This week I was delighted to meet with the store manager for the new Debenhams that will be opening in the intu centre. It opens on September 27 at 10am and rather excitingly, the first 300 customers through their doors will receive a luxury goody bag.

Last week, the town was visited by two independent assessors for the town’s Purple Flag Award. They were looking at how the town centre is managed from the early evening through to late night. They visited the new intu extension, the museum and several of our bars and pubs. Watford is the only town in Hertfordshire to hold the award, which also recognises the partnership working between businesses, the police and council.

With two theatres, a variety of bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants, the town has more to offer than many realise, so we have been working on a promotional campaign that directs the public to our website ‘watfordforyou.org’ which lists all the venues in the town. Posters will be going on buses across the region, and into train stations. This will be supported with a social media campaign. Our marketing communications manager has been busy updating the listings - if you can’t see your favourite place, then please let us know.

We are also working on the next Watford Weekender, a weekend of offers, for October 20 and 21. If you are a BID Business and want to get involved, please contact us with your offer.

Behind the scenes we are preparing for the lead up to Christmas. We need to have all the lamp posts in the town centre – there are more than 70 - tested to ensure they are safe to hold Christmas lights; plus, we must rectify any maintenance issues to ensure all the lights work when they go up in November.

Finally, if you are experiencing issues with street drinkers and antisocial behaviour then please log the incident on the Hertfordshire Constabulary website, or call 101, the non-emergency number. The police have been very active in managing the situation, but they do need to have incidents recorded.

Watford Business Improvement District (BID) works for and is funded by town centre businesses, working together, investing in and improving the town centre. Keep up to date with BID activities by visiting www.watfordbid.co.uk.