Covid-19 Business Support
2020 / 21 has been a significantly tough year for everyone, especially our businesses. So we felt it was important to support our stakeholders in whatever way we could.
One of the main ways we supported you was to create Covid-19 Business Support Packs (worth up to £100 each) available to every one of our stakeholders, absolutely FREE. These included:
- 2 x cotton face coverings – washable at 60 degrees
- 1 x roll of ‘social distancing’ floor tape – 33 metres
- 1 x 5 litre container of hand sanitiser + pump
- 1 x 500ml bottle of hand sanitiser + pump
- 1 x signage pack (1 of each poster) to promote social distancing, paying by card, etc as a way to ensure a consistent #staysafeinotley message throughout the whole town.
- 1 x Staying Covid-19 Secure Poster
Here are other ways we supported you:
- Regular Government updates via our social media, website and email. Throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic we have kept businesses abreast of fast moving changes in Government policy and the different forms of financial support available.
- Liaising with Leeds City Council’s Business Rates Dept to ensure all our businesses who were entitled to the first Government grants received them. We provided the local knowledge required to solve issues when businesses were moving premises or the central LCC database wasn’t up to date. This work has continued since March 2020.
- ‘Otley Providing Essential Services‘ directory of businesses open during Lockdown 1 over a 2 month period via our website and social media
- #OtleyOpenForBusiness daily promotional posts over a 2 month period on the Visit Otley and Otley BID social media platforms
- The resurrection of the website buyinotley.co.uk and the creation of an ongoing directory of businesses
- A new ‘Welcome Back to Otley’ video featuring many different businesses around the town. The key messages are #StaySafeInOtley and #BeKindInOtley to help create a positive message that Otley is a safe place to come and shop and visit. We would be grateful if you can share this video both on your business and personal social media platforms once it is published on Visit Otley’s Facebook page. The video reached more than 20,000 people on Facebook – See the Video HERE
- A new ‘Welcome Back to Otley’ newsletter which was circulated to all Otley households, businesses and the surrounding areas w/c 22nd June
- #StaySafeInOtley messages to red & white traffic barriers located in key areas around the town to widen narrow pavements and thus further enable safe social distancing.
- Ongoing advice and support – as further restrictions and lockdowns are put in place as we enter 2021, we will continue to advise businesses of grant availability, and liaise with LCC to find out when grant applications were opening, how to apply, and support some businesses with their individual issues – where (in some cases) we found lost applications worth over £4,000. Again this work continues.
COST OF COVID-19 SUPPORT
The total cost for this support is in excess of £20,000 with the funding coming from a joint collaboration between ourselves, with a contribution of two thirds of the overall cost, and Otley Town Council and our Ward Councillors who have contributed the remaining third.
We appreciate this is a lot of money but we felt that it was the best way to both support our stakeholders in re-opening safely and efficiently, and building confidence with our residents and the general visiting public by promoting the town as a safe place to shop and visit.