Dingwall BID vote delayed until 2020
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The team behind the proposed business improvement district to Ross-shire's market town has announced they will delay the ballot scheduled for November until early in the new year.
The Dingwall Means Business team said there were two reasons behind the delay. The first is to reach those businesses that have not yet been fully apprised of what the BID concept seeks to do for the town.
The second is to revise the business plan that sets out the ambitions and aims of the project to allow for fresh input from local businesses to be incorporated.
This follows a heated meeting called by those against Dingwall BID when it emerged that despite “extensive consultation with local businesses” not enough traders were fully apprised of the plans nor what they entail.
According to project manager George Murray that led to the decision being made to conduct more engagement to reach those businesses that are still unsure about the plans.
“We have decided to postpone the BID ballot of businesses for two main reasons. The first is that we want to address some concerns that a number of people have come to us about,” Mr Murray said.
“Not everyone has read the materials that we have sent out and certainly on a number of occasions people were not free when I personally dropped in to tell them about BID.
“From that lack of awareness about the project a number of concerns have come about and people have been made to feel unnecessarily concerned about certain aspects of the proposals.
“What we don’t want to do is ram this down people’s throats because I think ultimately we will end up with egg on our face. We do want to persuade them, we do want to convince traders and we want them to be confident in the vote.
“The second reason is that more people have come forward in recent weeks and they have brought excellent ideas to the table that we simply cannot ignore, so we are going to redo our business plan to include the new input.
“Ultimately, I am more convinced than ever this will be good for the town.
“Not everyone feels that way and I want to talk with them to make sure they understand the facts of what we are doing. If they don’t agree, I can respect that but it must be based on accurate information.”
Steering group chairwoman Lorraine Chisholm said: “The decision comes following a period of extensive consultation with local businesses and will allow the project the time to make positive and effective changes to the proposal ahead of a vote of eligible businesses early next year.”
The move has won the backing of Phil Prentice, chief officer of Scotland's Towns Partnership the body responsible for the country's improvement districts.
He said: “My advice to Dingwall BID was to take some time out to fully explain to people the truth about BID, rather than allowing a few vocal negative people space to tell half truths and mislead businesses about the concept.
“BIDs are on the rise, they have nothing to hide. Having a BID for the town is a no-brainer. It is gives local businesses ownership back and they will occupy the role they once had in leading their towns, it gives them back the authority they have lost over the last few decades.
“It’s best that towns are led by creative and energetic businesses, they have a vested interest in making the town succeed and have more skills and knowledge than the public sector.
“There are already a lot of BIDs established or being developed up North - from Lerwick, Stornoway and Kirkwall, Oban, Nairn and Elgin, Aberdeen, Inverness, Loch Ness, Inverurie and Peterhead.
“Dingwall is too important a town to be left behind, let’s get to towns businesses pulling together for the benefit of everyone.”
