Falkirk Delivers: BID’s plans for next five years

What is a BID?

A Business Improvement District (BID) is a defined geographical area and within it, businesses (via a vote) pay an additional amount to provide services and activities in that area that they as a group of businesses, want to have.

All properties with a rateable value of £5,000 and under will be charged a fixed levy of £50.

All properties with a rateable value between £5,001 - £10,000 will be charged a fixed levy of £100.

All properties with a rateable value of £10,001 and above will be charged at 1.25% of the rateable value.

What are Falkirk Delivers planning for the next five years?

After listening to the business feedback, Falkirk Delivers business plan for their next term is based on the following themes:

Additional services: business support, training and savings

The team at Falkirk Delivers will be doing everything they can to provide additional services to town centre businesses. This includes their own training portal which is free available to all local businesses, offering additional support with digital assets to help encourage local spend and increase footfall within the town centre.

The main goal of Falkirk Delivers is to provide business support with whatever the businesses need at that time, with everything from cost saving initiatives to help grow the town and also working in collaboration with Falkirk Council and other key partners.

It’s friendlier in Falkirk: safe and secure

Falkirk Delivers is working to ensure that Falkirk Town Centre remains safe and secure during the day and at evening during the weekends. This includes the street ambassador, Janice, who works hard to be in constant communication with businesses. At weekends, Falkirk Delivers works in conjunction with partners to operate the SafeBase initiative, making sure everyone who visits Falkirk at night is safe.

Taking pride in Falkirk: clean and green

Falkirk Delivers is proud to look after Falkirk Town Centre with the assistance of their BID Handyman, who offers a fast response to town centre issues. The BID are also looking forward to taking practical measures to support the town remain vibrant with safe places to work, live and do business.

Some of the recent work the BID Handyman has done and will continue to do includes litter control, power washing public areas, removal of graffiti, fly posters, gum, pigeon guano etc.

Let’s shout about it: marketing and events

One of the most exciting things that the BID are planning are an increase in marketing and events for their town centre. This includes the marketing of town centre wi-fi for businesses, residents and visitors, supporting the use of digital platforms to trade and engage with customers and physical and digital events subject to safety guidance.

Falkirk Delivers will also be furthering the promotion of their Falkirk and District Towns Gift Card, to lock in spend locally.

Elaine Grant, BID Manager said: “After the overwhelming support we received from the businesses, myself and the team can’t wait to get working on our fourth term. We were so proud to find out that 87% of the voting businesses and rate payers voted YES to keeping us in the town centre. We’ve outlined our goals after feedback from the town centre businesses and launched our business plan.

“We cannot wait to bring move initiatives and events into Falkirk Town Centre in the aim of bringing people in and increasing footfall, all the while making Falkirk the place to be!”

Find out more at https://falkirkdelivers.com/