If you are a business in Bury St Edmunds, and your rateable value is over £10,000 you may have received a ballot for the election of the Our Bury St Edmunds BID.
You might be asking yourselves, what has the BID ever done for me? Lets take this a step further, and explore what you should be asking yourselves.
Complaints about the BID should be directed to Councillor Indy Wijenayaka (Cabinet Member for Growth) in*************@we*********.uk
Although this video was from Gibraltar, the same is true in Bury St Edmunds
BID Directors appointed privately, as a business you have no say in this
Ballot papers not distributed in time
Some ballot papers do not reach the businesses
Low voter turnout
Undemocratic – 2 part vote where one part relies on how much the levy to be paid is weighted
Lack of Transparency – can you see their accounts? No, they are a small private company using your money
The BID area is defined by the BID to ensure they get the big businesses, and cut out the bigger businesses who they know would say no.
Ballot papers are often sent to Landlords and not the tenants, sometimes they DO reach the tenants. This time delay is good for the BID as businesses will forget that there is even a ballot on
Maps are produced which ignore any business with a rateable value less than £10,000
- Communication Frequency
- How often in the past 5 years, has the BID been in contact with you individually?
- Social Media Promotion
- When did the BID last promote your business on their social media, without being prompted?
- They claim “Promotion / Marketing” but when was your business last promoted?
- How many times your business was promoted on their social media?
- They claim 60,000 people follow our social media channels, but this is a total sum of all their social media channels. Many of those people who follow one are likely to follow more than one.
- Value vs Cost
- How much has your business paid the BID since 2020?
- What value have you had vs the amount you have paid for since 2020?
- They claim “Free Annual Public Events,” but businesses with stalls have to pay up to 3 times more than a regular market operated by the West Suffolk Council.
- During Lockdown, the BID continued to claim their levy from businesses, despite them being closed for many months and unable to make money from sales.
- The increase of 0.15% in the levy to 2.15% of your rateable value. Can you afford this?
- Their accounts are not available to be seen. This is a private “small” company and do not have to show all their accounts. Does that make you wonder where your money is being spent?
- Free Training Courses
- Free training courses for staff – no, you still have to pay those members of staff, and the cost of the person covering them.
- Negotiations with Authorities
- Negotiations with the authorities on matters directly affecting our businesses such as parking or policing issues. Parking is still an issue, with many people still complaining about the cost. The BID has not been successful in altering this.
- Considering the BID CEO is an ex-police officer, one of the reasons Dennys closed is due to shoplifting, a matter that the BID was not able to deal with, despite the owner being a BID director.
- Their plan for the next 5 years includes continuing to work with the police, but in the last few years, crime still exists and they have not tackled it.
- Comparisons to Other Towns
- “If the BID didn’t exist, I think we’d all have to work much harder to keep Bury St Edmunds town centre in the hearts and minds of all” (David Marjoram Chair of the BID) – Haverhill, Sudbury & Stowmarket are towns without BIDs. They all have many activities including Christmas Fayres, Parades, and the like, generally organised with the assistance of their respective Town Councils. They do not need a BID
- They have not mentioned the 100s of towns where BIDs have been kicked out
- They have not mentioned their involvement with The Mosaic Partnership
- Event and Infrastructure Management
- Provide the Christmas lights, including maintenance and upgrades. Upgrades? I’ve not seen any upgrades, it’s the same every year, tired old lights that should be sent to the tip.
- They claim “Working with partners to improve the physical infrastructure of the town centre” but what does that even mean?
- Support Initiatives
- Support for the rickshaw, pedal cab & cycle delivery scheme, but this does not help the businesses of the town.
- They tell us, 4 new defibrillators installed to help save lives, but these were not paid for by the BID.
- Footfall and Economic Impact
- They claim 14% increase in town centre footfall on 2019, but this is based on one camera above Maia & Cecile in Abbeygate Street, which was turned off for many months because the BID refused to pay the electricity for it.
- They claim Total value of tourism to the local economy was up by £4 million, but they cannot take credit for that because there are many sites which promote the town.
- Member Interaction and Transparency
- They claim, “In the autumn of 2023 People and Places Insight carried out a town centre benchmarking exercise, including engaging with every BID member, seeking their views on the current state of Bury St Edmunds town centre, what was working for them, and what issues they would like to be addressed and improved. Their feedback has contributed to the identification of our 4 priorities, linked objectives, and actions within our business plan. Additionally, BID staff have personally interacted with over 100 businesses since the autumn, seeking to ascertain the key issues they want us to work on.” Only 100 businesses? I thought you said that you were supporting over 400 businesses, so why did 75% get left out?
- They say, “The number of properties or hereditaments liable for the levy is approximately 430.” Approximately? Don’t they know?
- Not showing salaries paid in the prospectus. On the prospectus from 2020 the salaries were listed as £120,000 but they have been omitted on the latest prospectus, why?
Why does the West Suffolk Council always vote YES? Is it because they don’t have faith that the actual businesses would do what is right for them? Surely if the WSC had that faith, then they wouldn’t need to vote.. They could abstain. I have put this question to Cliff Waterman, leader of the WSC, and I am waiting for a reply from him about this.
In 2022 Mark Cordell sent me a letter, threatening me with legal action to remove some of my social media posts, he was met with a 9 page response from my solicitor and Cordell has not contacted me since.
Do you still have doubts? read this https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/14/as-transparent-as-a-brick-wall-british-firms-fight-back-against-business-improvement-districts
