Taunton has an interesting BID history:
2007 - BID established after a YES ballot result, with a 5 year term ending in 2012.
2012 - BID renewal ballot resulted in a NO, so BID kicked out.
2014 - BID development ballot resulted in a NO again (with a worse result than in 2012).
2020 - Some bright sparks decide to bring BID back to ballot again, and the ballot was ‘suspended’ 2 hours before ballot closure for no good verifiable reason, so NO BID yet again! Interesting that when one of the BID proposer steering group members was asked what happened to the BID he replied “we knew it wasn’t going our way”.
The following is a series of articles are from the hard fought NO campaign for the 2020 ballot, which basically beat the Council and BID proposers into submission. You can see how the campaign developed and many strong evidence based NO arguments were put across, so please read with interest and feel free to copy / use any article tailored for your own NO BID campaign.
The following images are from the 8 page vote NO campaign booklet produced for the ballot. Download a copy here.
Taunton already has one of the healthiest High Street’s in the UK, in fact we’re fairing better and beating hundreds of other town’s with BID’s. Let’s be grateful for what we’ve achieved so far, embrace the current efforts of SWT Council whilst recognising their future plans and initiatives already coming to regenerate and revitalise the town centre. And if businesses want to collaborate more there are other ways to do this without the need to tax businesses for the sake of it.
Read More
