Town’s BID ends after business opposition
No Dunblane renewal as term finishes
Dunblane’s Business Improvement District is to be wound up after a significant number of the town’s traders objected to it continuing.
Discover Dunblane Ltd was established in May 2015 following a ballot.
But, with its five-year term coming to an end in May 2020, consultations on a new ballot suggested too many businesses in the area were opposed to a second term.
Stirling Council officers, who provide some administrative resources for the BID, told the council’s finance committee last week that there was a lack of demand in the business community to volunteer time to organise a second ballot.
They added: “Contributing factors included that many of the successes to date can be attributed to a few volunteers and this was not felt by board members to be a sustainable model for a second BID term.
“There was also a view that the BID model is not suitable for a business community the size of Dunblane’s, and whilst the review period confirmed a majority of businesses supported a second including the Dunblane Road Race and Stirling Marathon; promotional activity; and the Skills for Life programme with Dunblane High School.
However, Discover Dunblane Ltd will continue to represent businesses in some form outside the framework of a Business Improvement District.
Senior manager for economic development and communities Stuart Oliver said: “Every town has challenges but they are still quite area-specific. Although the BID did get things done there were not enough businesses involved and it seems to have been a bit of polarisation as to whether it was worthwhile or not. It’s certainly something we are looking at closely.
“The key is getting enough businesses in a locality engaged. For some communities there’s a particular challenge where three or four take the lead and others feel they don’t get a say. But when we are looking at creative solutions there’s a challenge faced across the board.”
Tory councillor Jeremy McDonald asked if there was scope for other types of business forums in communities
He added: “Bridge of Allan, for example, has a lights switch-on. The community council has gone out to every business and every business is going to provide things for people to see, food etc. It is not necessarily a lot of money but it gets people excited to go out and do something.
“Some businesses just look at BID as being a sort of tax and they don’t want involved in it.”
Mr Oliver said: “There is an example of best practice in York. It is not a BID but traders just get together and it has been very successful. It doesn’t feel like a tax because it was just agreed and had positive results.
“Some of what we do as services is actual resource to go into communities and try to facilitate conversations.
“We will be focusing on bringing people together and looking at ways of attracting project funding as we go forward.”
Every town has challenges but they are still quite area-specific. Although the BID did get things done there were not enough businesses involved Stuart Oliver