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Business Improvement District
This is an initiative by the Windermere and Bowness Chamber of
Trade, the Lakes Hospitality Association and South Lakes Development
Trust and fronted by Tony Blaney, committee Member of the Chamber of
Trade, Gail Bartolf of the Lakes Hospitality Association and Paul
Holdsworth of South Lakes Development Trust.
Retail Survey -
3 September 2009
Supplementary Information
on BID
Letters of
Support.
Further Comments from Chamber of Trade Members.
Email from a Chamber Member
whose permission we have to reproduce it below.
Hello Adrian
I thought I should write to inform you about some business research
that I have conducted with regards to a recent proposal to get BIDS
approved for Bowness & Windermere businesses. It would appear that
the members behind this scheme have done little research into it's
genuine success as my enquiries with 7 local businesses in Keswick
town centre have not one single positive remark to make. Most of the
business owners that we spoke to were incensed with this added tax
that has given the town no extra business or improvements with the
exception of a few finger style signposts fitted at their expense.
It seems that this scheme is nothing other than a way of raising
extra tax on hard pressed businesses, and the organisers are finding
a way to create a well paid job for the "boys".
Needless to say I am opposed to it and would like to know whether
the WBCOFT is supporting this scheme and if so, based on what
evidence of success.
I shall look forward to your reply
Kind regards
Paul Frain
Helen's Chocolates
First Meeting:
The inaugural
meeting was held at The Cook House on Tuesday 27th January 2009.
This was to see if there was any potential to gain a BID status for
the local area.
Attending this meeting were
representatives from:-
| Booths |
Cumbria County Council |
Lakes Hospitality
Assoc. |
| Musgraves |
Simon Everett
Opticians |
South Lakeland
District Council |
| South Lakes
Development Trust |
The Cook House |
Windermere
& Bowness Chamber of Trade |
The meeting
discussed in principal, if South Lakeland District Council would be
prepared to back the process as the we would be reliant on them for
collections and some administration. Therefore if they had said no
it would have been a non-starter anyway. They expressed an interest
and would be happy to support the process. Cumbria County
Council had no objections.
The rest of the
businesses present were either strongly in favour, or convinced that
it would be a positive organisation for the area by the time the
meeting closed.
There is a major
issue at this time as to what the footprint for the BID should be.
This will be discussed both at the next Chamber of Trade meeting and
at the next meeting of the group to develop the setup process for a
BID.
Some tasks were
allocated to individuals and there were as follows:-
It was then
proposed that the next meeting should be on 10th February 2009
at the Cook House at 5:30pm.
That is a
summary of the initial meeting. We need more businesses there
next time. Please let me know if you wish to attend.
This report
was produced by Steve Marston, the then Vice Chair of the Chamber of
Trade.
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