£140k troubleshooters will deal with charity collectors and litter
A far-reaching idea for channelling business cash into improving Bath city centre could now yield an extra £1 million.
And the creation of special business improvement district status for the heart of Bath will pay for a £140,000 flying squad of troubleshooters to deal with everything from litter to charity collectors.
Hundreds of business owners will be balloted next month on whether to go ahead with plans for a BID, with shops and offices in the city centre having to pay one per cent of their rateable value into a central pot.
The money collected – now estimated at £3.5 million over a five-year period – would be spent on projects prioritised by the business community.
It had earlier been thought that the scheme might bring in £2.5 million. But organisers reckon they will raise around £600,000 a year from the levy on an estimated 700 firms, with medium-sized businesses paying £500 annually.
To this would be added annual funding of up to £50,000 a year from Bath and North East Somerset Council through the partnership body Future Bath Plus, while money is also expected in the form of voluntary donations from businesses below the £25,000 rateable value threshold, adding up to around £40,000 a year.
A proposal document drawn up by a steering group of business representatives suggests a number of projects – with the £140,000-a-year rapid response street team the biggest.
This would see a team of up to five led by a supervisor who would ensure that the management and cleanliness of city centre streets was up to scratch. They would focus on street cleaning, street traders, charity collectors "and other street activities."
The document also envisages:
a review of waste collection services and arrangements, with local compacting and a business recycling service
an awards scheme for businesses which take pride in their premises and streets by keeping them particularly clean
bringing anti-crime schemes such as Pubwatch and the city's street marshals under the BID company umbrella
a £120,000 city centre marketing drive aimed at getting more people into shops and attractions, with another £20,000 spent on innovations such as the use of Twitter and Bluetooth
an £80,000 budget for organising new events or improving existing ones such as this year's Bath in Fashion festival
£40,000 on transport promotions "to make it more appealing and affordable to travel into the city centre." A council report on the BID idea says this could see "parking promotions to make it cheaper and easier to park in the city centre, particularly at times of major events".
The BID levy is additional to business rate payments and would be compulsory.
The council report, to B&NES cabinet member Councillor Terry Gazzard, recommends that he approves the BID document, and that none of its plans conflict with the council's aims and ambitions.
The council itself – as an organisation in the city centre – will have to pay between £20,000 and £25,000 in annual BID levy payments.
City centre manager Andrew Cooper will talk about the BID scheme at The Bath Chronicle's next Business Breakfast on September 28 at the Macdonald Bath Spa Hotel.
The event takes place at 7.30am, starting off with a glass of buck's fizz.
The event runs until 9am.
Tickets cost £12.50 per person.
To book a place call 0870 400 8222.
9 Comments
View all
by Dave, Weston
Friday, September 03 2010, 10:54AM
“In theory it could be a good idea, but as usual the proposals are full of woolly ideas and holes. Take for example this £140k flying squad. Are they actually going to clear up litter - in which case arguably they are taking on a role already covered by business rates, or are they just going to phone up the cleansing department and tell them to come to Milsom street (which presumably if they had slack time they'd be doing anyway so nothing will actually happen). Do they have the powers to enforce street trading/collection laws or will they just be phoning the police who might have capacity to turn up?.
A review of waste services means spending money talking about it rather than actually doing anything useful
Pubwatch and city marshalls already work fine so why mess around with it to bring it under the BID umbrella (especially because if it stops after 5 years they'll have to unpick it - I suspect however in 5 years time we'll be told that if the BID isn't renewed we'll lose Pubwatch and marshalls because they are one of the BID initiatives!)
£220k to be spent on nebulous marketing and events, bluetooth and twitter? Doing what exactly with bluetooth and twitter?
Finally £40k to be spent mitigating the councils efforts to dissuade people from coming into Bath by car which sounds rather counter productive.
Its very easy to put together some vague ideas to spend other people'#s money especially as it keeps Andrew Cooper et al in jobs (and increases their influence) - if people haven't noticed Bath Future Plus acheiving anything worthwhile in the last 5 years why on earth would we trust it with a shed load more money for this vague list of money wasting ideas?”
by rogerh, Bath
Friday, September 03 2010, 10:05AM
“"You may not equate this, but thats £520 a year extra quite a lot of newspapers to sell for a newsagent"
And you think many newsagents are in properties with a rateable value of £50,000 pa? With a little research you could find out that, for example, Bog Island News has a rateable value of £14,759 pa so won't be obliged to contribute anything. And, incidentally, it's not a Council initiative anyway - as is clearly indicated in the article.”
by Happy days, MSN
Friday, September 03 2010, 7:28AM
“ROGER H
Quote'
A Massive £10 a week,'
You may not equate this, but thats £520 a year extra quite a lot of newspapers to sell for a newsagent. in a time of recent reccesion
WHY DON'T THE COUNCIL JUST GET ON WITH IT ANYWAY,and give back some of the money received from the Spa fiasco.
Or are they just dreaming up ways of generating more money to keep themselves in jobs.!”
by David, Bath
Thursday, September 02 2010, 10:57PM
“Wait a minute...Future Bath Plus was set up a several years ago with the help of £50,000 per annum financial support from B&NES. This new scheme proposal seems to supercede Future Bath Plus, with the BID having a wider remit and legal powers compelling business owners to contribute financially. So if Future Bath Plus has been in any way successful in its stated aims over its three-year £150,000 "trial period", then why is the new scheme even considered necessary? And if Future Bath Plus hasn't been successful, then why should it be allowed to continue to run alongside the new scheme? At least one of them is redundant, and there's little use in retaining the smaller "partnership body" if its primary purpose is simply to funnel council funds into the larger one. Or was Future Bath Plus always intended to serve as the thin end of the wedge?
Also, if the various Council departments that ostensibly have responsibility for the areas covered by the BID / FTP remit presumably aren't considered equal to the task, and if the Council funding given to Future Bath Plus hasn't got the job done over the last three years, and with the Council conceivably being in the position of having to contribute a further £25,000 per annum to the BID scheme because it's an organisation with offices in the city centre, then just how many time over are we council tax payers paying TO NOT GET THE JOB DONE?”
by rogerh, Bath
Thursday, September 02 2010, 10:18PM
“Sounds an excellent idea. Let's hope it gets the necessary support. Of course it won't go down well with the usual Chron. crowd who'd be just as miserable if the Council announced the Second Coming.
"if you had a charity with its offices in the catchment area it would get hit for this as it is universal..."
Well if they don't fall below the £25,000 pa rateable value threshold perhaps they're spending too much on their offices. Or, if not, perhaps they'll get 'hit' by a massive £5 to £10 per week.”