Why did the Taunton BID ballot really get stopped?
We’ve highlighted examples of mistakes, mistruths and lack of transparency from Taunton BID since they launched last summer, and we really can’t believe they managed to keep this up for conclusion of their own ballot! If the BID proposers really believed BID would be worthwhile to help Taunton recover from the coronavirus crisis (as other BID’s across the UK do), then by ending the ballot in such a questionable manner, they really have let themselves, their YES supporters and Taunton down.
Whatever the reasons behind Taunton BID’s irrational decision, the result is as so many businesses wanted, NO BID, so that’s something being many businesses are pleased about. The Steering Group chair said there are no winners from their decision, but clearly there are - all those that have been saying NO BID!
Many people (both YES and NO voters) are confused how the ballot came to an end, so for our final article it’s only appropriate we demonstrate the farcical manner in which Taunton BID concluded their ballot, with mistruths and spin right to the end. When you consider what we present here along with everything we’ve presented before, it’s just as well they haven’t secured a BID mandate. Taunton has had a lucky miss, because silly mistakes, mistruths and lack of transparency aside, they really have demonstrated massive poor judgement and decision-making capability, so how on earth could they have been trusted with a £1.4 million pot of money!
Let’s remind ourselves of the key dates / sequence of events for the ballot:
Tue 3rd March - BID ballot opened.
Tue 24th March - UK entered its’ first day of coronavirus lockdown.
Mon 30th March at 5pm - BID ballot due to close.
Tue 31st March - ballot result was due to be announced, but instead Taunton BID announced a day after the event (when the result was due to be counted / made public), that they had already “suspended” the ballot the day before at 3pm.
Without supporting evidence for their decision to end the ballot (which BID or the Council have not yet provided), one can only conclude that Taunton BID either:
Made a stupid irrational decision to end the ballot, based on no data / evidence that coronavirus had affected the ballot.
From knowing who had voted, felt the ballot was not going their way, so ended it to ‘save face’ of a NO result.
The ballot was counted, it was a NO result, so they covered up after the fact, again to ‘save face’ of a NO result.
All 3 options are very plausible when you consider the facts we’ll present you in this article, including the use of mistruths, spin and lies to cover up their foolish decision, and to blame everything and everyone except themselves for letting their BID supporters down. One also has to take into consideration the backdrop of Taunton’s controversial BID history; with a failed BID 2007-12, NO ballot results in 2012 and 2014, and a strong NO campaign against the 2020 ballot. Even some pro-BID people have expressed their dismay at Taunton BID’s decision, their flawed reasoning for ending the ballot really doesn’t add up and make sense for the reasons they’ve given.
The reasons Taunton BID have made for ending the ballot.
The following quotes are lines from Taunton BID’s various public statements on 31st March explaining why the BID ballot was stopped (full copies of which are at the end of this article), and we ‘shine a light’ on their many excuses.
REASON 1: It’s the fault of the government
“In the extraordinary circumstances of the impact on town centres of the Coronavirus crisis, new Government advice has resulted in the suspension of the ballot …”
“In light of …… the COVID 19 regulations”
FACT is, there is absolutely NO government advice that suggests a BID ballot ‘in play’ is to suspend or should consider suspension, yet in this opening line to Taunton BID’s official ballot suspension statement they clearly give the false impression (mistruth) they are following government advice to suspend the ballot. It really is a blatant lie, complete spin and distortion of the truth!
Interestingly two BID ballots ended a couple of days before Taunton, and one BID ballot closed a couple days after Taunton, why would this be the case if government advice was to suspend ballots?
The Coronavirus Act 2020 which received Royal Assent on 25th March does provide a “get out” for BID’s in ballots by giving a Returning Officer the authority to annul a ballot if absolutely necessary, but that is a totally different matter and not the impression Taunton BID are giving.
REASON 2: It’s the fault of SWT Council
“Chief Executive and Returning Officer for Somerset West and Taunton Council, has decided to suspend the BID ballot with immediate effect.”
SWT Council are the Taunton BID ballot holders, and consequently from a legal perspective the Returning Officer (Chief Executive) is the only person who could legally make the call to end the ballot. But whatever decision the Returning Officer took, it would have followed detailed consultation with and at the request of the BID Steering Group, based on what BID thought the best course of action would be.
It’s staggering how Taunton BID try to legitimise their decision by saying they were following government advice passed through British BIDs (which by the way are not an official government organisation, but rather private profit making advisory company), in addition to giving the impression the decision was nothing to do with BID, but rather just the decision of SWT Council.
Even the pro-BID lobby can see how ridiculous how Taunton BID’s decision was.
