I cannot recall a time since I came to live and work in Penarth in the 1990s when local business people have debated with such passion. The current deliberation faced by the businesses of the town to vote YES for a Business Improvement District or to vote NO to stay as we are, has fuelled engagement about what is best for our town like nothing before. …and do you know something? - the simple fact that the good traders and businesses of Penarth are willing to engage in the discussion rather than to sink into a state of apathy is a hugely positive outcome for our town whatever your opinion.

I happen to have interests in two businesses in Penarth. One is an office based environmental consultancy with a client base that extends across the UK and Ireland and would not actually benefit from increased footfall within the town. The other is an independent pharmacy shop that relies on spreading its healthcare reputation within Penarth, along with regular footfall to sustain its business.

Both businesses have quite different needs, but I can see that both would benefit from being within a Business Improvement District. In the case of Soltys Brewster, we can benefit from group purchasing of services and utilities where even a modest saving would offset our weekly outlay to the BID of around £9.40 per week (and we are one of the higher rated businesses in Penarth). Being a Penarth based business and offering consultancy services that could directly benefit the BID I would also hope that we could offer something back to Penarth through our locally available professional expertise.

With Washington Pharmacy we do invest daily in our own marketing and promotion including a website, a successful online shop and active facebook and twitter pages. However, the collaborative marketing opportunities that a joint Penarth BID funded website, a Penarth App and social media pages would bring to enable Penarth to be sold to a wider audience as an attractive local destination for shops, restaurants an services is far greater than the sum of the individual efforts of traders working in isolation. At around £6 per week, this small outlay in BID levy would rapidly be paid back given the benefits. Added to that the potential benefits of group purchasing, coordinated events and festivals, a single voice for improved parking and a raised profile brought about by a strong and professionally presented brand identity the need to VOTE YES is overwhelming.

A short word on Chambers of Commerce. The majority of businesses, including ourselves strongly support the aspirations of Chambers of Commerce and would love to see them prosper with regular attendance and lots of enthusiastic volunteers drawn from the businesses represented, actively engaged in the day to day delivery of improvements and projects across the town for the benefit of Chamber members. Unfortunately, experience shows that this does not happen. We are all working 110% a day focusing on our individual businesses and do not have the time to dedicate what would need to be several days a month to achieve results as volunteers. This just isn't realistic. Put simply, a Business Improvement District is a Chamber of Commerce with the money, authority, organisation and ability to employ people to deliver aspirations. It really is as simple as that. Yes, there is an administration cost, but as all of us in business know all too well, very little in this world comes free.

I urge businesses to VOTE YES, and ask the people of Penarth to support their local shops and traders and to encourage those businesses that are currently undecided to also vote YES to ensure that the shops and services that you cherish are part of the Penarth community for many years to come.

Gary Soltys

Soltys Brewster and Washington Pharmacy