Agenda item

To receive a report from the Lead Officer, Business Support and Local Growth and the Economic and Business Development Team and Programme Manager (copy attached) to provide information regarding the process of forming Business Improvement Districts to enable the Committee to examine the process in detail.

10.45 a.m. – 11.15 a.m.

Councillor Graham Timms declared a personal interest as he was Chair of Llangollen 2020 BID.

The Leader, Councillor Hugh Evans, Head of Planning and Public Protection, Emlyn Jones, and Lead Officer, Business Support and Local Growth, Carolyn Brindle, were in attendance for the item.

The Leader, Councillor Hugh Evans, introduced the report (previously circulated) to provide information regarding the process of forming Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) to enable the Committee to examine the process in detail.

Communities Scrutiny Committee had been requested by the Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chair Group to consider the specific topic in response to a request from a business person in Rhyl, Lynnette Jones, who had concerns regarding the transparency of the process involved with establishing a BID. 

Lynette Jones, was in attendance at the meeting to put forward some of her concerns:

·         To her knowledge, a large number of businesses had not received information regarding the Rhyl BID.

·         There had been no formal launch of the BID.

·         Business owners had not been invited to put forward suggestions as to what the BID monies could be spent on.

·         In her opinion businesses were led to believe they would not have to pay any additional contribution but this was not the case.  This was a major issue for struggling businesses.

·         The fact that 66 businesses out of 99 had voted in favour of the BID and of the 66, 41 votes were from Denbighshire County Council owned premises.

·         No business support had been forthcoming.

·         In her and other businesses opinion, suitable consultation had not been carried out.

During discussions, it was emphasised that:

·         the process to establish a BID was set out in legislation

·         whilst local authorities were not permitted by law to lead on the process of establishing a BID, they did have an important role to play in facilitating a BID ballot, notifying the outcome of any ballot and collecting the BID levy;

·         BIDs were business-led initiatives;

·         to date in Denbighshire a BID ballot had been held in Rhyl which had resulted in a BID being established in the town, businesses in Prestatyn had decided not to proceed with plans to ballot for the establishment of a BID, and a ballot was due to be held in Llangollen in the spring of 2020;

·         communication regarding proposals to hold a ballot with a view to establishing a BID, and the aims and objectives of the proposed BID, was the responsibility of the BID Group established in the area under consideration;

·         the rate of the levy in the BID area was set by the BID Board.  Whilst the local authority collected the levy it was paid over to the BID Board for it to use to deliver its objectives and priorities;

·         local authorities were not permitted to withdraw any of their services within a BID area on the basis that BID income could be used to provide those services.  All local authority decisions in relation to cutting services were required to be taken on a county-wide basis and be equitable to all residents.  However, BID monies could be used to supplement local authority services if they supported the delivery of the BID’s priorities;

·         the Council did have a vote in respect of each business premises it owned within the proposed BID district which met the ballot rateable value threshold.  In Denbighshire Cabinet would decide whether to exercise its votes in a BID ballot and how those votes should be cast.  In both the Rhyl BID ballot and the forthcoming Llangollen BID ballot Cabinet had decided to exercise its votes in favour of establishing a BID and had delegated authority to the Corporate Director:  Economy and Public Realm to complete all ballot papers on behalf of the Authority;

·         BID areas were usually very specific areas of a town, not the entire town, and were illustrated on a map accompanying BID information by a red line which clearly defined the area’s boundary.  In the majority of cases, once established, BIDs were companies limited by guarantee and were therefore obliged to publish annual accounts etc.

·         whilst, once established, the Council would have a seat on the BID Board it did not have any greater influence on the Board’s decisions than any other Board member.  Nevertheless, by having a seat on the Board the Council could gauge how its services could be used to complement the work of the BID Board.  BID Boards could take any decision as long as they were lawful decisions.  The aims of BID Boards were to draw together businesses and services with a vested interest in seeing an area thrive. It was a vehicle for building a level of mutual trust between different stakeholders with a view to increasing prosperity in the area.

It was acknowledged that lessons could be learnt from the Rhyl BID ballot, particularly with regards to communication and engagement with those businesses eligible to vote in the ballot, which may be useful for those involved with the arrangements for the forthcoming Llangollen BID ballot.  Officers were requested to draw these matters to the attention of the relevant individuals involved with both BIDs and encourage them to liaise with each other.  It was also acknowledged that the number of Council owned business properties in the Rhyl BID area, and the Council’s decision to exercise all of its votes in favour of establishing a BID along with a high number of eligible businesses not exercising their right to vote, had contributed towards the result to establish the BID.  However, all proper legal processes had been followed and the BID had been established by a majority vote which was compliant with the legislative requirements.  In response to members’ concerns regarding this, officers agreed to raise with the UK Government, via the consultants facilitating work to establish BIDs across the UK, the possibility of introducing a percentage threshold that would require to be met of the eligible businesses who were in favour of the establishment of a BID i.e. 40%.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Committee:

RESOLVED:   that, subject to the above observations,

(i)           contact be made with the Chair of both the Rhyl Business Improvement District Board and the Chair of the Llangollen Business Improvement Group with a view to sharing experiences and learning lessons on how to effectively communicate with the local business community and engage them with the process of establishing a Business Improvement District and the importance of exercising their votes;

(ii)          contact be made with the consultants, MOSAIC, seeking them to feedback to central government the benefits of introducing in the legislation a percentage threshold for those in favour of establishing a BID, with a view to endorsing the BID’s influence; and

(iii)        continues to support the establishment of further Business Improvement Districts in the county should any town, rural area or business group with to progress one.