HullBID looks forward to City of Culture after strong ballot endorsement

Kathryn Shillito (centre) with the HullBID operational team celebrate the ballot's yes vote

HULL Business Improvement District will continue its work for another five years after securing an emphatic win in its latest renewal ballot.

HullBID, which was set up in 2006, gained 80 per cent of votes cast in the ballot of member businesses in Hull city centre. The ballot also returned a similar majority in terms of the rateable value of business premises which took part in the vote. HullBID’s renewal target was a majority in each category.

Around 1,130 voting papers were distributed to businesses within the HullBID area during February. Details of the count published by Hull City Council, the official ballot holder, showed that 656 votes were cast by the closing date of March 17. There were 517 votes in favour and 129 against.

The total rateable value in favour was approximately £30.5-million compared with £7.2-million against.

Jim Harris, chair of the HullBID board of directors and manager of St Stephen’s Shopping Centre in Hull, said: “The ballot result is a great endorsement for what has been achieved by HullBID over the last five years and, more importantly, a show of confidence in what BID can achieve going forward.

“Hull will be the 2017 UK City of Culture and there is no organisation better placed than HullBID to maximise the legacy of that celebration and to ensure that businesses in the city centre get the very best out of it.

“As a result of public spending cuts the resources available to our city and others will be greatly diminished. The city centre is in transition and HullBID’s role as the guardian of brand Hull is more important than ever.”

The previous renewal ballot in 2011 produced a majority of just 53 per cent but more recently BIDs have been recognised as having a key part to play in regeneration. Leeds, Sheffield and York have all voted during the last year to introduce BIDs.

Kathryn Shillito, HullBID city centre manager, thanked businesses for delivering such strong support. She said: “I am very grateful to the members who have turned out to vote for us and the strong majority shows their determination for HullBID to continue.

“They are still experiencing challenging times but clearly acknowledge the worth of an independent organisation to represent them.  HullBID has brought real, measurable change and has added value from the additional funding it has attracted over and above the levy.

“During the last five years we have built up the operational side of what we do with improved security and cleaning services and our events are now well-established. As we head towards City of Culture it is important the city is prepared and we convey to our members how they can benefit from this once in a lifetime opportunity.

“We will be introducing new initiatives to increase footfall and we will continue to keep in close contact with our members to make sure their priorities are being addressed.”