Minehead BID feedback.

Taunton BID have been shining a light on Minehead BID, they ‘wheeled’ them into the business plan launch 22/1 and the Taunton BID Chairman gave a radio interview that week saying everyone is happy with it, really? Minehead BID has been in place since mid-2018, so nearly 2 years and not everyone is happy as the Taunton BID proposers might have you think! There was a significant NO vote against the BID, and opinion across the Minehead business community appears to remain split on whether there are benefits making it all worthwhile.

We’ve asked for feedback from Minehead BID levy payers, please read some of the negative feedback for yourself below. The nature of many of their woes we’ve highlighted already in our negative aspects and risk posts as they are what other BID’s commonly experience, and what Taunton experienced in it’s first failed BID 2007-12 ; so clearly some things don’t change and we can’t trust the utopian picture Taunton BID are “selling”!

We asked Taunton BID if they would outline the BID pro's and con's to help voters decide, and amazingly this was their reply: "Apart from you, we have not heard any downsides from anyone else." From everything we’ve published on this website, facebook and twitter in addition to reading the above comments, anyone can see that Taunton BID really are in “cloud cuckoo land” with straight denial of any potential downsides or negative aspects to a BID, and this is from a town that has already had a failed BID! Just goes to show they can’t be trusted - again!

A note about our research into Minehead BID

Whilst we’ve highlighted many of the risks and negative aspects of BID’s with examples from towns across the UK, its only natural we also look “closer to home” with Minehead BID because;

• It’s within the geographical area of and a partner of Taunton’s very own district council, Somerset West & Taunton (SWT).

• The BID Consultant who led the Minehead BID development and advised on setting it up and putting it’s governance in place etc, is the same BID Consultant we’re using now for Taunton BID (and for that matter the person who led development of the failed 2007-12 Taunton BID).

• Having established itself in the summer of 2018, Minehead BID is one of the newest BID’s in the UK, and so you’d think they would have learnt all the best practice lessons of those before it!