The Council already has great plans to revitalise and regenerate the town centre.
Taunton BID is not being driven by a Local Authority, instead it’s a proposal being put forward by a private body, in this case the Taunton Chamber of Commerce, and the impression we’re being given is that Taunton BID will be “the saviour of Taunton town centre”.
At the BID launch it was said “if we don’t do anything, nothing is going to change” and “something is better than nothing”, but this is merely pro-BID scaremongering, or perhaps they don’t actually know or rightly appreciate the future plans of the Council. It’s been known since 2017 when Taunton was designated Garden Town status, that big change will be coming across Taunton, including the town centre. This is old, not new news. In addition we have a manifesto commitment from the new Liberal Democrat led Somerset West & Taunton Council administration to develop vibrant and economically secure Town Centres, see more on this subject in our article ‘Is the Taunton BID proposal right for our new Council to back?’ Delivering Tauntons’ Garden Town vision is happening now already, part of which is to revitalise and regenerate the town centre.
Read the County Gazette article dated 27th July 2019 titled “Somerset West and Taunton council unveil garden town vision” which summarises the plans for Taunton as a whole, and pays reference to the town centre, here are a couple excerpts:
18/2/20. As SWT Council says here they are working "to create a vibrant town centre and a vibrant economy that goes with it." As we've been saying all along, BID is not the only option, our council have things well in hand. Let's keep £1.45mn in the pockets of businesses! Click on image to view the short video.
Arts and culture will play a big part: the Firepool and Coal Orchard sites are cited within the vision document, which seeks to create “a dynamic and prosperous community founded on knowledge, culture and business”.
The town centre will be revitalised and regenerated: the council will encourage more people to live in central locations (e.g. flats above shops) to reduce congestion, and will “encourage the clustering of our shopping activity more centrally around the Market House.” The night-time economy will be bolstered by “cultural, leisure and arts facilities”, working with the Brewhouse Theatre and possible developments within the Firepool and Coal Orchard sites to create “a sense of place”.
The council will be recruiting a garden town project manager to oversee its various aspects, and a new website will be created to promote the town.
In addition, here’s a 42 page PDF brochure dated July 2019 by the Council, “The vision for our garden town” which includes details of their plans.
It’s not just Garden Town status the Council is working hard for, they are also vying for the government's Future High Streets Fund, a £675 million fund to help make Britain’s high streets and town centres fit for the future. Here’s a positive County Gazette article dated 7th July 2019 announcing Somerset West and Taunton Council through to next round of bidding for Future High Streets funding.
Retail has changed profoundly the past couple of decades, and if high streets and town centres are to be successful they really need to adapt with large scale structural change as we wrote about here, and SWT Council clearly seems to be embracing this and pushing forward with such plans. This is to be commended, we are lucky to have such a forward looking local authority, and it’s a shame that the BID feasibility appears to fail to take the Council’s plans properly into consideration.
In the Taunton BID survey, they even appear to be asking businesses whether they agree with the Councils’ plans to promote Taunton as a Garden Town. So if the BID businesses disagree will they go in a different strategic marketing direction to promote Taunton? Seems a weird irrelevant question, unless Taunton BID aren’t aligning with Council plans or have different ideas from the Council on how Taunton should be promoted.
So let’s put our efforts behind the Council and their brilliant plans for transformative change in Taunton, this is what will lead to real success and prosperity for Taunton town centre. Businesses paying a private stealth tax for “window dressing” isn’t going to “cut it”, let’s give the Council a chance rather than thinking BID will be Taunton’s saviour, it won’t. There’s lots being done already, so Taunton BID and others should not be saying “if we don’t do BID nothing will change”, clearly that’s not true!
Click image to download “the vision for our Garden Town” (opens in a new window).
Taken from the public realm design guide for Taunton Garden Town, dated January 2020. The council will be providing all this!
“Develop vibrant and economically secure Town Centres”
Look what the council already has planned to increase footfall in the town centre as part of Taunton's Garden Town plans! This is from “the vision for our Garden Town”.
