BID investor transparency is needed.
Harrogate Borough Council has loaned the BID proposers £27k and it has been established that there's about another £27k of funding / loans from business sources, organisations and individuals, so totalling about £54k to be paid back only if the BID gets voted in. A few consideration points:
1. It's interesting that private investors have taken Mo Aswat's word that he has a 100% BID development rate, when in fact he doesn't, proof available for those investors who now feel conned by him. But on the other hand they knew all to well it's a high risk loan as a no vote is always a possibility, and that's how HBC defined it, so like HBC they always knew it's a gamble.
2. Knowing they were spending what could be your levy of the future, did the BID task Group get several quotes from different BID Consultants in order to ensure they got best value for money for you levy payers? Or were they just so taken with Mo Aswats' sales pitch they didn't bother? If they didn't effectively go out to tender, that shows real business naivety from the BID Task Force at the first hurdle - and they want £600k of your money to spend?!
3. Ok they decided to go with Mosaic, but do you feel you've received a great service for over £50k? He goes town to town doing the same thing with cut & paste BID templates, just a bit of tailoring for each town, surely there are economies of scale he's not sharing with you?
The proposed make up of the Knaresborough BID Board. Note one spot has already been reserved for an ‘investor’. This is highly unusual, in fact not seen before in the UK, they must have someone in mind for this postion already. Who?
4. The £54k are loans to be paid back, so the BID starts £54k overdrawn, nearly half of one years budget, and all voting levy payers will be contributing to this. Financial accountability and transparency is really important for a BID, it's proven as one of their major failings, so in this instance the Task Force must NOW be open and honest and declare their sources of investment, how much, from who and what the repayment terms are (this part makes a difference to the business plan). The BID Task Force have the chance to demonstrate financial transparency to you now, if they don't it's only a sign of what's to come if BID is voted in.
5. It is highly unsual to see so much private money invested in a BID process on a loan basis, and this brings voting conflicts of interest. The Council and private investors have a financial interest in doing what ever it takes to work together to achieve a yes vote at any cost, even if it means for example manipulating the voting map and 'walking all over' what the true majority of Knaresborough businesses really want. Their money is a risk, it's only natural they'll do whatever it takes to secure a yes, you wouldn't want to lose your money if it was you? For a fair ballot, all the voting investors should not be involved in any yes campaigning and abstain from voting.
If you would like to add any further concerns about this situation please do in the comments below. The key thing is that the BID Task Force publish a list of all sources of funding including the repayment terms of all the loans, so we suggest you formally ask them for this. If they won't at least honour this perfectly reasonable request, it speaks volumes!
We wonder what the terms of replayment are for the Knaresborough BID investors, including interest rate etc. Got to wonder how the invetsors will profit from investing in the BID.
A note about our scrutiny posts: Let’s remember that the BID Task Force will only ever tell you what they want to hear to secure a yes vote, that’s fair enough, they are campaigning you now for a yes vote. So naturally their documentation is going to be biased to a yes with 'election promises', and with that they won’t necessarily share the full story and both sides of any point they make, and misinformation and even mistruths can creep in. You are of course entitled to provide your own feedback to and ask questions of any member of the BID Task Group and we encourage that, such scrutiny is important because if BID gets in the plan needs to be as strong as possible. Our posts are designed to help you as a voter do this.
