Aberystwyth will only have a fair ballot if the Council abstains.

There is a strong argument for Town & County Councils to abstain from voting in a BID Ballot, whilst they will have to pay the levy, there are very clear Conflicts of Interest as they already support the BID and in some Towns are instrumental in the early stages in both funding and involvement in bringing the BID to the Town. As a BID is deemed to be a Business Led Initiative for the Businesses of the Town, it is only right that the Councils abstain from the ballot and let the businesses decide if they want a BID or not without the influence of Council multiple votes.

In 2016’s BID Campaign the Council part funded the process and had 14 votes in a highly contentious ballot that saw ballot papers not delivered to many businesses, selective campaigning and 80% discount incentives given to a large block voter, just the tip of the iceberg of the dirty tricks played out by the external BID consultants.

The question has already been asked to the Chair of Advancing Aberystwyth, Mark Joseph, “Will you be asking the Town & County Council to abstain from voting in next years reballot in order to prevent a skewed outcome as last time ?”

Mark replied stating “The question would not be asked as all levy payers are entitled to a vote” ( copy & paste of BID Regulation included )

The point that Mark is failing to understand is that there are clear conflicts of interest in a Council voting in any BID ballot and only earlier this year, Powys County Council abstained from voting in the Brecon ballot and deciding to do the same when the Newtown ballot takes place.

The ballot result for Brecon was confirmed on the 21st February, which after a THREE YEAR consultation of the Town’s businesses, a very low 26% turnout was achieved, with only 103 of the 393 eligible votes cast, with 58 to 45 voting in favour, a 56% majority, against the formation of a BID.

What is more alarming is had the Council not abstained and cast their 22 Yes votes, the result would have gone the other way by a 9 vote margin. The 22 votes of the Council would have accounted for 33% of the total 67 Yes votes cast.

The result would have been seriously skewed by the Council’s own 33% majority of those “businesses” voting on the BID, exactly what we saw in Aberystwyth in 2016 where we would have had a business majority NO result.

Whilst Mark quotes BID Regulations, it is apparent that Councils can and do abstain from voting despite their legal right, there are strong calls for ALL Councils to abstain from BID Ballots to ensure fairness and to ensure that any result is 100% decided by the businesses of the Town.

Time will tell if Ceredigion County Council act in the best interest of the Town and abstain like their neighbours did over the border in Powys.

Despite a 12 month campaign consulting with the Town’s businesses, workshops, meetings, door to door visits, only a mere 40% of businesses, excluding Council’s 14 block votes, submitted a ballot paper, this turnout is even less if you exclude the Universities 8 block votes, this was well documented in the Cambrian News

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