Plans to make Richmond town centre a top tourism and business destination are underway as part of a new ‘Plan Be’ initiative.

The Richmond Business Improvement District (BID), officially branded as BeRichmond, launched in April with a five year £3.2m scheme to enhance and promote the town centre by 2022.

Approved last year, the town centre businesses voted in favour of establishing a not-for-profit organisation to carry out a raft of ambitious improvements.

Austin Casey, BID project director, said “Richmond is already a beautiful town with some outstanding businesses and a wonderful retail and leisure offer.

“But like all commercial areas it faces unique challenges, as well as incredibly strong competition from neighbouring town centres.”

BeRichmond’s first campaign theme “Live, Work, Explore” will work toward five key priorities - promotion and profile of Richmond town centre; addressing parking and congestion in the area, supporting business growth, enhancing the look and feel of the area and developing local corporate and social responsibility initiatives.

“Our job is not only to champion everything that’s great about Richmond to a wider audience, but to also listen to the concerns of the business leaders who work here,” Mr Casey added.

“We need to be able to deliver the improvements they believe will make the town a more desirable place to work, live and explore.”

By tacking issues such as theft and anti-social behaviour, the campaign is aiming to promote Richmond town centre as a first-class visitor and business destination.

BeRichmond aims to help businesses by improving staff recruitment and retention and developing a privilege card system to enable local employees to fully access offers from local businesses.

The project director will be assisted by Anthony Gopaul as the BeRichmond manager.

Business Improvement Districts, or BIDs, are non-profit organisations set up to enhance a particular area through promoting and improving what it has to offer.

For more information, visit www.richmondbid.london