The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.
For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.
Minutes:
A. Mr Shawn Rutter (No Taunton BID) asked the following questions in relation to Item 10 – Taunton Business Improvement District Ballot:
“Good evening, I’m speaking for No Taunton BID, representing the significant number of businesses opposed to the new Taunton BID proposal.
As I wrote in my letter to you last Saturday about the councils’ lack of openness and transparency over BID, it’s extremely disappointing that the agenda report for tonight has still not been made public, as it would have allowed a fair chance to make pertinent democratic representation for what will be discussed and decisions to be made by you today. But I sincerely hope that later this evening you will vote to not exclude the press and public from the BID discussion as it is not commercially sensitive.
If the council does allow the BID proposal to go to ballot, my letter of 22nd October made a strong case for the council to abstain from voting for it’s properties, given the overwhelming influence council votes would have. With average ballot turnout, this council’s vote would be 6% by voting number, and 12% by cumulative RV - and with this weeks’ questionable addition of the county council’s Brendon House, as the 4th largest RV property on the map now, if both councils vote they are forecast to have cast 18% of the RV vote.
The spirit of BID regulations is for BID to be a business-led initiative, for the businesses, decided on by the businesses; which is why the right thing for the Council to do would be to abstain from voting. If BID is to go ahead, the best chance of success will come from a true majority of business having embraced and wanting BID - and the only way we’ll know this, is a ballot without Council votes.
I suggest this council has some hard questions to ask itself when considering Taunton’s 4th BID ballot in 13 years, and I have 4 questions today:
1. The BID proposers have chosen not include East Reach, Station Road and most of Bridge Street, meaning businesses in these town centre areas would be starved of the extra investment and benefits BID are promising BID businesses. Is the Council happy with the limited scope of the map, which was decided on without appropriate consultation?
2. Is the council certain that BID is the best place management scheme for Taunton town centre? i.e. instead of a town centre partnership for example, which could be much wider reaching and inclusive for both more businesses and the community.
3. With regard to BID baseline agreements, for the 5 year duration of BID, will the Council be committing to legally binding baseline agreements for all statutory and discretionary services it currently provides into the proposed BID area?
4. Given Taunton’s poor experience with BID previously, what lessons has the council learnt, and what measures will the council be taking to ensure the town won’t be let down by BID again, if it goes to ballot and is voted in?
Finally, let’s remember what your Portfolio Holder for Asset Management and Economic Development once said when referring to Minehead; he said “promoting and managing of the town should be done at the local authority level”.
One couldn’t agree with him more, and given the noticeable effort this new administration is currently making with Taunton, we really should continue along this path, in line your manifesto promise to create vibrant and economically secure town centres - instead of the council helping force in an extra unwanted business rate.
Thankyou.”
Councillor Marcus Kravis, Portfolio Holder for Economic Development and Asset Management thanked Mr Rutter for his questions and responded that the businesses not included within the BID area were contacted and consulted after a decision was made on the BID area, and he understood there had been no appeals to date on the area. In regards to the second question he responded that BID’s are a known approach in many districts throughout the country and are heavily legislated for, and would be if the BID was mandated. If successful, regulations do require a baseline agreement that would be reviewed annually. In terms of asking what lessons the Council has learnt, the question perhaps should be what lessons the BID team has learnt if the BID successful and what they will do, with the Council having a seat at the table as is usually the case, if it is successful. With regard to the quotation, the full quote I think I actually started with ‘In an ideal world’, and I would still stand by that statement.
The Monitoring Officer responded that the item was being held in confidential session due to the commercial sensitivity of it. Whilst Mr Rutter had suggested the Council should consider abstaining in the vote, the Council will make a decision on which option it would choose (including abstention) for the ballot in confidential session so as not to prejudice the final result.
Mr Rutter asked one supplementary question around the baseline was a really important factor. The question had not been answered on whether the baseline agreements would be legally binding. Last year in a survey 39% of Council’s were not appearing in baseline agreements. There was a real big risk of loss of discretionary Council services that people were scared of. The only way to reassure people was to have legally binding agreements and Taunton BID did say they would be asking the Council for legally binding agreements, so will you provide?
Councillor Kravis responded that he thought he had said that there will be a baseline agreement that would be binding if agreed and this would be debated later.
B. Mr Nigel Pearce (President - Taunton Chamber of Commerce) made the following statement in relation to Item 10 – Taunton Business Improvement District Ballot:
Firstly I would just like to thank you on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce for your support to date and for allowing us the opportunity to speak. In representing the wider business community, some based in the town centre and some further afield such as Blackbrook. Although I have an office within the BID area I am an architect, it would therefore reasonable to ask ‘What benefit am I going to get from the BID?’ There is a lot of support from other businesses and the wider professional services. Their reasons for doing so include the need to attract good quality staff, and this can be a struggle in the town when we are in competition with Exeter and Bristol. It is not all about salary levels, and lifestyle and enjoyment can be a much higher issue on the Agenda. For many that means a good and thriving Town Centre, and a place their families can enjoy and use for more purposes than just shopping, making Taunton a really good place to live. So these companies do see the BID as an important factor in their ability to recruit and be successful. As an architect, I am not looking to expand greatly, so recruitment is an optional driver, but the employees of these companies and the companies themselves are my clients and that is why BID is important to me.
