Hopes BID will provide positives

Another step has been taken towards the creation of a Spalding Business Improvement District (BID) following a public meeting last week.

Those who spoke at the gathering were in favour of the creation of a group that would cover 416 businesses, paying extra on top of their existing business rates.
The meeting was told that it’s hoped a vote on whether to create a BID by business and shop owners was planned to take place in March 2024 after consultations and a ‘campaign roll out’ beginning in the new year.
Mo Aswat, of The Mosaic Partnership, a company hired by South Holland District Council to look at setting up a BID, said setting one up could bring in an annual levy of £170,000 and up to £250,000 to go on ideas to get people into the town.
He also said that over 75 per cent of businesses would be prepared to pay £1 a day towards it though didn’t clarify where that research came from.
Mr Aswat also said that the payment would likely to be mandatory as voluntary pay-ins historically only saw ‘around 20 per cent’ of businesses pay into it.
The cost on any empty properties would go to the landlord, he added in response to a question from the floor.
Around 35 people were in attendance and nobody spoke out against the creation of the BID.
But attendees largely wanted to talk about other issues they thought were important, including toilet provision, and anti-social behaviour in the town centre.
Steve Timewell, organiser of the Spalding Flower Parade, argued that these were issues that should be fixed before a BID is created.
“The town centre is a disgrace,” he said. “It’s not a great place and certainly not a safe place.
“There’s so much anti-social behaviour and most times it’s by a number of individuals.”
One security company was in attendance saying it was available for businesses to hire in the town to deal with individuals.
But there were also calls to talk up the town.
Spalding Civic Society chairman John Bland, a member of the Spalding Business Board, set up by Mosaic to control the BID or what is decided, asked for a separate public meeting on ASB: “Having seen some of the responses and reactions to the mural that Transported are doing in the town, frankly at the moment I think the focus on these anti-social issues is feeding into this view of what’s the point of doing it and is holding the town back.”
Catherine Duce, chairman of the Spalding Business Board, said: “We want to make sure we build a positive image of Spalding.
“A lot of what you see in the press and from the general public in town is really quite negative.
“We want to turn that around. Nothing negative that’s been said about a town has helped it get better.
“We want to turn that around and make sure the overall message from the town is positive.
“That’s either from marketing plan or simply how we present things.
“We want to make it better and easier for them to come to town and find their way around and access information.
“We want to ensure it makes it look like somewhere you’d want them to show off.
“We want to get the town centre to a place so that it’s robust enough to not have the loss of a big place like Hills or Beales cause shockwaves.
“One of the key things is to create a platform we can get funding and bring everything together to make things happen in a more formalised way.”