Augmented reality trail being developed for Tamworth
An augmented reality trail is being developed for Tamworth town centre as part of new funding being spent on encouraging people back to the high street.
Tamworth Borough Council has been awarded £67,455 from the European Regional Development Fund 's Welcome Back Fund to help support the wider reopening of the town centre through a variety of activities.
As well as the development of the augmented reality trail, the money will also be used to carry out some improvements to the town centre, including additional deep cleans, painting and new bins.
Money will also be invested in promotional campaigns to support the town 's business community and for a special event celebrating our town centre offer.
The Welcome Back Fund is an extension of the Reopening High Streets Safely Fund which supported a number of activities in the town last year, including the appointment of the 'Shop Safe ' team to help businesses adapt to the pandemic and its restrictions.
The Augmented Reality Trail will be developed throughout Tamworth town centre which will bring history to life using virtual reality technology. This will build on the new and successful AR trail which was launched in Tamworth Castle this year.
The trail app will be free to download and will highlight some of the town 's historical people and places. It is hoped the trail will include 10 to 15 points of interest that will help bring new visitors into the town centre.
Cllr Daniel Cook, Tamworth Borough Council 's Cabinet member for Economy and Waste, said: “We 're delighted to have been awarded this money from the Welcome Back Fund as an extension to the activities we carried out through our 'Shop Safe ' campaign last year.
"The funding is purely focused on helping local economies to bounce back after Covid and encouraging people back to their high streets. The criteria are quite rigid and the activities we 've come up with had to meet those, but we 've had positive feedback from Government about our plan.
“Obviously it 's difficult in Tamworth at the moment because our rates are incredibly high and we need to still be really cautious. For now our main focus needs to be on getting that infection rate down through vaccinations and testing.
“However, we are hopeful that once more people have had both vaccinations, the situation will improve and we can start pulling out all the stops to invite people back, safely, to support the high street. Times were already tough on the high street and our businesses have faced incredible challenges and will need all our support going forward."