.

But we recognise that the city is a cultural centre and we want to work with partners to make the city the best cathedral city experience in England.

And we also recognise that our amazing city is ‘owned’ by many groups and it is important that everyone feels part of it, enjoys it and also contributes to it positively and without impacting inappropriately on anyone else. So ‘community’ is also key for us and we want to make sure the city is rated ‘good’ or ‘very good’ for them by businesses, residents, visitors and students.

So, thank you for taking the time to look at our website. The challenge is, what are you going to do now?

If you are a business or business person, we would love you to join CCP.

If you are a resident, visitor or student, than we would like you to let us know, via the link below, what you think of the city, how we could improve it and what you can offer to make sure that Canterbury realises the amazing potential we believe our city has for everyone.