VOTE NOW – to help Thame win the Great British High Street Competition 2016!

THAME has today been shortlisted as one of the country’s best high streets in the third, annual Great British High Street competition.

Thame High Street is one of Britain’s top three in the small market towns category. This follows Thame’s success last year, when the town was one of ten in the country to gain a Rising Star award.

To be crowned champion in its category this year, Thame needs your votes. The public has the chance to vote directly for their best-loved high street online. Between now and November 18, you can cast your vote once a day, for free via http://thegreatbritishhighstreet.co.uk

hame’s Town Clerk (third R) Graham Hunt, with Helen Johns (1st L) and members of ‘Team Thame’ celebrating this morning

If Thame wins, not only will we get a share of a prize pot worth £100,000, but we’ll receive expert training from Google’s digital taskforce for Thame’s shops, bars and restaurants and a trip to Twitter UK’s London office to further boost social media skills. Previous winners have found that winning not only boosts town pride, it also has a tangible economic impact with increased footfall.

This year’s competition saw a record 900 entries across 14 categories, with new categories for individuals and shops. This is a big increase over last year, which saw 230 entries and attracted over 200,000 public votes.

The Great British High Street Competition celebrates the great work that is being done to revive, adapt and diversify the nation’s high streets. It is one of a number of initiatives helping to champion high streets as cornerstones of the community. The Government is helping local business communities adapt to the changing face of high streets, with a £6.7 billion package of business rates support to cut the rates for 900,000 businesses – with 600,000 now paying none at all.

High Streets Minister Andrew Percy said: “Our high streets are the life and soul of towns, villages and cities across the country and the record number of competition entries this year is proof of their continued importance to local life. From North London to Northumberland, great work is underway to adapt the high street to the needs of modern life. I want to wish all who’ve entered the very best of luck.”

The Thame town bid team is being coordinated by Sonja Francis and Helen Johns. They said, “We’re proud that Thame is one of Britain’s best high streets and hope this will be a real boon for the town. We’re pulling out all the stops to make sure local people know about Thame’s shortlisting. Now we just need everyone to show their support and get voting.”

The public’s votes count for 50% of the result. The other 50% comes from individual inspections of each town by the judging panel, made up of industry leaders from across retail, property and business, including Boots, M & S, the Post Office and Holland & Barrett.

To go online to cast your vote, visit the Great British High Street website http://thegreatbritishhighstreet.co.uk/high-street-of-the-year-award and follow @TheGBHighSt on Twitter.

And get tweeting and facebooking your own posts and pictures of what you love about Thame high street.