Taunton’s failed BID 2007-2012; there's no evidence Taunton BID have learnt lessons from the past.
For those not familiar with the history of Taunton BID’s lets summarise:
2007. BID established after a YES ballot result, with a 5 year term ending in 2012.
2012. BID renewal ballot which resulted in a NO, demonstrating failure of the BID 2007-12.
2014. New BID development ballot which resulted in a NO.
Given this history you’d expect the feasibility study to comprehensively research, analyse and present what went wrong with how Taunton Town Centre Company Ltd (TTCC) operated the BID 2007-2012, particularly given the fact the current BID Consultant was the Town Centre Manager at the time playing a lead role getting that BID in. So BID is not new to the Taunton business community, we’ve been there and done it before and had our fingers burnt, it wasn’t popular then or it would have easily been voted to renew in 2012, or voted in again 2014. Okay, past failures can be learnt from and there’s no guarantee it will be a failure if we do it again, but equally this also clearly shows us that there are no guarantees it will be a success either.
So where is the admission of past mistakes and lessons learnt from the Taunton Chamber of Commerce as the BID proposer, surely this information would be key to presenting the BID this time around in either the feasibility study, another document or on their website, but sadly not. Most surprising is how the current BID Consultant in their feasibilibility study literally paid lip service to mentioning the prior failed BID 2007-12, just about acknowledging it happened, without any detailed research, analysis and presentation of what went wrong in order to help the Taunton Chamber of Commerce learn from the last BID failure. In addition any responses to such questions at events so far appear to have come from anyone in the room with any knowledge or opinion, rather than Taunton BID, The Taunton Chamber of Commerce or the BID Consultant demonstrating any real understanding of the subject. Why has this important subject not been properly researched by the BID Consultants, unless it has and Taunton BID are scared of presenting us with the truth about BID’s?
So what do we know about the failure of the BID last time, what is even in the public realm that Taunton BID have so far not done their homework on, or failed to tell us, about the way TTCC operated which led then to a failed vote in 2012 (and by the way, the following are quotes from a Taunton Deane Borough Council (TDBC) report):
“In conclusion the Committee resolved to recommend to the Executive that: 1. It no longer had confidence in the Taunton Town Centre Company to progress a further BID proposal.” The committee in this case being a TDBC Corporate Scrutiny Committee.
A message we received from a Taunton BID levy payer 2007-12
“The TTCC recognises that it needs to address the reputational issues, and to restore business confidence. Measures it is considering to that end include;
• Refreshing the management board
• Revitalising communications with traders e.g. by circulating full accounts
• Moving to more visible and accessible office accommodation
• Commissioning an external review of the company to ensure it is fit for purpose.”
“a future BID proposal, which is more in tune with national policy guidelines and local business needs and aspirations. The TTCC recognises that it needs to rewin the confidence of traders through greater transparency and visibility;”
Problems with Taunton’s last failed BID have also been documented by other organisations, such as Taunton Arts Business Cultural Alliance who conducted a town centre survey in 2013 following the BID ending. Their findings included the following about the BID:
“Under the old BID scheme a high percentage believe the town centre was poorly promoted and marketed.”
“Businesses want to be involved and collaborate on town centre marketing initiatives.”
“Many businesses in the town were not on the Town Centre Company radar and were not involved or communicated with.”
“Areas such as Station Road or East Reach were neglected.”
“People were not happy with town centre branding and the promotion of the town locally and nationally.”
“The town centre did not communicate with the local population effectively.”
This was produced by a Taunton BID 2007-12 levy payer in advance of the 2012 BID renewal ballot. Clearly the BID did not deliver on it’s business plan last time, so how on earth can we believe what they’re saying now?
Then when reading other literature and speaking with traders today who remember paying the last BID, the main thing that comes out is they were made lots of promises (as we are now in 2020), but BID failed to deliver on those promises, and the whole experience felt like a waste of money.
Even speaking to a Director of the last BID (who was obviously pro-BID), he said what made it exceptionally hard for them was a lack of real support from the businesses. So although not against the BID concept, his view is that if we are to BID again it really does need massive support from the business community otherwise could be setting it up for failure again. Given we’re not seeing this support as evidenced by things such as;
(a) poor regular business representation at Steering Group meetings (vs the 15 Directors they want),
(b) poor turnout for their own BID Business Plan launch,
(c) the efforts by a small core YES group trying hard to push BID through (respect they’re trying hard but it’s a fraction of the business community, and they’ve found it hard to recruit new Steering Group members);
it really doesn’t appear the Taunton business community is truly behind a BID at this time. Taunton BID might have been out there self-justifying that to themselves and SWT Council there is massive support, but one has to question the real level of support across town. Obviously the only measure is yet another ballot, so we look forward to that to decide one way or the other.
All the above is quite damning of the last Taunton BID and probably just the tip of the iceberg. But the positive aspect to this is that at least there are many lessons, but Taunton BID have so far failed to acknowledge or effectively communicate this, or perhaps they just haven’t bothered researching. Important thing is that most of the points above are the consequence of how TTCC operated, so it’s learning and presenting the lessons of how they operated that led to these consequences that is key.
This article contains information we found from a few minutes of internet research, and you’d expect a paid BID Consultant contracted to producing a feasibility study to do much deeper research than us, as there may well be many more operating problems than we found that can be learnt from.
In 2012 TDBC documented that TTCC were to ask Sainsbury’s to carry out a free independent, external audit of the Taunton BID programme. But at the 16th July launch event Taunton BID appeared to have no idea if such a review had in fact been asked for or existed. Such an independent report would provide invaluable information going forwards. At the event it was suggested to Taunton BID that they find out if this report exists, and if so get a copy, but we suspect they haven’t even bothered. When several months ago we raised the subject of learning mistakes from the last BID with the current Steering Group Chairman, he simply said “you must know more than me”. What sort of contemptuous answer is that?
“It doesn’t instil much confidence in the people we would be voting for to do another BID, if they haven’t properly reflected on the mistakes made and learnt lessons from the last failed BID, in an attempt to mitigate risks of failure and reassure us it won’t happen again.”
Through research Taunton BID need to fully understand and present all the reasons why TTCC failed in it’s role 2007-2012 to the extent that businesses lost confidence in it. In reponse to an event question we’ve heard of one personality being apportioned some blame, but the failure of TTCC and the last Taunton BID is certainly down to more than just one person. Lets remember we’re talking about a private limited company that was governed by independent Director’s drawn the local business community as a checking mechanism (governance as a new BID would have), a BID management team that as we can see above eventually TDBC and even TTCC itself appeared to lose confidence in! It really is a shame that the Taunton Chamber of Commerce as the BID proposers don’t seem serious about attempting to mitigate the risks of another BID failure, when right their own doorstop there are clearly lessons to be learnt from Taunton’s previous BID experience.
We made the following recommendations to Taunton BID in September 2019, but as you can see from their reply they flately dismissed what were very sensible recommendations. They just can’t be bothered to admit or more importantly learn lessons from the past!
Click image to enlarge.
This independent shop owner didn't mince his words when talking about his experience of the last failed Taunton BID 2007-12!
Click image to enlarge. Can we believe everything Taunton BID say? Lets remember the the incompetence of them denying Taunton ever having a BID before! We did have a BID 2007-12 and many businesses still remember paying the levy last time for that failed BID!