From what we gather it even appears the BID decision was taken by just a couple members of the Steering group including the Chairman and BID Consultant, rather than democratically following full open discussion. It was seemingly a relatively autocratic decision which is against the principles of openness and collective decision making as we’ve been led to believe Taunton BID have been following at all stages.
SWT Council also have a lot to answer for here, let’s remember that they threw £45,000 at the BID proposers to fund their YES campaign, let alone all the Council Officer’s time that has been invested, which all adds up to a lot of squandered public money for a failed BID development process with nothing to show for it at the end by way of ballot result.
On a slightly different subject, the other important fact this situation has highlighted, is that despite constant denials from Taunton BID that BID has nothing to do with SWT Council, not even an admission that SWT are behind the BID, clearly the Council are the ones who have full control over the whole process. BID have been careful to avoid any public acknowledgement of SWT Council’s involvement and partnership, but with the ballot ending controversially it’s funny how BID are quick to spin that it was the Council’s decision!
REASON 3: It’s the fault of coronavirus
“given the ballot was mid-way through its voting period when the severe restrictions on retail and leisure outlets were brought in.”
“many businesses did not have the opportunity to vote because their businesses were severely disrupted during the voting period.“
“In light of …… the difficulty for many to vote”
“these extreme circumstances have forced us into this position.”
The coronavirus lockdown did not hit the ballot mid-way through, the ballot had been running for 3 weeks before lockdown came in and there were only 4 posting days left during the lockdown period. Up until lockdown (and even after), businesses had ample opportunity to post their ballot card back, in fact research shows that most businesses vote in the early stages of a BID ballot. Maybe people will remember the flurry of social media posts of people posting their YES and NO votes back the day ballot papers were received?
But the most worrying excuse is that Taunton BID say many businesses didn’t have the opportunity to vote, yet they claim not to have known how many businesses had voted at the moment they suspended the ballot. How on earth can they say many businesses didn’t vote because of coronavirus disruption, if they had absolutely no idea how many business didn’t vote for this reason? As an excuse, it really doesn’t make sense does it?
Logical question about the turnout data behind the decision. Despite the excuse that many businesses couldn’t vote due to coronavirus disruption, Taunton BID admit they had no data indicating this!
Two Freedom of information (FOI) requests were submitted to SWT Council to try and clarify matters:
FOI question 1: “What was the Taunton BID ballot result?”
SWT reply 1: “Plans to create a business improvement district (BID) in Taunton have been delayed as a result of Coronavirus with the ballot being suspended in light of the fact that many businesses within the proposed BID area were not able to vote due to the ongoing disruption.”
FOI question 2 (in reply to above response): “What was the number of businesses (how many) were not able to vote in the March 2020 Taunton BID ballot?”
SWT reply 2: “There was no final count so we don’t know how many voted. In addition, there would be no way we could say who was unable to vote and who chose not to.”
It really is easy to see how the excuse to blame coronavirus for many businesses not being able to vote is flawed, simply because they also say they don’t know how many businesses were unable to vote. So what was the decision based on, and why make such a stupid unfounded claim?
As the BID supporter states, a BID declared it’s result with 80% turnout a couple days after Taunton - that ballot was clearly not affected by coronavirus disruption, just like the other 2 BID ballot results a couple days before Taunton.
As we’ve already mentioned, three other BID ballots concluded within days of Taunton, two before and one after, all happened to be YES mandates, and none reported any disruption in voting due to coronavirus. In fact, the BID which closed after Taunton (so would have been impacted more than Taunton by coronavirus disruption if it hampered voting), reported a turnout of 80%! When you consider average BID ballot turnout is about 47%, that’s an amazing turnout and clearly more proof that coronavirus disruption has not been a factor in ballots. Prior Taunton BID ballot turnouts have been 43% to 48%, and given the high profile nature of this BID proposal and significant publicity and mobilisation of voters from both the YES and NO campaigns turnout this time, it would be reasonable to assume turnout would be good.
Let’s take a deeper look at a big apparent mistruth here, the one about SWT Council and/or Taunton BID saying they didn’t know who had voted when they took the decision to end the ballot. They claim they didn’t know who had voted (or not) when they took the decision, but we really can’t believe this because it’s common practice for BID ballot Returning Officers and BID Steering Groups to know who has voted (just not how they have voted) at any time during a BID ballot period. Legislation allows this because it provides an opportunity for the BID to monitor voting and to follow up / send voting reminders as necessary in order to maximise turnout. Given that knowing who has voted is common practice for BID ballots, it’s frankly unbelievable that SWT, and the BID Consultant with her two decades of BID experience, did not have this information when they made the decision to end the ballot. The BID Consultant is either blatantly lying, or with a negligent approach failed in her paid role to properly advise on running the ballot, which is it we wonder?
