You can lie but facts don't!
Advancing Aberystwyth (Aberystwyth Business Improvement District, BID) are choosing to respond to points made on this page by making up their own Q&A page which they have complete control over the content and no place to challenge this, even if you did you’d probably be ignored.
Question - Do Aberystwyth University receive an 80% discount on their levy payments?
They could have answered, YES they did but this has since been rectified but instead choose to LIE and try to DECEIVE the businesses of the Town by claiming they have never had a discount, well here is the TRUTH and how it came about !!
Back in mid 2018, I had been trying to get clarity on whether the large chains in the Town had been getting a discount, a common practise throughout the Country that the BID Consultants do in return for Yes votes, but was getting nowhere, until I was offered the opportunity to attend the BID Office and see for myself on the software that my claims were false.
Armed with some key businesses, their rateable values and calculated levy, I took up the opportunity and we went through the list. It is common to see capped levies, but it was a total shock to see that ALL University properties in the Town had an 80% DISCOUNT applied to their levy despite assurance back in Sept-October 2016 by The Means ( BID Consultants ) in a meeting that NO-ONE was getting any cap or discount on their levy, attended by 10 or more local businesses, some still involved at Board level today.
Despite Advancing Aberystwyth claiming the University get no discount, it actually STATES that they do at the Meeting in November 2018 ( see image ) and since then, despite claims that the University is prepared to back date the discount and pay the full amount moving forward, this has never been proven, all with the knowledge of the Board of Directors as clearly minuted.
Whether they have since done the right thing or not, is not the point here, more alarming is that Advancing Aberystwyth are prepared to LIE and DECEIVE the businesses of the Town to make them appear whiter than white and as this proves ( more to come ) this is simply not the case.
Would it have not been easier to come forward and say that no one local involved, back in 2015-16 right up to November 2018, knew nothing about this discount, that was all down to The Means, but a wrong has now been put right ?
Questions asked are simply being ignored, ask yourself why ? What else is being hidden ? What other lies are being told ? How much more deceit is being played out on the run up to the reballot next March ?
““Some liars are so expert they deceive themselves””
Is it fair that small local businesses are made to appear in Court, have their reputations tarnished, for non-payment, all while the University receive a huge discount ? We are always told how little the levy is, it’s what can be done with the collective resource that makes the difference, so why then is the University an exception to this ?
How can those spending considerable amounts of LOCAL BUSINESS MONEY be trusted ? Simple answer, they can’t as proven above by FACTS !!
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