BUSINESSES in Bury St Edmunds are to be supported by a new member of staff within the Business Improvement District (BID).

Mike Kirkham took up his post on Monday and joins Bid4Bury after a 30 year career in the police – mainly in Norfolk.

However, for his final two years with the service he worked with the Home Office on policing and security for the London 2012 Olympic Games. More recently he has worked part time as a park ranger in the Abbey Gardens and as a loss prevention supervisor for a town centre store.

He said: “Bury St Edmunds is a great place with a lot going on but that doesn’t mean that the businesses here don’t still have their own challenges. I’m looking forward to working with all the businesses, from the independents to the national names and having worked with a lot of different partnerships in my career, particularly during my time with the Olympics, I hope to be using the skills I’ve developed to benefit the town as a place to visit or do business.”

Chief executive of Bid4Bury Mark Cordell said: “The Business Improvement District, through its marketing brand ourburystemdunds.com, works hard to make Bury a place that people will want to visit and hopefully spend money here when they do. But as an organisation funded by the member businesses we want to ensure that we are serving those companies as well as we can and Mike will bring new ideas to the role as well as building on our existing relationships.”

Mike added: “There are already some great initiatives in place in Bury St Edmunds but I’ve been looking at some of the things other BIDs in the region do to see if there is anything that we can learn from them. Sometimes you have to be bold to try new ideas and I am looking forward to all the new opportunities this role offers.”