Wight BID No Longer Exists!
Fact of the matter is, the Isle of Wight Business Improvement District (BID) no longer exists and Visit Isle of Wight Ltd (VIOW) currently has NO legal remit to operate any BID arrangements.
VIOW have an operating agreement with IOW Council to operate the BID arrangements, starting for 5 years on 1st September for 5 years, so the BID arrangements legally ended on 31st August 2021. View this operating agreement here (this is the contract between the Council and VIOW which has now lapsed).
This is something for businesses to shout about, they are free of BID! However this eurphoria may be short lived because VIOW are currently proposing a new BID term following a ballot in October.
Normally BIDs hold a renewal ballot before the end of their 5 year term, but for some reason VIOW and IOW Council decided not to do this, so the BID has legally lapsed and is finished.
Consequently, VIOW have no power over BID businesses right now, a lame duck sat there feeding itself on levy money extorted from businesses the past 5 years!
Let’s highlight a couple interesting legal considerations here:
VIOW no longer have any legal right to be operating the BID arrangements for IOW Council. This means they should not be receiving any new levy money from the Council and are not allowed to spend any levy money on projects, because the BID has ended.
Because the BID has come to a natural conclusion at 5 years, all remaining BID funds should now be returned to levy payers, as provided for in the Council operating agreement.
Because the BID is finished and the BID arrangements resulting from the upcoming ballot is a totally new BID arrangement as opposed to a renewal, then surely the council should no longer be able to demand historical levy payments for 2016-2021 BID arrangements that no longer exist.
So take heart that for now at least there is NO Wight BID, and to keep it this way businesses who don’t want another BID must vote NO in the upcoming October ballot!
