Penarth Bid

Open letter to Penarth Businesses - make sure you know the facts before you vote

There is shortly to be a ballot of businesses in Penarth to form a Business Improvement District (BID) in Penarth.

The advocates of the YES vote are keen to publicise the supposed benefits of the Penarth BID.

They made their case in the local press and have delivered their proposals to all businesses in Penarth.

(To date businesses supporting the NO campaign have been unable to obtain the list of names and

addresses, hence this letter.)

The pro-Bid campaign is funded and supported by Penarth Town Council. To date they have spent £8,000 of public money.

As a local business owner I want to see improvements to Penarth Town Centre but I feel the BID is

flawed and I urge businesses to consider the following reasons for NOT supporting the BID;

The BID will raise almost £425,000 over the next five years 95 per cent of this funding raised through a

levy of two per cent on your business rates (Gross Rateable Value) not the amount you pay each month.

Local businesses will be required to fund this when they are already struggling to make a profit in a

declining footfall environment.

If there were to be a YES vote the BID would form a private limited company employing a manager although the BID proposal makes no mention of this.

I was invited to attend the last BID meeting of the steering committee before the proposal was finalised.

I was somewhat shocked to see only one business person there along with an officer of the Penarth Town Council, the town manager from the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Mr George Grace who is paid by Penarth Town Council.

I was expecting to see the 20 members who make up the steering committee, I was told they were too

busy to attend.

If we now turn to the BID proposal on page nine you will notice an income of £85,000, less bad

debt, less a collection charge of £5,000. (This is only because the Vale of Glamorgan Council and

Penarth Town Council are each contributing £5,000 for the first five years. I would mention that

the Vale of Glamorgan Council like other councils can make a charge of £15,000 for collecting the

levy.)

Then you will notice a development administration charge of £8,000.

This might be a lot more, if we employ a manager it could be £20,000, as I am sure from what I have seen no person in business would do this function without a fee.

That is supposing such a person could be found.

In the BID scheme a figure of £27,000 is quoted for improved parking facilities, although improved parking arrangements in Arcot Street cost £300,000.

The £27,100 wouldn’t even cover the cost of filling in potholes in the town not to mention the pavements.

The scheme lists marketing and promotion at £20,325 and other charges at £13,550 and £6,775. If a

manager on a salary were appointed there would be very little money left.

I must mention that this is not entirely business led as the limited company would have a board of

directors, with have one member from each council.

I have visited other towns and talked with businesses and I noticed a track record of failings in other

towns.

I can point out one town where two members of the board of director were made to stand down as no improvement had been made in the first year.

This is not mentioned in the BID proposal.

As a former president of the local Chamber of Trade, who was privileged in the past to be Mayor

for our town, I recognise that Penarth needs vibrant and innovative marketing to promote tourism

and shopping in the town.

But I am not one of the “we think it is a good idea brigade” who wish us to commit to paying a group of staff who can do very little for the development of Penarth.

Employing managers, ambassadors and wardens does not fill empty shops.

Business people and entrepreneurs do this essential part of commerce.

Increasing the business rate with an additional two per cent levy will not encourage new trade to the town.

On inspecting the plan in the BID proposal you would have noticed the line excludes both Tesco and

the Penarth Leisure Centre which are both privately owned and are the highest rateable value

businesses in Penarth. One wonders why this deal was done.

I would mention that as the owner of Wasons and in Penarth I pay £2,554 per month in business rates for Wasons with a rateable value of £54,000 on which I would pay an extra two per cent, not including the 2015-16 rate increase.

It is worth a mention that the residents of Penarth have contributed to the £8,000 already spent

by the council in the BID process and it would be fair to say retailers would have to increase their

prices to fund the two per cent increase, who is paying twice???

A short story to end with.

I was at the first meeting held by the steering group for the BID. In attendance was a local councillor, his best idea was that we could run a bus paid for out of the levy from Cardiff to Penarth Town Centre then on to the seafront.? ( have you seen the empty airport bus?) NO thank you !

Nick Osborne

Wasons and Robert James