Agenda item

[The Director of the Wolverhampton BID, Cherry Shine will be in attendance to give a presentation and answer questions from the Scrutiny Panel.  The original business plan for the BID is attached]. 

Cherry Shine, Director of the BID and John Henn, Chairman of the BID and independent business owner gave a presentation on the Business Improvement District (BID).  The Director of the BID stated that Wolverhampton BID was launched in April 2015 after a long period of public consultation with businesses in the wider City Centre area.  The BID area was a defined location.  There were 560 individual BID Businesses in the BID area, paying a levy between £150 per annum and £15,000 per annum.  This collectively brought in nearly £504,000 per annum. There was a BID Board with representation from a variety of sources. 

The Director of the Bid stated the whole BID development process had started with a feasibility assessment.  A business plan was constructed after the consultation, developed by businesses for businesses.  The objectives of the BID were to improve perceptions of the City, enhance accessibility, increase footfall and raise the City’s profile as a destination.  It was recognised that these objectives could be achieved under four themes, clean safe and welcoming, marketing, promotions and events, accessibility and parking and business support. 

The Director of the BID said there was a team of City Ambassadors who were a welcoming team, branded with the Enjoy Wolverhampton logo on their uniforms. They were the eyes and ears for the City Centre and could guide people across the City with useful information.  They communicated via radio link into the BID Office.  They were also the business engagement team, visiting businesses regularly.   There were three Officers working for the BID including herself.  A key priority was to keep the City Centre clean and so consequently the City Centre was jet and hot washed two nights a month in hot spot areas.

The Director of the BID remarked that public surveillance was provided via CCTV which linked to the team of 5 City Ambassadors, Police, PCSO’s, transport interchanges, the Mander Centre and security staff.  The City Radio link connected over 110 businesses, which had been proactively promoted by the City Ambassadors.  These tools enabled the BID to have a good understanding of the movement of people, including anti-social behaviour within the City.  It also enabled issues to be dealt with straight away before becoming a serious incident.  Statements could be made to support evidence for legal action and criminal behaviour orders.  Partnership working took place with the Police, and City Tasking and WBCRG (Wolverhampton Business Crime Group). 

The Director of the BID said they ran the alternative giving campaign established because there was an element of homelessness and begging in the City.  People could donate at 19 donation points across the City Centre.  They were currently looking to develop the campaign with the Council to set up a business CSR Charity arm.  The BID were members of the Tacking Rough Sleepers Task Force. 

The Director of the BID said they paid for 32 additional Late Night Safe Haven nights.  They also managed four promotional spaces to promote a vibrant High Street.  They dressed vacant shop units, where possible, to make them more attractive.  The BID arranged a series of Marketing events such as Easter parades, craftwork shops, Macmillan Coffee mornings and the Ice Palace/Grotto with the Mander Centre.  These Seasonal events attracted over 9,000 people each year.  Enjoy Wolverhampton Live attracted 6000 visitors on the day.  They also arranged Seaside in the City which turned Queen’s Square into a beach, which was planned to be over two days for the forthcoming year. 

The Director of the BID stated, they partnered up with the Council to deliver the successful WIRE awards which launched in February 2017.  Last year there had been 147 individual business entries.  This was a useful tool to promote independent businesses and a platform for them to showcase their expertise.  The BID was the main sponsor for Wolves in Wolves, which was the largest public art exhibition the city had seen.  The project had really benefited footfall in the centre. 

The Director of the Bid informed the Panel that the City was marketed on a West Midlands wide scale.  The Christmas branding for 2017 was “A City Full of Joy.”  The City guide had been given to 25,000 people.  The Bus Advert campaign ran across October – December and the reach was across Walsall, Telford, Shrewsbury and Cannock.  They worked with Signal 107 at Christmas which brought them a platform to bring people back to Wolverhampton and to convey their key messages.

The Director of the BID stated the Enjoy Wolverhampton website was regularly updated and was a useful communication tool.  They appreciated how important the Wolverhampton motto was “Out of darkness, cometh light.”  They had spent £37,000 of their budget on additional lighting over the Christmas season.  They had enhanced old stock and refurbished lights.  Their social media reached over 350,000 people on Facebook and Twitter during November and December 2017.  Over 17,000 people visited their website every month.

The Director of the BID said they worked very well in partnership with NCP on accessibility and car parking.  The NCP had reduced shopper tariffs at the Wulfrun Centre Car Park.  They had also worked with them on a BID business employee parking tariff at the Wulfrun Centre.  They had worked with the Council to secure event parking and Christmas Parking and shared this information via marketing campaigns.  They had promoted free event parking at the Wulfrun Centre in 2017.  Thirteen maps had been installed in the City Centre to help people navigate around the City Centre.  The BID had worked with City Centre businesses to help them save nearly £119,408 to date on utilities, telecoms and merchant fees.  The NCP parking scheme gave reduced car parking fees to 298 employees at 57 City Centre businesses.  This was an approximate saving of £450 each year per staff member.  She stated she attended a number of meetings across the City to give businesses a voice. 

