As we welcome in 2025 we’re looking back at the work the BID has done in 2024 to ensure Dorking businesses have the help they need to feel supported and part of their town centre community.
Dorking has had challenges this year, with two emergency road closures, however we have seen true spirit from our BID members to overcome these. We’ve also been really pleased to see a willingness from both our new MP, new BID Manager and the local council to really try and work together to get the best for Dorking and we’re looking forward to continuing to build upon this for 2025.
Below are a few of the initiatives the BID has put in place to support our members in 2024 and to encourage people to visit the town. In 2025 we are looking to build upon this and encourage the community to keep coming back to support the town with many exciting events and initiatives.
Bug Trail
To drive footfall to the town and draw people into the high street during half term the BID hosted a family-friendly Bug Trail. At 10 locations around town visitors would find a different bug with a QR code to scan then pick an answer to a bug-related question. When all the questions were answered participants could enter a prize draw to win a shop local voucher.
BID Website
The new Hello Dorking website was launched with improved branding and functionality. BID members were encouraged to submit an update for the online business directory to promote their products and services to help drive people to their businesses. We will be updating the business photos over the Christmas period and into2025 to keep this section fresh.
Regular blogs and updates are added with enhanced SEO to ensure those searching will land on the site and see all that Dorking has to offer!
Free Mental Health and First Aid Training
The BID ran both accredited Mental Health and First Aid Training for BID businesses and their teams. The certification for the courses lasts for three years and brings many benefits to businesses in supporting their staff.
Big Green Week
The BID participated in Big Green Week with a litter pick supported by BID members, local stakeholders and volunteers. We also ran a campaign to encourage people to shop locally working with partners and BID members, Circular Dorking.
There was also a Sustainability Trail in town to encourage visitors to the High Street. Visitors had to find facts in shop windows for the chance to win a shop local voucher.
Restaurant Week & Surrey Day
A campaign was created to support local BID member restaurants and to celebrate Surrey Day. Participating restaurants were promoted across Hello Dorking’s social media platforms and website. Promotional material was also provided to the restaurants so they could easily share their involvement and promote the campaign themselves with minimal input required from them.
Hello Dorking also incentivised people to get involved with prizes for visiting multiple restaurants.
Social Media Surgery
To support BID businesses with their social media marketing a drop-in surgery was held to give hands-on help. Advice was given on a range of subjects from how to add links to an Instagram bio, how to write copy to attract customers, the importance of email marketing, the basics of creating reels and more.
Guild Talks
A number of Guild Talks were held for BID businesses on a range of topics from community policing, Big Green Week and sustainability, Surrey Day, marketing and more. These talks brought together BID businesses, stakeholders and subject experts to discuss important issues within the town.
The BID are planning a series of workshops and social events for BID members in 2025. More details to follow.
Summer Music Programme
A number of musical acts played across the town during the summer for Hello Dorking’s Live Select Music Saturdays, to entertain visitors and create a vibrant atmosphere within the town. Musicians played at several locations, including St. Martin’s Walk, High Street and South Street.
Media and Awards
The work of the BID raised the profile of the town with several media stories and interviews and has quickly become the go-to voice for comment on Dorking. The BID was also shortlisted for two national awards; with the Chairman nominated for a BBC Surrey community award.
West Street
At the end of August a sinkhole was discovered in West Street resulting in emergency works and a road closure. This, of course, proved problematic for the town but the businesses and residents showed remarkable stoicism and resilience and really did carry on with a “business as usual” spirit.
This closure also coincided with our new BID Manager starting who certainly had to hit the ground running!
Whilst the BID can’t directly influence programmes of roadworks or predict such emergencies, we worked hard to ensure that communication from the agencies involved was improved and disseminated clearly and that the message Dorking is open to business was conveyed constantly and positively. We also worked to ensure that business owners could access free support for compensation claims
Our initiatives included: –
- Approximately 15 social media posts specifically around West Street and West Street businesses.
- Positive coverage and factual info in our weekly newsletter encouraging people to come to Dorking and highlighting the ease in this.
- Positive news stories with ITN, BBC Surrey, Surrey Live and That’s TV to reinforce the message that Dorking was open for business and to keep the town in the public eye.
