A PROJECT to create a ‘place brand’ for Andover is underway, as more than 60 residents, businesses and community representatives came together to discuss the way forward.

Residents are being asked to ‘get on board’ and help work out what Andover means to them and help the town establish its brand to those outside it.

A variety of stakeholders were invited to an event on Wednesday night, held at The Lights theatre, where they heard from Wayne Hemingway and Sophie Gwynne from HemingwayDesign and Andrew Palmer from CTConsults, who are creating the new brand on behalf of Test Valley Borough Council.

They said a place brand is what comes to mind when people think of a town or city, and it is shaped and reinforced by everything from the quality and nature of events, to the design of an area’s public spaces and the type of retailers that trade there.

The new brand will be used to inform decision making, attract investment, transform local culture, boost footfall and secure the funding needed to bring the masterplan to life. 

It will also help to drive innovation and encourage people to come up with new ideas, events and initiatives.

You can read the full story and reaction in this week's paper. Also in this week's edition:

  • Town Mills is set to welcome a brand new riverside cafe as an Andover business takes on a brand new venture.
  • A Hampshire couple have set off in their motorhome with “literally a tonne of sweets” to offer assistance to people fleeing Ukraine.
  • GPs across Andover and the UK will have to offer Saturday and evening appointments under new plans announced by the NHS.
  • A former police IT chief from Andover who conspired to ensure a £22 million contract was awarded to an IT company, has been jailed for bribery, money laundering and false accounting offences.
  • A man has been spared prison after admitting to growing 120 cannabis plants with a street value of up to £100,000 in Andover.
  • An Andover woman with arthritis is calling on the council to put more benches in Andover’s residential areas after the lack of places to stop on her daily walk ‘left her in tears’.
  • An Andover couple is asking for help to help them navigate the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF treatment.
  • Three independent businesses in Andover have moved into a brand new ‘shared shop’ unit in the Chantry Centre.
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  • PICTURES: World Book Day 2022
  • An eight-page puzzle special
  • Entertainment news
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