Littlehampton is going through the stages to become a Business Improvement District – the first town centre in Arun to do so!  We catch up with progress to date.

Becoming a Business Improvement District (BID) can be a long, tortuous process (as the businesses of the Southern Cross Industrial Estate found earlier in the year) but an ultimately rewarding one.  We’ve covered BIDs in depth in previous issues, but to refresh your memory:

• BIDs are defined areas where all of the rate payers have democratically agreed to pay a levy on top of their business rates for the good of the area
• The monies raised in this way can be used for any initiative that is deemed to add value to the trading area – for instance marketing, security (see the box out to find out how the estate is tackling its security issues) or signage which the businesses themselves have suggested
• BIDs can also lever in money from outside sources (grants etc) to top the pot up and allow the traders to undertake more initiatives than they would have been able to afford on their own.

For Littlehampton’s Town Centre Traders, becoming a BID would give them the opportunity to further enhance the town’s attractions, provide additional security, explore new and exciting marketing opportunities and so on to encourage more people to spend more time in the town more often.

With 249 separate organisations within the town, one can imagine the scale of the task that faces the Town Centre Action Group (TCAG) who are spearheading the BID campaign.  However, the town is off to a flying start, with meetings having taken place and many businesses completing a detailed questionnaire about how they’d like to see the town develop.  From street scene issues (litter/graffiti etc) to marketing advice and training for individual businesses, companies across the town centre have been making their feelings felt.

It’s this initial stage that is one of the most important – after all, it will be the rate payers who have an additional levy placed on their business rates to deliver a series of initiatives and it’s vital that the TCAG knows what local businesses want to see.  Each aspect of the town’s improvement has to be documented in the official BID business plan and then adhered to rigorously – so if the businesses don’t state what they want to see, it won’t get written into the plan.

Following this consultation, the most important priorities highlighted by the businesses are being costed up and written into the full business plan.  The plan should be ready by the end of the year and, at this point, all of the businesses in Littlehampton involved with the BID will vote on it.

As with all BID processes, the voting will be held in two stages, both of which need a positive result for the BID to be officially established.  With enthusiasm for the BID running high, it is hoped that it could be implemented as of April 2008.