150 turn out to weed, sweep and hang bunting for Crickhowell’s finals bid
Around 150 local people, visitors and shopkeepers turned out on Sunday to weed, sweep and hang bunting around Crickhowell in support of the town’s bid for a Great British High Street prize. The competition’s judges will be given a two-hour tour of the town today (Thursday). The team behind Crickhowell’s bid wanted the town to look its very best – and local people responded.
Tim Jones of Crickhowell’s Corn Exchange project said: “It was a fantastic afternoon with volunteers coming from different sections of our community. There was a real buzz around town and it was amazing to see how quickly the streets were made spick and span when so many people worked together.”
Among the volunteers who turned out were members of St Edmund’s Church, Crickhowell Volunteer Bureau, the Tennis Club, Crickhowell Open Gardens Scheme, Crickhowell Fire Brigade, Crickhowell Surgery and Crickhowell Walking Festival. They were joined by Crickhowell Cubs – who also made bunting – residents and holidaymakers. Local businesses decorated their shopfronts and weeded the pavements. Cafes and shops donated teas, coffees and cake to feed the hungry crowd. Crickhowell is regularly litter picked by Llangattock Litter Pickers and the Brookfields Volunteer Group, both of whom provided volunteers for this extra day. Crickhowell Rotary acted as marshals and PCSO Billy Dunne was on hand to ensure everyone’s safety on the roads.
Another of the organisers, Dean Christy, said: “It was wonderful to see the town come together. I have never seen anything like it. I could not believe my eyes when I saw so many people on scraping the pavements, some on their hands and knees. We will be showing the judges photographs of the day and they can’t fail to be impressed by the community spirit shown.”
There will be a looping slide show in the Britannia Inn from 11am today, (Thursday), showing highlights of Crickhowell’s High Street campaign. A Visa Street Team will be in the High Street all day to engage with the public and hand out free gifts. They will also be offering free advice to businesses on e-commerce and social media marketing.
On their tour, the judges will be introduced to family-run businesses and shown The Corn Exchange, which 270 shareholders bought and converted into shops and flats to protect the High Street from a national chain supermarket. They will also be taken to the CRiC Centre which works to promote the town.
Tim Jones said: “We think we are in with a very good chance of being named ‘Best High Street in Wales’ but we still need people to vote for us on social media by posting #GBHSCrickhowell and #MyHighStreet before October 31st. Even if you don’t live in Crickhowell but love it and admire what our volunteers have done, please vote for us – it would be great to have a local champion.”
Tim Jones
