Investing in the Community
John Gourd of Johnson Matthey (centre) with Oliver Heald, MP for Hertfordshire North East (left) and Geraint Burnell, Royston First Manager (right).
A partnership has been set up to turn the town of Royston – home to Johnson Matthey’s largest site worldwide – into a more vibrant and prosperous place. Johnson Matthey was at the heart of its launch and is committed to improvement plans for the town.
The partnership is known as the Royston First Business Improvement District and will run for five years. There are over 75 Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in the UK, bringing together the local authority and the business community to develop projects that will enhance the prosperity and quality of life in an area. Other towns with a BID have reported benefits for the local market, a cleaner environment and reductions in antisocial behaviour.
Now Royston is getting its own BID with 'Royston First'. There are four project areas – Vitality, Community, Security and Visibility – which cover a wide range of social and business-led improvements. All in all, they will raise the profitability of local businesses and make the town a better, brighter place to live.
Johnson Matthey provided £50,000 and management time to get the scheme up and running to a point where local businesses could be balloted on whether or not they wanted a BID. A successful vote was taken in November 2007 and on 1st April 2009 an independent, not-for-profit company came into operation to run the programme. It is funded by a 2% levy on the area’s business ratepayers.
We believe that participating in Royston First is part and parcel of being a good neighbour and John Gourd, Site Planning and Services Director at Johnson Matthey's Royston site, has agreed to become Chairman of the independent BID company for its first year. The scheme will encourage employees to shop locally, benefiting local business, and will help make Royston a more attractive place to live and work.
Other Social Case Studies
- Raising Awareness of Health and Safety in the Home
- Charity of the Year
- Sparking the Interest of Young Patients
- Tradition of Training at Redwitz
- Improving Employee Engagement and Satisfaction
- Our Aim to Become an Employer of Choice
- Giving with a ‘Giving Tree’ at Christmas in West Deptford
- Attracting the Best Talent
- Engaging our Employees and Enhancing Performance with Better Visual Communications
- Raising Sustainability Awareness – One Employee at a Time
- Johnson Matthey – One to Admire!
- Generating Genius