SWT Council Meeting 27/1 - No Taunton BID’s presentation for the Council to abstain from voting in the BID ballot.
On 27th January No Taunton BID made representation at the Somerset West & Taunton (SWT) Full Council meeting, a key meeting that would decide which way the council votes for their properties (car parks etc). We have always been of the view that all public authorities should abstain from the ballot, voting neither YES or NO, so it’s a decision for the businesses we’re told BID is for. This is the short speech we made.
Good evening, I’m speaking for No Taunton BID, representing the significant number of businesses opposed to the new Taunton BID proposal, some of whom have joined me tonight.
BID is an emotive subject, probably more-so because of Taunton’s poor BID history. Whilst some voters might see value and can easily afford it, there are many that just don’t see the value, and don’t want to be forced to part with their hard earned cash, at a time when high street running costs are high enough.
But let’s move onto my main point, your BID ballot voting decision for your properties, and the moral dilemma you face in making that decision.
This Council is legislated as a BID partner, and has a vested interest in BID businesses investing in one of it’s towns, but this council also has a moral responsibility to do right by both voting sides. All this makes you a very different voter.
The only way a fair ballot can be achieved for the businesses BID is meant to be for, is if this council does the right thing and abstains from voting for its properties, in order to let the businesses decide for themselves.
At average BID ballot turnout, just this councils ballot vote for its 11 properties, will amount to about 6% of the total votes cast, and 11% of the cumulative rateable-value vote. This is significant block voting bias from just one voting decision, and if the poor turnout at the YES campaign event last week is anything to go by, this weighting could be a lot more.
Despite being a NO campaigner, note that I’m not stood here asking you to vote NO for your properties as perhaps I should – because morally that’s not fair given it would cause voting bias against those businesses wanting a BID. So you should not vote NO.
And so by the same reasoning you should not vote YES for your properties, as it would cause voting bias against all those businesses not wanting a BID.
If Taunton is to do BID yet again, it will only work if the true majority of real businesses vote it in, and the only way that can happen is a ballot without council voting influence. Only last week I spoke with a Director of the last BID, and he said what made it exceptionally hard last time was not having the full support of businesses, and we all know how that BID ended.
Say you vote YES for your properties, and your block vote effectively swings BID in, do you really want to be known as the council that despite Taunton’s BID history and being warned, helped force BID in against the will of the true majority of businesses?
So far you have done all the right things as a council by supporting development of this BID proposal and that’s only right. BUT the fairest and most morally acceptable decision for you tonight, is to abstain from voting for your properties, and be proud that you have embraced the true spirit of BID regulations by leaving the decision to the businesses.
So Councillors – putting it simply, you should actually be pleased that this is one of those rare occasions, when you are allowed to let others make the final decision for a change.
And with BID, that’s the way it should be, in order for you to give it the best chance of success.
Thank you.
REFLECTION and extra info
Firstly a big thank you to NO BID supporters that also attended, felt good that we outnumbered BID!
The Taunton BID team were again lobbying for Council YES votes in order to help them force in BID against the businesses we’ve been told will decide whether we have a BID. The BID Chairman even referred to the Council as the “biggest business in town”, that’s how much BID want their vote. But as we say above, the Council is a different type of voter, and given it’s block voting influence towards a YES or NO, it’s just unfair they vote against either side, hence why we’re pleased to have taken the moral higher ground than BID by not even asking the Council to vote NO, just abstain and let the “real” businesses decide. BID can only work if the true majority of businesses are behind it, and Taunton BID should not be relying on Council votes to win the ballot.
It was interesting that the BID Chairman tried to publicly undermine the statistics presented above by saying the Council have 9 properties which equates to 2% of the vote. Thing is, he only mentioned the voting numbers measure and not RV measure (which is significantly greater considering the big RV weighting of car parks etc), and the number he gave was based on 100% ballot turnout for 9 properties. The 2007 ballot achieved 43% turnout and national average is only about 47%, so he’s the one that needs to check his forcast figures. It’s also interesting how he mentioned SWT only have 9 properties in the BID area, but as SWT’s own ballot list shows it’s 10. BID did actually mis-count the number of car parks in their feasibility study a year ago and we told them this last summer (see video below), so we were hoping they had re-corrected their figures by now. Before leaving the Council meeting as it went into closed session, the council took our excel spreadsheet with our figures proving the extent of council block voting numbers, particularly for the RV vote measure.
Click on image to expand. Based on “final” SWT hereditament list released 28/1/20 (after the council meeting), so some figures might differ slightly from the speech above.