Taken from technical guide for local authorities, published by the government. This throws into doubt the claim that when the decision was made to suspend the ballot, SWT Council / BID say they didn’t know who had voted so far.
REASON 4: We’re not up to the challenge because our job will be harder now
“if we had secured a mandate for the BID it would have been extremely difficult to set up the BID Company and expect businesses to pay the levy to fund the programme.”
“The BID Proposal would have to change substantially to reflect the new situation and the budget would certainly be much reduced.”
Yet on 23rd March they released a statement giving the positive impression BID would be a cause for good:
“We know that it is going to be a very difficult road ahead for everyone but a collective response and effort has to be the way to secure that positive future for the town and its community.”
We agree that setting up a BID in the current / foreseeable economic climate could prove difficult, after all paying a BID tax is controversial enough without the backdrop of the High Street challenges faced as we come out the other side of the Coronavirus crisis. There was a good chance the result would have been a NO anyway, in which case they would not have had to worry about implementing a BID. But in the event it was a YES, there were options available to them;
They could have properly assessed the voter turnout to see if Coronavirus had affected voter turnout, in addition to consulting with businesses to seek their views on the subject of implementing the BID (or not). Instead seems like a couple people made the decision for the steering group and all the voting businesses without consultation. This is a sad reflection of just how poor BID’s consultation has been all along, in addition to how autocratic their decision making has been.
If there was exceptionally low turnout or no appetite for a BID to be set up the result could simply have been voided, an option available to them as clarified in advice published by the BID Foundation in March 2020.
If there was appetite to still set up the BID, they could not rush implementation. Let’s remember that a BID company doesn’t need to be set up until 6 months after a ballot result, and with SWT Council support there would be a good chance of deferring levy bills another 6 months, as other BIDs around the UK are doing. This would mean it would be a year before a levy bill is even sent out.
If there were concerns about implementing a BID, clearly the most logical and rational course of action would have been to declare the ballot result, and then consider all available options if it was a YES mandate, as opposed to give up at the 11th hour without knowing the result.
A BID supporter demonstrating the fact that he believes BID can be a cause for good after a crisis.
Even saying the proposal and budget changes would be problematic is a weird excuse, all 300+ BIDs across the UK will ‘be in the same boat’ and working through this, so it’s not really a credible excuse. So what if the business plan needed to change after consulting with the levy paying businesses, everyone will need to adapt to the ‘new high street normal’ resulting from the Coronavirus crisis. Taunton BID’s flawed excuse here shows that the BID steering committee didn't really have it in their hearts to believe that BID is fit for purpose or would be of any benefit to help Taunton bring back footfall. Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite of and undermines the message all other BID’s across the UK are currently so proud to send out to justify their existence. As British BID’s said on 6/4/20; “The ‘opportunity’ that exists is for BIDs to be prepared to play a unique and crucial role in the recovery phase that will follow this crisis.”
Summary.
If you’ve read through to here then well done, and hopefully you can also see that what we’ve presented leads to a confused picture of why Taunton BID suspended the ballot after 28 days, just 2 hours before it could have been counted and the result declared. What do you think is the most plausible explanation for what really happened, is it either:
They made a stupid irrational decision to end the ballot, based on no data / evidence that coronavirus had affected the ballot.
From knowing who had voted, they felt the ballot was not going their way, so ended it to ‘save face’ of a NO result.
The ballot was counted, it was a NO result, so they covered up after the fact, again to ‘save face’ of a NO result.
Even now SWT Council and Taunton BID haven’t been transparent about how the BID came to an end. The impression given is that the ballot has been delayed (through being suspended), but in actual fact British BID’s has confirmed that under the Coronavirus Act a Returning Officer can only let a ballot continue or annul it. It’s an important distinction, so they should also come clean and tell voters the BID ballot vote has been annulled, it’s not right misleading voters that it’s been delayed.
If we give SWT Council the benefit of the doubt that as they say the ballot result wasn’t counted in the end, and we give the Taunton BID Steering Group the benefit of the doubt that they wouldn’t be so stupid to make such a decision based on no data, then the only plausible option is that Taunton BID suspected the vote wasn’t going their way so decided to use the Coronavirus Act powers to end the ballot before it was counted. This way they could appear to ‘save face’ and rather than chance the public embarrassment of yet another NO BID victory, the 3rd in row!
Whatever the reasons behind their decision, it’s a NO victory because there is NO BID being implemented, and so many businesses are pleased about this. Taunton BID have not had a strong show of voter support throughout their BID development process; not at their YES events, consultation meetings or on social media. They even ‘begged for Council YES votes’ against voting businesses, because they knew they needed them in order to have any chance of winning the ballot, and they faced a strong vocal NO campaign that ‘kept them on their toes’ to the end.
