Council wants £40k to hire consultants in plans for town to set up Business Improvement District
A Shropshire town council has approved the application to bid for funding to conduct a feasibility study into the potential setting up of a Business Improvement District (BID).
Bridgnorth Town Council is applying for £40,000 from Shropshire Council to allow it to hire consultants to find out whether businesses in the town would benefit or want to be part of a BID scheme.
Business Improvement Districts are areas in a town where traders pay an annual levy on top of their business rates that goes towards promoting and improving the business environment in the BID area as well as appointing a dedicated town centre manager.
Currently Shrewsbury and Oswestry are the only towns to have BIDs in Shropshire. The Oswestry business community recently voted to renew their BID after a successful initial five years.
The £40,000 funding applied through via Shropshire Council comes from the UK's Shared Prosperity Fund, a £2.6 billion pot of money provided to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities' as part of the government levelling up agenda.
The application had "overwhelming support" from the Town Council during a meeting on Tuesday night (February 7) after members voted to approve the application to Shropshire Council.
Councillor Julia Buckley (Lab, East), said: "It is very early days but if successful, this fund will allow us to conduct a feasibility study of not just the town centre in Bridgnorth, but also in the neighbouring parishes, to find out what their business needs are.
"Everybody at the Town Council is seeing that the town centre is struggling and this could be really positive for traders and visitors as well as residents."
