east midlands sleaford town council
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Sleaford Pre-BID Partners
East Midlands
Winner in Business and Economy Category and Regional Winner
BIDsWhat’s a BID?
Business Improvement Districts come from relatively new legislation:
The Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations
2004
BIDs
What does a BID do?
It can do whatever the business community wants it to do, provided the businesses agree to find the resources to do it
BIDsKey factors
• Full discussion /consultation about the proposals across the community
• A democratic decision• If agreed by a majority, all members
contribute roughly in proportion to the size of their business, for a fixed term
• Business-led and business-controlled
SleafordThe Background
• Town partnership – ran out of funding and needed an exit strategy
• Town Manager’s post adopted by the Town Council for continuity
• Town Council and The Chamber set up a Pre-BID Working Group
Sleaford
• Successfully applied to Lincolnshire Enterprise for funding
• Engaged and consulted with local businesses
• Drew up a Draft Business Plan
• Joined East Midlands BIDs Academy run by ATCM and UKBIDs
Sleaford
More consultation
Compiled Final Business Plan
Ballot in July 2007
Sleaford
• Set up a new board, majority elected from amongst the businesses
• Appointed a BID Manager
• Sent out the levy bills….
Sleaford Achievements so far
• Security - BID van patrols started, overnight and at weekends, a shared resource with the Town Council’s Town Warden
• Car parking - commissioned a survey on car parking in the town, with Town Council and AMT, to lobby the car parking authority about off and on street car parking
Sleaford• Promotion - supporting the town’s
events, the Sustainable Sleaford project and Sleaford in Bloom
• And there’s more
to come over the
next 4 years!
Sleaford
To summarise• Legislation enabling BIDs in place in 2004• First Market Town in the East Midlands• First Yes Vote in the BIDs Academy• Second BID in the East Midlands, after Lincoln• Third ‘district-wide’ BID in UK• There are now around 75 BIDs in England and
Scotland, 5 in East Midlands• BIDs are spreading across the Country and
could happen in your community!