A new B.I.D for Swindon town centre is not the answer
The Ink Monthly Business Focus
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This is our monthly ‘Business’ focus column which will normally appear on the first Thursday of every month. The second Thursday is ‘Education’, and the third Thursday of the month is ‘Heritage’, and the fourth Thursday is ‘Food & Drink’.
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Does Swindon need another B.I.D?
By business owner and journalist Fiona Scott
I recently saw a story about some business owners wanting Swindon to have another ‘go’ at creating a Business Improvement District or BID. I understand their frustration because our town centre is always being talked down.
Focus is always put on empty units, anti-social behaviour, the abandoned tented market rather than the independent small businesses which still exist and still offer great value and variety in our town centre. The negative stories are still valid – yet it’s not the whole picture.
There appears to be little will, no money and very little vision at the moment among decision-makers to improve our town centre and link up its heritage to create more of a destination for local people – and those further afield. Yet the will within individual businesses could be there, if there was more collaboration and trust.
A Business Improvement District, in case you are wondering, is a defined area in which a levy is charged on all eligible business rate payers in addition to the business rates bill. This levy is used to develop projects which will benefit businesses in that local area.
There is no limit on what projects or services can be provided through a BID. The only requirement is that it should be in addition to services provided by the relevant local authority and improvements may include extra safety/security, cleansing, environmental measures or even events to bring extra footfall.
On the face of it, it does sound great but what is the reality? I worked with one iteration of the former Swindon BID and I also worked around the Chippenham BID too and both failed eventually. Frankly, having seen two ‘BIDs’ in action, it doesn’t work because the moving parts that make up our town centre had to work together and be committed – and frankly that’s as easy as knitting yoghurt.
What I saw were hard-working micro teams who could never win, they could never please everyone all of the time, the expectations put upon them were way out of kilter with the monies they had available and they all ended up playing internal politics. Members of those teams became ill due to the constant juggling of various interests. It was a cesspit of energy-sapping frustration leading to copious pointless meetings and managing the jockeying for position among various players. As a consultant it felt like a hiding to nothing.