Kingsgate boss in blast over BID move

business rates already charged.

And he said tenants inside Kingsgate also had to pay a “hefty service charge” so could not bear another levy.

“I see it as duplicity of service, asking our tenants to pay twice,” he said.

“I can’t see the benefit of it and never have in all the places they’ve got BIDS.

“It just creates extra costs and increases the overheads of retailers.

“We need to protect retailers from failing because of the level of rates.

“For instance if House of Fraser pay an extra £20,000 that’s equivalent to a member of staff, yet there’s no added benefit to Kingsgate.

“I’m waiting for someone to explain why I’m wrong and nobody has managed it yet.”

Mr Everest said if the vote was passed and they were asked to contribute he would do “all he could to refuse paying it”.

But he did say Kingsgate was willing to look at other ways of supporting investment in the centre of Huddersfield, but did not elaborate on what they may be, saying only there’s “millions of different ways but BID isn’t one”.

“It’s not a question of not supporting smaller businesses,” he added

“But Kingsgate would pay a vast proportion of this and receive nothing back. “That’s not equitable.” John Hirst, director of the Huddersfield Partnership, the group of business leaders behind the BID plan, said: “Kingsgate want to be excluded from the zone because they are right slap bang in the middle of it.

“Peter Everest is totally against BIDS as I understand it. They don’t feel they should be involved.

“They’ve made their feelings abundantly clear.

“However, the businesses inside Kingsgate, which include quite a lot of national retailers, are proBID, including H&M and House of Fraser.

“Kingsgate could possibly influence managers at some of the shops but that’s all they can do.

“They can make their feelings known but Kingsgate as an organisation will only have one vote.

“I’m sure most can make their own minds up.

“Obviously we’d like to have Kingsgate as a business on board but Mr Everest has said he is adamantly against it.”