Town centre management firm gets five more years (From Swindon Advertiser)

Town centre management firm gets five more years

5:01pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in News By David Wiles

THE firm inSwindon will be responsible for managing Swindon town centre for another five years after traders decided in a ballot to grant it a second term.

InSwindon, based in the David Murray John Tower, is funded through an extra one per cent levy on business rates in the Swindon town centre Business Improvement District.

The money is ring-fenced to be spent on work to improve the trading environment, such as staging events and providing business and marketing support.

Under legislation governing BID companies, they must go out to ballot every three or five years.

InSwindon’s first term is due to finish in March but traders have granted it another five years.

Chief executive Simon Jackson said: “The current economic climate could have had an impact on voters and I’m sure in one or two cases that was the case.

“But, ultimately, I’m very proud of what inSwindon has achieved over the last five years and I’m absolutely delighted to be able to continue to do that for Swindon.

“I was pretty certain the ballot would be successful and I’m delighted that it was.”

The ballot, run by Swindon Council, took place between December 9 and February 1.

In order for InSwindon to continue until 2017, 51 per cent of those voting had to vote “Yes” and 51 per cent of the aggregate rateable value of those voting had to also vote “Yes”.

The result saw 68 per cent of those who took part vote “Yes”, which represents 67 per cent of the aggregate rateable value of the businesses who voted – up 13 per cent on the first vote in 2007.

The turn-out was 35 per cent out of the 491 potential voters in the BID geographical area.

Over the years inSwindon has managed or supported more than 150 events, including markets, Christmas lights switch-ons, and Armed Forces Day activities.

It manages the radio system, which allows traders to share intelligence to tackle crime, and has a street team to help with lost children and giving directions.

The firm also provides marketing and business support, and represents the town on forums.

It will all continue over the next term, but the firm also plans to recruit a caretaker to help businesses to enhance the area by removing graffiti and fly-posters.

It also plans to work with the Keep Britain Tidy campaign to conduct an environmental quality survey to benchmark the town centre against other towns and identify what could be done to improve.

Coun Rod Bluh, the leader of Swindon Council, said: “As a result of this vote, an added £2.8m of investment will be brought into the town between now and 2017.

“Swindon Borough Council is in full support of the future of inSwindon BID.”