Michael Temlett
Business owners in Wishaw Main Street had a mixed reaction to the new proposed business rates.
After the Scottish Government figures which revealed 80 per cent of small businesses will see no a decrease or change in rates, we asked three Wishaw businesses how they felt.
Shazhad Ahmed, from Best Wishes, believes any help to independent shopkeepers must be welcomed but warned more could still be done.
He said:“I think you could ask a lot of businesses on the Main Street how they were coping and they would tell you it is a struggle.
“I am struggling and I would imagine a lot of independent shops are.
“When you look at the bigger names on the high street, you can see how hard it is for them. The Spar shut a few years back and now WHSmith is closing.
“I’m still waiting to hear about if my rate will change but a lot of people might think they are too high to begin with.”
Shan Kambo from Home Style on the Main Street believes smaller businesses will benefit far greater than large shops.
He said:“We try to offer a lot of services to the people of Wishaw in our shop but because of that we are a much larger unit.
“It seems like we are being penalised for it with our rate cost in comparison to smaller businesses.
“We don’t get any added benefits and even with no change in our rate it is still hard to maintain.
“We need to do as much as possible to keep people in Wishaw and hopefully using our store but it can be hard.
“Being a bigger unit you pay more but we don’t get any added benefits from the council for it.”
One independent business owner, who asked not to be named, added:“I think it’s good news the rates might go down for some businesses but that only makes it a bit easier to survive.
“Just because your rate goes down or stays the same it doesn’t guarantee more people will come into your shop.” Six months on from a change in the law which modified TV Licensing rules, students in Wishaw, Motherwell and Shotts are being urged to check they are correctly licensed.
Since September 1 last year, it has been necessary to buy a TV Licence to download or watch BBC programmes on demand – including catch-up TV – on BBC iPlayer.
Fergus Reid, spokesperson for TV Licensing for Scotland, said: “Students can check at our dedicated TV Licence for students (tvlicensing.co.uk\studentinfo) page whether they are correctly licensed. And, of course, you still need to be covered by a licence for all live viewing and recording, no matter which channel you are watching or what device you are watching on.”
A licence is not necessary to watch other on-demand services, such as ITV Player or Netflix, if you only ever watch on demand or catch up programmes on services other than BBC iPlayer and never watch live TV programmes on any channel.
In limited circumstances, students can be covered by the licence at their parents’ address. The device must be powered by its own internal batteries – e.g. a tablet or mobile phone - and must not be plugged it into the mains when receiving television. This use is enabled by the Regulations governing TV Licensing.