The Hitchin Business Improvement District (BID), has been voted in for a further five years by the town centre businesses. The Hitchin BID is a business funded initiative allowing businesses to raise their own precept and choose what additional projects they would like to fund. We have worked tirelessly with over 600 business owners and managers to form a five-year investment plan for the town.
The plan was then put out to vote giving allowing 28 days to vote and on 7th December 2018 received the results and announced an astonishing 83.5% in favour and 81.9% by Rateable Value. This is not only secured the BID for a further five years but unlocked £1.6 million of investment over five years.
There has never been a more important time for businesses to work together to keep our town a vibrant, clean, safe and well promoted place. I am confident that the plan we have in place for Hitchin is robust and exciting enough to withstand many of the challenges facing the High Street over the coming years. I want to thank my team, who have worked alongside me to ensure all voices and opinions were heard in the town and supported the renewal every step of the way.
It’s really reassuring that so many businesses appreciate the work we undertake and want us to continue. Hitchin is a beautiful unique historic town with so much to offer. As always, please consider our independent shops and businesses who work so hard all year round to make the town a great place to visits.
Thank you for your support.
Tom Hardy,
Manager of the Hitchin BID Company
WHAT IS A BID?
For over ten years Hitchin has enjoyed the benefits of a Business Improvement District (BID) through which almost two and a half million pounds of additional investment has been spent in our town. This has paid for substantial improvements that have made a tangible positive difference to the cleanliness, vibrancy and safety of the town.
Business Improvement Districts are business-led partnerships which are created through a ballot process to deliver additional services to local businesses. They are a powerful tool for directly involving local businesses in local activities and allow the business community to work together to improve the local trading environment.
Over 300 BIDs have been voted in by businesses across the UK and this number continues to grow, with all BIDs delivering quality projects and services to the areas they support. A BID is an arrangement under which local businesses plan how to improve their local trading environment. They identify additional projects or services that will add value and suggest a level of funding to make them happen. Each business votes to invest an annual sum according to their size, as determined by the Rateable Value of their property. The funds generated are only used to deliver the proposed Improvements. The renewal of a BID requires a majority of votes in favour by both number and by aggregate of the Rateable Value of those voting.
The projects any BID carries out are additional to those provided by local agents such as the emergency services and Council. The BID has outlined the statutory services they provide in the form of a service statement, available to view on hitchinherts.com
WHAT HAS HITCHIN BID DELIVERED?
The key aim of our business plan is to outline what businesses have suggested needs doing and the investment they are willing to make in each element of it to ensure its success.
In 2019 the businesses of Hitchin Town Centre created and voted on a new business plan focusing 4 key objectives.
- Vibrant
- Promoted
- Clean and Safe
- Save and Support
The Hitchin BID has delivered services which are seen as priorities by local businesses, customers and staff that use Hitchin town centre. Below is a brief list of the key elements that businesses have enjoyed the benefits of.
The BID has worked with businesses within the area over the past ten years to help manage the town centre in a more creative and efficient way, applying their internal skills and resources to the external environment around them. Those extra services deemed necessary over the past ten years through scrutinising previous provision then setting new, higher standards for them, need to be sustained.
Promoted
PROMOTING THE TOWN AS A TOURIST DESTINATION
- Using expert advice from external companies, develop a robust tourism strategy for the town.
- Produce a quality tourism guide for the town and distribute to a wide geographical area.
- Investigate new ways of promoting the town using national and international media.
- Gain great exposure for Hitchin through national and regional publications.
IMPROVING THE TOWN CENTRE WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
- Undertake extensive improvements to the town centre website.
- Using external companies, make improvements to the town centre social media.
- Make updates and improvements to the business directory section on the town centre website.
- Promote the town’s businesses and their USPs using both the website and social media.
MARKETING, PROMOTIONS AND COLLECTIVE BRANDING FOR THE TOWN
- Co-ordinated and targeted marketing of the town centre as a place to work, play and stay.
- Create collective branding and style guide for town centre publications and marketing material.
- Develop campaigns to promote and encourage town centre shopping.
- Encourage people attending town centre events to stay in Hitchin and explore.
Clean and Safe
TOWN CENTRE RANGERS, EXTENDED CCTV AND TOWN RADIO LINKS
- Continue funding the town centre Rangers, on hand to assist businesses and observe and report crime.
- Provide extended CCTV cameras in key crime ‘hot spots’ in the town centre.
- Continue to supply and manage the pub and shop radio links offering discounted radio hire.
- Continue to fund night time rangers in the town centre.
OFFER FREE CARDBOARD AND PAPER RECYCLING, AND DISCOUNT COMMERCIAL WASTE
- Offer BID businesses a discounted rate contract on commercial waste and food waste removal.
- Continue to offer town centre businesses free cardboard, paper and used coffee grounds recycling.
- Fund cardboard rangers and electric van to undertake free cardboard and paper recycling.
Investigate new ways of recycling and look at additional recyclable waste collection.
CHEWING GUM REMOVAL, DEEP CLEANING, GRAFFITI AND FLYPOSTING REMOVAL
- Instruct an external company to undertake chewing gum removal around ‘hot spots’ in the town.
- Remove obscene and unsightly graffiti using specialist equipment and use anti graffiti techniques.
- Report and remove flyposting in the BID area and advise businesses on the regulations around events promotions.
- Use an external company to deep clean the high footfall area of the town centre.
Save and Support
EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT CARDS AND DISCOUNTED/FREE TRAINING
- Investigate the implementation of a new employee discount card for the town centre.
- Using the Hitchinherts.com website to promote town centre job vacancies.
- Offer a series of free/discounted health and safety training courses.
- Organise a programme of free/discounted marketing, media and business development courses.
A COLLECTIVE BUSINESS VOICE ON ECONOMIC REGENERATION PROJECTS IN THE TOWN CENTRE
- Forcing the pace on the Churchgate refurbishment and development to include improvements to Hitchin Market.
- Make more of the riverside waterfront and riverside walkway.
- Work with the Council’s economic development officer to access project grant funding.
- Lobby for public realm improvements in the Town Centre.
IMPROVEMENTS AND CHANGES TO TRAFFIC FLOW, CAR PARKS AND ENCOURAGE NEW START-UPS
- Investigate how car park usage can be improved through new technology.
- Real time electronic car parking signage feasibility study and possible implementation.
- Seeking a reduction in through traffic in and around Market Place.
- Encouraging new business start-ups in available empty units
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST YOUR BUSINESS?
BIDs are designed to be fair. Larger businesses invest more than smaller ones and all business sectors benefit from the improvements rather than just retailers.
All businesses within the defined BID area pay a contribution to the costs of the BID at the rate of 1.94% of their stated Rateable Value as declared on North Hertfordshire District Council’s non-domestic ratings list as of the 1st January 2019 and this figure would be used to calculate the levy value for the first year of the BID’s renewed term of five years.
All businesses should consider the cost of the levy as an investment – an investment of a relatively small sum which is pooled with the contributions of all the others in the BID to provide a considerable sum that is spent entirely in the town centre.
THE BID AREA
All BIDs operate within a carefully constructed boundary, although this does not mean that they act in an exclusive way. In actual fact it’s quite the opposite.
Business feedback gained from detailed discussions with lots of companies positioned close to the perimeter of our proposed BID has indicated that the BID should cover the area inside the blue dotted line from 2019-2024.
