Local growth

What is local growth?

Local growth is about reshaping the economic conditions in a place by working in partnership with local businesses, communities and voluntary services to promote place-based regeneration and social inclusion to create better places to live, work and visit.

How are local growth activities prioritised?

East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s economic development activities are guided by the East Riding Economic Strategy. Dedicated town centre recovery plans are currently being developed and are being funded through the Reopening High Streets Safely Fund.

East Riding Town Centres

Dedicated town centre recovery plans for nine towns have been developed and were funded through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

East Riding Town Centre Recovery Plans (pdf 5mb)

Driffield

A Driffield Town Centre Vision and Action Plan was produced in January 2021 and brings together expert analysis and local business, stakeholder and shopper engagement to identify a range of recommendations to help improve the performance, appeal and growth of Driffield town centre. The Local Growth team are working with Driffield Town Council and other local groups to prioritise and progress deliverable actions.

Driffield Town Centre Action Plan 2021 (pdf 4mb) 

Reopening High Streets Safely

The Reopening High Streets Safely Fund is providing £50 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to councils across England to support the safe reopening of high streets and other commercial areas. 

The fund has granted up to £301,870 for the towns in the East Riding of Yorkshire and extensive engagement has been undertaken with Ward Councillors, local businesses and trader groups, and Town and Parish Councils. This consultation has helped to identify the challenges for each location and devise ways of improving the town centre environment, understanding trading conditions and the attitudes of people visiting the high streets, and included:

• a local communications campaign to promote local town centres
• COVID-19 recovery plans for eight town centres
• online business support workshops
• installation of footfall counters
• traffic studies in Beverley and Driffield.

Find out more about the Reopening High Streets Safely Fund.

How is town centre performance being monitored?

East Riding of Yorkshire Council is working to better understand our town centres. To do this we are monitoring footfall in key locations is some of our town centres. This will give a broad indication of how many people use our town centres, and provide evidence for when they are most busy and what impacts visitor numbers.

An interactive map illustrates the location of town centre sensors.

The town centre monitoring system works by noting passing WiFi enabled devices. It collects and then pseudonymises the MAC addresses that pass by a location.

The data we collect does not allow us to identify you. However, anyone can opt out of this data collection by turning off their Wi-Fi or putting any mobile devices into airplane mode.

An annual report will be made available to the public via the East Riding Local Economic Assessment.

How do organisations, residents and businesses get involved?

If you have any questions about regeneration in the East Riding, please contact us via email.

Email: localgrowth@eastriding.gov.uk