Business Improvement District (BID)

Clackmannanshire Businesses vote 'yes' for second Business Improvement District (BID)

Earlier this year Clackmannanshire businesses voted for Scotland's first commercial Business Improvement District which is addressing the needs in the county's business parks.

Local businesses have since delivered a 'yes' vote for a second BID for the development and regeneration of Alloa Town Centre. Work will start immediately on organising nominations for the BID Board and setting up the BID company. Businesses will be invited to nominate themselves for a position on the BID Management Group.

Clackmannanshire Business conducted surveys of businesses and shoppers in the town centre to establish what developments are seen as being most important for Alloa. These include

a shop front improvement scheme;
a uniform branding scheme for Alloa and the outlying villages;
increased police presence;
cleaner streets;
regular street events;
improved functional street furniture;
a town centre manager;
targeted business support;
national and local marketing campaigns to increase footfall and average sales.

What is a BID?

A BID is a group of businesses which agree to invest collectively in extra improvements.

What will the Clackmannanshire Business Park BID do?

In the case of Clackmannanshire's BID, money will initially go on:

improving signage;
joint procurement of services;
energy efficiency and waste management support services.

Other BID projects will include:

business park visual and social amenity enhancements;
business support and marketing;
transport initiatives;
security and crime prevention measures.

Who voted for the Clackmannanshire Business Park BID?

Covering 200 companies in ten business parks it is Scotland's first county-wide BID and the first UK business park BID to include property owners.

A total of 46.2% eligible businesses and property owners voted with an impressive 84.5% of those voting in favour.

The BID also met the second legislative criteria with businesses representing 79.3% of rateable value voting yes.

BID supporters have included major local employers such as:

Armstrong Printing
Autosonics
Blyth Construction Utilities
The Campbell Group
Greenpower Developments Ltd
G S Lighting
MCA Group (Scotland) Ltd
Mulraney Properties
Oran Group
Weir Engineering Services

Council support

Clackmannanshire Council provided support and funding to Clackmannanshire Business to develop the BID.

The Council believe that by helping businesses to invest in improvements which benefit them will encourage new businesses to locate here. The BID will drive positive change and boost economic development in Clackmannanshire, ultimately benefiting local people by creating more jobs and better prospects.

Due to the positive reaction throughout the process, the Council are supporting a second BID for Alloa town centre.

National programme

Having announced the government's ongoing support for BIDs in February, John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth has also welcomed the 'yes' vote in Clackmannanshire. He believes this result will enable key players in Clackmannanshire to come together and work to ensure that Clackmannanshire is a driver of economic growth.

Work has now started on organising nominations for the Clackmannanshire BID Board and the setting up of the BID company.