C. Mr Lee Tomkins (Independent Financial Adviser – Blackdown Financial Services) made the following statement in relation to Item 10 – Taunton Business Improvement District Ballot:
I am a businessman in town and actually have three businesses in the proposed BID area. I was involved in the last BID 2007-2012 and was deeply unimpressed. I was asked if I would get involved again this time round and my new line was that I wouldn’t as I wasn’t impressed with the Council back in the day. However, I’ve been convinced that you are a new Council now and hopefully you have learnt from those mistakes. So I’m supporting the BID, I think it’s a worthy cause and if the BID and the Council work together they can make the town a great place. My experience of the people that I have met in the BID environment this time is there is some good people there and some good heads and some good ideas. I think it is vitally important that there is communication between the Council and the BID.
D. Ms Mel Amor (Crystals Bath Place & Vice-Chair of Bath Place Traders Association) made the following statement in relation to Item 10 – Taunton Business Improvement District Ballot:
I urge you to vote for the BID because it is an opportunity for the business community of Taunton to form a strong group of passionate individuals who can make good decisions and implement new ideas to improve the town’s atmosphere and overall visitor experience. Taunton is in need of an injection of well-planned regular events. Events which have been carefully constructed to maximise footfall and encourage more people to shop locally whilst fully enjoying themselves and to attract new visitors too. The more entertained and happy people we attract to the town the more the benefit to our businesses and our communities. I cannot see a better way of raising needed funds than to deliver such a vibrant programme events than the money collected through the BID. It means we are all contributing a fair amount into the fund to benefit from something we have all created together. Also, identifying a distinctive and unique selling point for the town as a whole is something I feel passionate about the BID achieving. Taunton needs to be known for something great so it can enable business to flourish and our culture and communities to grow. We have yet to fathom what defines Taunton, we need to create an identity that is strong and empowering for our town. In my view, the BID team is the best hope of working this out and ensuring Taunton becomes the best possible version of itself. We need to put our minds together, and by this I mean the business community and the Council to work together and consult each other on what really is actually best for the town’s businesses, population and potential future visitors. We are the people on the ground. We have constant contact with those who shop, eat, spend and consume. We hear what the public are concerned about, what they are pleased about and enjoy and also general response to the Council’s actions actually are. We are the people who know how things are impacting our businesses. The BID is an opportunity for us as businesses and the Council to unite and really put Taunton on the map. By you voting for the BID it means you are supporting our local business community and contributing to the success of the town in general. This relationship needs to strengthen and consultation needs to increase. The BID is how we can do that. By voting for the BID you will be ensuring we have the resources needed to improve our town effectively and efficiently.
E. Mr Colin Barrell (Chairman - Taunton Chamber of Commerce) made the following statement in relation to Item 10 – Taunton Business Improvement District Ballot:
Thank you for the opportunity to come and address you. I and the working group of around 15 individuals representing large national retailers such as Debenhams, Marks and Spencer, Primark; Small Independent businesses from the likes of Bath Place and the St. James Street area, pubs, charity shops, banks, building societies and estate agents. We’ve been engaging with them all our working group, we’ve given people opportunities to come to meetings, individual one to ones, we’ve had newsletters and questionnaires go out to get information. One of those businesses we’ve consulted with is Somerset West and Taunton. You after all, are one of the biggest businesses in the town. You’ve got significant revenue income from your assets within the area of the proposed BID. It is my belief and that of the working group that we need to work in partnership for our mutual benefit and that of our residents, our employees and our visitors. If you know me and my track record both in business and the community, you will appreciate that as well as wanting a successful business for myself and my twenty eight employees, I’m also passionate about making Taunton an even better place to live and letting more people know about that. Taunton is crying out for all of us to work together and grasp the opportunity a BID can provide. The vast majority of the businesses are prepared to invest and I believe the Council will want to endorse the mandate to move forward by voting yes when the ballot does take place. We are constantly compared to other towns in the region. Most of them have got together and chosen to strengthen those partnerships between the businesses and their Councils by voting yes to a BID. You only need to look down the road to Minehead, Clevedon and Exeter pretty much everybody has got a BID. I urge you to vote yes to unlock the potential we all know exists. Just to finish off, anecdotally, I do a lot of meet and greet in my business, I’ve met in the last month people from Newton Abbott, Shepton Mallet, Sidmouth, Burnham-On-Sea, Tiverton, Barnstaple – the answers as to why they came to Taunton were many but it’s a nice town, its compact, we’ve got great independents but a good smattering of national shops as well. Friendly people, we get a great welcome, we can now find the car parks because we have got good signage. The traffic is not as bad as Exeter and Bristol. But, you need to shout about it more, they’re telling us that, it’s a great secret that people don’t know about. I believe a BID can do that, I hope you will help us to make that happen.