Update on the Ballot: Term 2 Business Plans
The BID’s Term 2 business plans have been sent by post to all levy paying BID voters whose addresses are outside of the BID Area, and the team has now hand delivered the business plan to all voters within the BID Area. There are a few local businesses that have been closed, or who don’t have an obvious post box we can deliver to, so we’ll be following up by email to make sure we can get all the information you need to vote to you at the earliest opportunity.
To keep costs down and limit the impact on the environment, we kept the print run to the minimum required for each voter to receive one hard copy of the Business Plan. However, we’ve also made the document available to read online and download from: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/67465795
BID Term 2 Ballot Papers
The ballot papers have now been sent out in brightly coloured green envelopes by the independent election service CIVICA. We’ve had confirmation that they’ve started to arrive locally.
How to vote:
The green envelope contains your ballot paper. This is the form you complete and return in the prepaid envelope provided, stating whether you support a second five year term of the BID starting on 1st April 2023.
If you have more than one business premises that’s liable for BID Levy, you will receive a ballot paper for each business premises. Please complete and sign every ballot paper you receive and send them back in their separate envelopes.
The number of ballots submitted will be counted at 5pm on the 14th February 2023 but you don’t need to wait till then to vote - once you’ve received your ballot paper, you can return your vote by post.
What if the ballot paper is addressed to someone who doesn’t work here any more?
There are a few cases where there’s no named person on the ballot paper envelope, or the person whose name is on the envelope doesn’t work at the business any more. That’s not a problem.
The independent election service CIVICA has confirmed that it is up to businesses to decide who is eligible to cast the vote. So long as the person completing the ballot paper certifies that they're entitled to vote when they sign the paper, the vote will be counted - even if the person that signs is different from the named , or there was no name on the envelope.
What if I haven’t received a ballot paper yet?
Again, this isn’t a problem, as CIVICA have arrangements in place to issue replacements IF you haven’t received your ballot papers a week after they were sent out. As the ballot papers were sent out on the 13th January, the earliest date you should request a replacement paper is 20th January.
The BID Team is going to be visiting and telephoning businesses this week to check that ballot papers have arrived, and making a note of who is still waiting. If you still haven’t received the papers you need to vote by Monday of next week, we’ll remind you how to apply to CIVICA for replacements.
Term 2: Spotlight on... BID Levy Charging Structure Having consulted with businesses, and fully aware of the global economic pressures businesses continue to face, the BR BID is proposing no change to the Term 1 BID area, threshold, percentage of RV or types of businesses that have to pay. No annual inflation figure will be applied. To provide certainty on businesses’ BID Levy payments for the next five years, the BID Is also proposing that for Term 2, the 2017 ratings list is used. This means that businesses will pay the same amount of BID Levy in 2028 as they paid in 2018.
If businesses support investment in Bognor Regis through a second BID Term, this will generate about £139,000 each year to invest in delivering the activities businesses have prioritised. As in Term 1, the BID Team will also deliver services that generate additional income and use their skills to secure funding from external sources. As a guide - over the course of Term 1, additional funding through grant applications and service delivery totalled over £450,000.
This means that, for every £1 drawn down from levy funds, the BID Team has generated more money to invest directly into town centre projects. On average, in the first four years of BID Operations, for every £1 of BID levy drawn down, the BID invested £1.67 into activities to meet Term 1 objectives prioritised by businesses.
By keeping the levy income the same as it's been since 2018, the effect of inflation means the value of that £139,000 has gone down. As a result, the BID is being “realistically ambitious” in terms of what we can commit to delivering consistently across a second, five year term within the budget available.
WANT MORE DETAILS?
You can read and download the full BID Term 2 Proposal and other documents at: https://www.brbid.org/term2
You can read and download the BR BID’s Business Plan as an e-newsletter at: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/67465795
CONTACT US
You can contact us at any time with any questions about the ballot or the business plan:
Bognor Regis BID: 10 The Arcade, Bognor Regis PO21 1LH
Email Heather Allen, BR BID Co-Ordinator: heather@brbid.org
Visit our website: www.brbid.org