So from their failed BID development process who have Taunton BID let down? Simply everyone;
Let down themselves for not seeing the ballot through and making a very questionable decision on ending the ballot.
Let down all their YES supporters who believed BID could be a force for good to help Taunton recover from the current crisis. By not even letting the ballot be declared in the hope of a YES mandate, they abruptly ended their dreams for no good reason.
NO voters, for putting them through months of worry about having to pay something they didn’t ever want, the BID tax.
Let down SWT Council by scuppering the private money they were hoping would be raised to absolve them of responsibility for the town centre, providing inappropriate advice to end the ballot, and letting them take blame (along with everyone else).
Let down the taxpayer by squandering over £45,000 of public money on a failed process.
Even this BID supporter agrees the decision to end the ballot doesn’t make sense, so needs further scrutiny.
Taunton BID really did let down everyone in the end.
Given all their mistakes, spin, lies, mistruths, lack of transparency and poor decision-making ability, Taunton BID really have shown themselves not worthy of taking £1.4 million from businesses to ‘invest’ in Taunton as they feel fit. The biggest irony of the whole situation is that Taunton has been deprived of the chance of a BID by the BID proposers themselves; but at least the outcome is as so many businesses wanted - NO BID! The message is clear, may BID never darken the doors of Taunton businesses again, but if it does we’ll be ready .…..
A final word of thanks.
The ‘NO Taunton BID’ campaign has been there for and helped a significant portion of the Taunton business community, the NO voters, in the same way the YES campaign has been for those voters. Our selfless efforts to support the Taunton business community fight the Taunton BID proposal has been well received and we thank you for all the words of gratitude received for our NO campaign efforts, it’s been overwhelming. We are pleased to have helped and thanks for your support throughout!
Signing off …. ‘No Taunton BID’.
Press articles.
County Gazette article, click on image to open full article (opens in a new tab).
Somerset Live article, click on image to open full article (opens in a new tab).
Taunton BID releases informing businesses ballot suspended.
31/3/20 Taunton BID email to all businesses from Steering Group Chair and Taunton Chamber of Commerce President
Good morning everyone.
Today should be results day for the BID ballot. We have to tell you that the ballot has been suspended. In light of the current crisis, the COVID 19 regulations, the difficulty for many to vote and the complete change in Taunton's fortunes over the last 10 days, the Chief Executive of SW&T and Returning Officer James Hassett has decided to suspend the vote. In effect that means that the BID will not go ahead.
Given our current situation we think that this is for the best. The change in just 2 weeks is unparalleled and the idea that anyone could start to set up a new BID in the next few months is unthinkable. The BID Proposal would have to change substantially to reflect the new situation and the budget would certainly be much reduced.
Thank you to all of you who have contributed to this process and supported the BID team who have worked so hard on your behalf.
We know this will be a disappointment to some of you but I am sure that you understand more than most that these extreme circumstances have forced us into this position.
What happens next is uncertain but I think we can all agree that when we come out the other side of this crisis, the whole business community will need to work together to rebuild Taunton for the good of the town, our businesses, our customers and the community.
Please visit www.tauntonbid.co.uk for the news release issued today.
With very best wishes
31/3/20 Taunton BID public statement announcing ballot suspended.
Taunton BID BALLOT SUSPENDED
In the extraordinary circumstances of the impact on town centres of the Coronavirus crisis, new Government advice has resulted in the suspension of the ballot for the proposed Business Improvement District (BID) in Taunton.
The BID Working Group have been actively seeking guidance from Government on the status of the Taunton BID ballot, given the ballot was mid-way through its voting period when the severe restrictions on retail and leisure outlets were brought in.
Under the terms of the COVID-19 Emergency Legislation just announced, James Hassett, Chief Executive and Returning Officer for Somerset West and Taunton Council, has decided to suspend the BID ballot with immediate effect (as of 3pm on Monday 30th March, 2020), as many businesses did not have the opportunity to vote because their businesses were severely disrupted during the voting period.
It is therefore with regret that the proposed Taunton BID will now not go ahead. Plans for the future remain uncertain.
Colin Barrell, Chair of the BID Working Group said: “There are no winners with this decision. It is a reflection of the desperate times we are all currently experiencing.
“In the past week, it has become increasingly obvious that if we had secured a mandate for the BID it would have been extremely difficult to set up the BID Company and expect businesses to pay the levy to fund the programme.
“I would like to thank everyone involved for their incredible hard work over recent months and for all who supported this scheme for Taunton.
“I hope when we come through this crisis, as a business community, we can all work together to help Taunton to recover, look after each other and serve our customers and community once again.”
More information about the proposals for the Taunton BID are available here