- Signage in the run-up to town and on the fencing at Pump Corner which we negotiated with Thames Water to pay for.
- Working with Thames Water and our local MP and councillors to ensure that a representative from Thames Water was in the town to answer questions at a designated time each week and that a FAQ document was accessible on their website.
- Working with our MP to get a simplified claims form and being instrumental in pressing for better communications from Thames Water and Surrey Highways. If you haven’t yet made a claim for loss of business you can find the form here – Compensation for Dorking Businesses Impacted by West Street Sinkhole (hellodorking.com). We also offered practical support from one of our Board members, an accountant, in terms of advice and support in filling out the claims form.
- We also organised a bounceback event at the end of October to help attract people to the town and secured funding from Surrey County Council for the costs.
- Worked with MVDC and Councillor Keay to arrange for 1 free business car park permit per business until the end of the year, and arranging for free parking for all visitors to coincide with our bounceback event.
We are all aware that Thames Water will need to return to finish work in 2025 and the BID are currently pressing them for their plans so that our BID members can plan effectively.
Halloween
To boost morale and drive footfall to the town the BID planned a Half Term Halloween event to attract families. The Creepy Craft Caper Event was run within a BID business, Theodore & Sephone’s Sweet Shop, and consisted of free craft activities, face painting and a face-in-the-hole board for phantastic photos! We also encouraged visitors to take part in the ever-popular Friends of Dorking Halloween trail which was a lovely bonus to the event. Finally, we worked with Mole Valley District Council to get free parking in the town for the day.
We had over 200 families come through the door for the event throughout the day with a lot more interest from passers-by who seemed genuinely pleased to see such activity going on in the town.
Families travelled in from not just Dorking but nearby towns such as Epsom and Brockham and comments such as “I haven’t been to Dorking in ages, isn’t it lovely, we’ll definitely be back” were common. You can read more about the event here.
The event also gave us a chance to publicise our Christmas Festival to a big section of our target market and also promote the many cafes and restaurants in town too.
We will definitely look to repeat smaller school holiday events in 2025 to attract the wider community into the town. We also want to work more with BID businesses to utilise their business spaces into the BID’s event plans, so watch this space.
Christmas Festival – A DorKingdom Fairytale
Our Christmas Festival took place on Sunday 1st December and brought the community out in their droves to celebrate the start of the festive season in the heart of the town. You can read more about the day and the people involved here – What Christmas Means to Dorking.
We chose the theme A DorKingdom Fairytale to highlight not only the magic of Christmas but the magic of the woodland surroundings Dorking town centre is blessed with.
The majority of visitors to the Festival are from Surrey but we did have people travel from as far afield as Wimbledon, Maidenhead and Plaistow to experience the festive delights Dorking has to offer and feedback we received is that visitors loved the mix of live music, market stalls and family activities that the community feel the event exudes.
We also had some great publicity wins for the town with coverage on several local radio stations and publications, 3 appearances on BBC Surrey with interviews from businesses in the town featured, and a voice message from the BID Manager read out on Vernon Kay’s Radio 2 show to an audience of approx. 6.2 million.
With large events, there are always areas that you look to improve or develop for the future and we are already reviewing our plans for next year’s Christmas activities including how we can elongate some of the impact of the festival.
This year we introduced a 12 days of Christmas Trail around the town that ran until 5th January to encourage people to get out and explore the town and keep our businesses in their minds for 2025.
Banking Hub
We are delighted to end the year with the news that Dorking will be getting its own banking hub in 2025. The BID were instrumental in campaigning and gathering support for the initiative back in 2022 and have continued to support the proposals that Mole Valley District Council have put forward. Mole Valley’s latest application has been successful, and we congratulate the council in getting this initiative over the line.
2025
With the new year just around the corner, your BID team is busy reviewing the year and planning for the next. In early 2025 we will be sharing our plans and letting you know how you can get involved with your town centre community.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our BID members for their support of initiatives and events, their ideas and their resilience in what has been a particularly unusual year for the town. We’d also like to thank you our supporters and visitors for all your lovely comments on social media, for sharing our content, for visiting and spending time and money in Dorking businesses and for keeping it local.
We look forward to sharing many fantastic moments with you in 2025!
