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Plans have been launched to introduce a new city centre ‘ranger’ to patrol the streets of Hanley. Businesses are set to have their say on the future of the city centre by voting on whether Stoke-on-Trent Business Improvement District (BID) should continue for another five-year term.
If BID gets a majority yes vote, they say they will fund a ‘safety-focused day ranger’, who will patrol the city centre to reassure visitors and help businesses deter and tackle crime. They also plan to employ a dedicated ‘street-cleansing ambassador’ who will take on grime, graffiti, gum and fly-tipping, and say they will seek funding to use a deep cleansing and and jet-washing service to improve the look of the streets.
The ballot will ask the 372 eligible businesses to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the continuation of the initiative, which was set up to support city centre organisations across retail, commercial, leisure, hospitality and the public sector, and help to attract more shoppers and visitors. Businesses have until 5pm on Thursday, July 6, to return their confidential vote by post or via the ballot box in Hanley’s City Central Library.
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The BID launched in 2018 after 99 businesses in the city centre voted in favour – 83 per cent of the 119 which responded to the poll – but nearly two-thirds of traders did not vote at all.
There are currently around 330 BIDs operating across the country, including one in Newcastle town centre which launched in 2015, and now BID officials are calling for businesses to have their say about whether the Stoke-on-Trent scheme should continue.
The BID is funded by a levy on businesses, which they predict will raise £2million to be spent exclusively in the BID area over its five-year term, and has delivered initiatives such as financial support for businesses to join crime prevention scheme Partnerships Against Business Crime in Staffordshire (PABCIS), cardboard recycling collections and the deep cleaning of dirty or neglected areas.
According to their published business plan, in the past five years they have also delivered more than 50 pieces of new artwork in the city centre, 2,800 hours of events and activities, 90,000 City Centre Ambassador visits to local businesses and 400 summer hanging baskets in the city centre.
BID chairman Jonathan Bellamy said: “We know that businesses need support now, so we actively work to improve the look and feel of our city centre, provide a yearly calendar of activities to drive footfall and provide our businesses with tools and services to help them be the best they can.
“BIDs are the vital voice of the high street and advocates of what matters to businesses. They lobby, they promote, they market and they work hard for the needs of the business community they represent. I am proud of what has been established, but now it is time to press forward and raise our game further.”
Other proposals outlined in the BID’s 2023 to 2028 business plan include a wider programme of events, cleaning up heritage buildings, the re-launch of city centre loyalty scheme Mi-Rewards – which was shelved during the pandemic – and the promotion of the city centre to ‘counter negative opinions’.
They have also vowed to work closely with partners as a member of the County Transport Forum to ‘actively lobby for improved road, bus and train services into our city centre’.
BID chief executive Richard Buxton said: “Over the next five years, our priority will be to work together with businesses to address the needs for a successful city centre.
“Our proposal highlights numerous aims, including tackling high levels of anti-social behaviour and business crime; investing more into supporting even cleaner, brighter streets; reactivating vacant units across the city centre; and pushing for greater certainty on redevelopment of our city centre.”
Premises with a rateable value of less than £12,000 within the BID area are exempt from paying the levy and therefore are not be eligible to vote in the ballot. The result of the ballot, which is run by the City Council’s electoral services department, will be announced on Friday, July 7.
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