The Director of the BID said they had applied to make environmental improvements on Woolpack Street, which included the installation of a gate to hide the unsightly bins.  A Big City clean was planned for the Spring having first launched in October last year.   She stated the following was planned for the future: -

·       Wire Awards 2018 – Launch in March 2018

·       Alternative Giving Scheme – Awareness Campaign

·       Business Backing Big Change – Charity Arm Launch

·       BID Accreditation with British BID’s

·       Enjoy Wolverhampton Live – Saturday, 2 June 2018

·       Seaside in the City – 1^st and 2^nd September 2018

·       Enhanced Retailer Forum (Monthly meetings)

·       Reporting and Understanding Footfall

·       Enjoy Wolverhampton Gift Card

·       City Employee Loyalty Scheme

·       Bigger Better and Brighter Christmas 2018

The Director of the BID commented that the Wolverhampton BID measured performance in a number of ways.  These included the number of businesses engaging in promotions and assessing access to their website and social media pages.  They also recorded the number of City Ambassador visits to City Centre business each year, which was currently over 3,500 per year.  The City Ambassadors reported fly posting, dirty street furnishing and phone boxes.   They supported the Council by managing the Busking spots in the City Centre, which reduced the number of complaints from businesses.   Event attendance was also recorded. 

The Director of the Bid informed the Panel they had 5502 social media followers and received at least eight additional positive press stories per year.  They funded two footfall counters, one was on Queen’s Street adjacent to the Wolverhampton Homes building and the second was in the Wolves Superstore, the second counter was currently out of action due to re-development.  The change in footfall for Wolverhampton BID over the last 52 weeks was 2.1% down on the previous year.  Footfall for the year to date was 2% down on the previous year (compared to a figure of 2.3% down across the UK). 

A Panel Member asked if they could have the total number of visitor figures as he believed the raw data was essential to understand how well the BID was performing.  The Director of the BID stated she would do her best to respond with the information if they emailed her with the exact information required.  The Head of Service Development – City Economy stated with the SMART City programme there could be improvements in the way footfall data was captured, so they would not just be reliant on footfall counters in certain positions.  Mobile phone data could be used, which could be aggregated across partners to capture a much more sophisticated understanding of the whole footfall picture. The Director of the BID stated the bus station had some footfall information, as did the Wulfrun Centre.  The Mander Centre would have information available in the future as they were installing a new system. She asked if the Council could help bring the data together.

The Director of the BID stated a feasibility study would start in early September 2018 on the BID Reballot.  The proposed Ballot date would be October 2019, with potential establishment in April 2020.  She referred to the last slide of her presentation which listed the opportunities of working collaboratively with the Council as being the following: -

·       Continued partnership

·       Recognition of the projects Wolverhampton BID deliver

·       Supporting our continued opportunities for income generation via city centre operations

·       Proactive use of planning enforcement to bring vacant buildings back into use

·       Recognition of the collective importance of the independent businesses

·       Communications to Non Levy payers – an additional Council funded Ambassador

·       Acknowledgement of retail as a sector that needs support

·       Retaining a City Centre events programme

·       Supporting the enhancement of the city experience

The Director of the BID stated she wanted to better engage with half terms and families as an opportunity to attract more visitors.  She was concerned about the vacancy rate on Queen’s Square and some of the outer lying secondary retail areas.  There had been considerable re-locating of businesses.  For example, Nationwide had moved creating two void units on Queen’s Street.  They were hoping to decorate the windows and were approaching the agent.  They also recognised that the rents were very high in Wolverhampton Arcade with a low occupancy rate.  Agents were not as proactive as they would like them to be. 

A Member stated there was concern regarding House of Fraser and an impatience to get the Westside development up and running.  They had received remarks that there was too much empty space in the Mander centre despite the refurbishment.  There was competition from Telford on the westside of the Town and Birmingham. 

The Chairman of the BID Board stated more pressure was needed on landlords who owned derelict buildings in the City Centre.  The BID did receive a number of requests from independents for accommodation in the City which were being stifled by landlords who were waiting for better offers.  If empty units could be cleaned up and occupied it would reduce some of the problems in the City Centre such as discarded needles. Lichfield Street was a third empty. 

A Panel Member stated the Scrutiny Panel could look at how BID could help deliver their plans and proposals to fill empty properties in the City Centre and how best to work with landlords and agents.  A Member stated Wolverhampton City Centre needed to develop its character to attract more visitors and the Council needed to look at what other authorities were doing to tackle rough sleeping and reduce the number of needles discarded across the City Centre. 

The meeting closed at 9:05pm