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 BID say BID’s don’t save Councils money but it’s not a true statement, it’s another deceitful YES campaign tactic, another mistruth to try and get your YES vote. It’s not something they can promise, and it’s simply wrong to try and reassure voters with such false promises. Read some Minehead BID examples we’ve compiled here and draw your own conclusions on whether the BID is saving Councils money at the expense of it’s levy payers.
Read MoreBID’s don’t like to admit it, but fact is they do save Council’s money by absolving them of responsibility for their BID area. But what we also find appalling is the deception and mistruths being told yet again by Taunton BID. They are falsely giving the impression that the town centre won't risk losing any SWT Council funding and services, but this is clearly something they are not able to promise, and are deceptively trying to say otherwise.
Read MoreTaunton BID have so far declined to make public the amount of Council money backing their YES campaign, but our own research shows SWT Council have given them £45,000. The key take-away from this is demonstration of Taunton BIDs’ lack of openness and transparency, and when you also consider their mistruths and lies, it becomes clearer by the day how BID’s operate and why Taunton BID can’t be trusted again.
Read MoreVoting a BID in really is the start of a downward slippery slope to let the Council “off the hook” running basic services we already pay our business rates for, let alone encourage them to do better! In fact, latest national BID statistics show 39% of council baseline agreements for the provision of services are NOT being adhered to! We risk accepting this in Taunton too if we vote in the BID!
Read MoreBID’s are partnerships between local authorities and local businesses, with local authorities having core roles and responsibilities in the development and management of BID’s. Considering local authorities play such a key role in enabling BID’s, we wonder why the Taunton BID proposers are so careful not to highlight this fact. It’s actually hard to find an example of a local authority in the UK that has publicly declared an objection to voting a BID scheme in, I wonder why? It’s easy, it’s because they know they are onto a good thing!
Read MoreCouncil's should abstain from voting so it truly becomes a decision by the BID businesses we are being told the BID is for and will decide. How would you feel if Taunton BID was voted in by such a slim majority that it was the council votes that swung it, and not really the businesses that have been told by the BID proposers that it’s they who will decide?
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