Daventry District Council has reiterated its support for the Town Centre Partnership’s Business Improvement District (BID) initiative.
Businesses in the town centre voted in March to start the scheme, which will see extra resources devoted to raising the profile of the town and helping firms to flourish.
Daventry District Council administered the vote after a ballot was requested by the TCP and is responsible for the collection of fees from members.
Simon Bowers, Corporate Manager for Development and Property at Daventry District Council, said: ”The BID was promoted by the Daventry TCP as a means of helping town centre businesses to be more successful in the face of competition from other towns. The Council is required by law to administer a BID ballot if one is requested, as it was in this instance by the TCP.
“Ballot papers were sent by post. Businesses who contacted us to say they had lost, spoilt or not received their ballot paper and instructions had them hand delivered by us, or could attend the Council offices to collect another.
“A total of 11 BID ballot papers were re-issued, while seven were returned by Royal Mail marked either ‘addressee has gone away’ or ‘address inaccessible’.
“As detailed in the original proposal and agreed by businesses in the ballot, Daventry District Council is the partner responsible for collecting payment from all members. Daventry District Council has already paid a significant proportion of the expected levy to the TCP on behalf of all members in order to enable it to commence activities.
“We are obliged to take recovery action if necessary, as was agreed in the ballot and specified in legislation, and it would be unfair on those businesses which have paid if we did not follow-up on payment from those who have not.
“All property business rate payers have one vote per property, so the Council had 12 votes in the ballot. Given the results, even if the Council had not voted at all, the BID would still have come into effect as the majority of businesses who voted wanted it.
“It should be noted that the voting system is designed to ensure BID proposals have widespread support before they can come into effect. It does this by requiring a majority of both the properties and also the rateable value voting to be in favour.
“Payments for the BID levy are coming in every day and the Council wishes the TCP well in using the BID initiative to help Daventry town centre flourish.”
Daventry TCP is made up of local town centre businesses, local organisations including Daventry Volunteer Centre, Daventry District Council, Daventry Town Council and Northamptonshire Police.
Powered by EasySite™