Digital Town Hub Proof of Concept

A Digital Town Hub will provide communities in the borough a locally managed online web and app based platform enhanced by real time footfall data to support social cohesion, resident engagement and local economic growth. As a result of the pandemic there has been a sharp focus on accelerating and supporting economic recovery and renewal There is a particular need now to identify potential ways in which to directly support local independent retailers within district centre hubs Through engagement with a variety of internal and external stakeholders, it was determined that a real-time digital platform would allow businesses and residents to engage more directly on a hyperlocal basis, with the addition of accessibility of this information for the local authority and BID managers to enable more targeted intervention and support. The objective of this use case is to deliver a pilot programme that allows the SLP IoT project to test the digital town hub concept and refine the scope and technical details before rolling out to other local high street locations across Croydon and the other SLP partner boroughs. A one year pilot is required to provide a proof of concept in order to develop a fully scoped requirement to cover other high street locations across the SLP boroughs. The pilot will be delivered across 2-3 high street locations in Croydon. These locations are currently planned to be South Norwood, Purley and Thornton Heath.