THE Summer Buzz scheme brought colour and vibrancy to Ross-on-Wye over the last few months, the Town Council has heard.

Bunting and flags adorned the streets and shop windows along with large Summer Buzz floral stickers and painted pavements.

The scheme was originally planned to brighten up Ross last year after the town had been blighted by the flooding issues in Broad Street and Brookend Street.

It was later decided to put this scheme on hold as Ross Town Council had launched a town recovery strategy, amassing approximately £30k funding to revitalise the town centre, to boost local business activity.

Mark Finning, who works in marketing, originally came up the idea of Summer Buzz, a brand where events, offers, and activities could enhance the town.

He decided to present his ideas to the council to see if they’d like to get involved.

He said: “It was something a bit new for Ross and I thought it could work well.” It was subsequently decided to make Summer Buzz happen in 2025.

At the Town Council’s recent tourism sub-committee meeting Cllr John Winder said: “By and large this year’s Summer Buzz campaign was a good thing, it was positive.

“However, it’s still early days and as a community event, we can support it with funding in the future. The pavement painting was a real hit with visitors.”

Cllr Milly Boylan said: “Part of the confusion was that some of the decals went up last year, but there was nothing planned for it at that stage with nothing to back it up.

“What money was spent this year has resulted in good results for the benefit of the town. I believe this scheme is best off being a community led initiative.”

Cllr Julian Utting said: “We need to support the community to run a campaign like this.”

Tourists and locals saw the Summer Buzz artwork brought to life on the streets by Sarah Morton from Art Studio Ross.

Her large painted floor mural by the market house was joined by other flowers and bees painted upon the pavements.

Ross businesses also offered prizes for draws which were free to enter, prizes from 17 businesses included hampers, gift vouchers, pampering for people and their pets and chances to win food and drink from restaurants and bars.

Ross Town Council hosted events including the Summer Buzz Fun Day in July at the Market House which included market stalls, Punch and Judy shows, giant lawn games and balloon modelling, and a Summer Buzz Market in August.

Ed O’Driscoll said: “I have to question whether the Summer Buzz was a tourism initiative or was it part of the recovery, or was it both? What were the objectives of the campaign?

“What we need to be doing is having a wider reach than just Herefordshire when it comes to tourism. It is currently introspective. As the name suggests it needs something to create a buzz that will bring people to the town.”

Cllr Sarah Freer said: “I feel the messaging of the campaign was somewhat confused, however the street painting was fabulous. People got the fact that something was going on, but they were not clear on what this was.

The councillors voted that the scheme should be led by an external community group in future.