Back

Liverpool: the Business Improvement District

Going for the BID?

A busy Church Street in the heart if the BID

Business 'within the 'City Central BID' zone voted on 11th March 2005 on whether to proceed with the current BID pilot in the Church St area and formalise it. The proposal was defeated , though only in the 'aggregate rateable value' poll (smacks of 'Old Labour' block votes).

The 'one to one' vote was in favour of proceeding with the BID. It seems as though a combination of short-term self interest amongst some of the multiples (who may wander down to the Paradise scheme) and a lack of understanding about how BIDs work (there has been an underlying suspicion by some that the BID is just another vehicle for the council to force more money out of business - fair enough perhaps given past events!) have conspired to lose this first vote.

The corporate headquarters of a number of the multiples who operate in Church St have stated that their intention is to vote against proposals in ALL of the 20 pilot BIDs operating around the country. It is our understanding and this was borne out through conversations, that where the vote was carried was amongst the local entrepreneur owned business and those bigger players who have had a long term commitment to downtown.

This in itself highlights the inherent value of the whole BID concept. The most successful BIDs around the world are the ones which are driven with passion by and for the city based interests and this is why we support them.

BIDs have played a central role in giving local business CONTROL over how their downtown works and to progress projects DECIDED BY ITS MEMBERS. For example, the story about more disruptive work again in the Brunswick St area we reported recently could well have been very different if a BID was running there and the business currently adversely affected where helping to run it! It is because business interests run them that they can be so effective.

We think that you all know where we stand on QUANGO initiatives and the generally bogus 'Partnerships'..we dislike them, but BIDs are not 'Gold-Zones', or anything of the sort. They are fundamentally different. Another poll will be made, should be in around 3 months, if this is positive then the BID model could be rolled out across other downtown districts as well as major centres across the city. So it is in the interests of ALL downtowners to encourage support in the next poll.

We dearly hope that the BID does get the go ahead. If it does, how effective it is will be determined by the local business who take the lead in driving the scheme on, NOT the council. We have every faith that the drive, passion, intelligence and vision to make our BID a fantastic wealth generator is available within the downtown business community.

See how BID's are helping to revive downtown's in the U. K. and internationally:

http://www.atcm.org

http://ida-downtown.org

Also: Liverpool official BID website:

http://www.citycentralbid.com

All text and images © 2005 The Downtown Liverpool Organisation
http://www.downtownliverpool.org

The independent, not-for-profit urbanist think tank for Liverpool, UK.