Member Article

KingKabs drives support for Chester’s BID

One Chester business believes so strongly in the need for a city centre Business Improvement District (BID) that it intends to pay a levy even though it doesn’t have to!

KingKabs, Chester’s longest-established and biggest private hire taxi service, believes the plans laid out by the CH1ChesterBID team offer the only effective way of attracting more people into Chester, getting them to spend more and stay longer.

“We want to do our bit and play as full a part as we can in the BID initiative,” said KingKabs Business Development Manager, Mathew Jones. “Our decision to pay the 1% rateable value levy on both our Bridge Street offices if the BID vote is successful shows how important we believe a BID is to the future success of this city.”

Throughout June, more than 500 city centre businesses will be asked to vote on whether to accept the CH1ChesterBID proposals, which could raise £2.5m of investment for the city centre. Businesses with a rateable value of more than £18,000 would be asked to contribute the equivalent of 1% of their rateable value each year to the fund.

Mathew explains: “Both of our offices fall underneath the £18,000 threshold so in theory we’re not required to pay anything but we feel so strongly about the BID that we’ll pay anyway!

“This city needs the BID. The level of investment a ‘Yes’ vote in June will create can’t be generated by any other means and we want to encourage others to see this for the brilliant one-off opportunity that it is.

“Thanks to the campaigning, we feel really involved and engaged with the city centre business community.”

According to Mathew, the process of promoting the BID has also been extremely worthwhile. “It’s created fantastic opportunities to get to know and work with other city centre businesses. That in itself has been really valuable.”

He added: “Some of the decisions that have been taken in the past by the powers that be haven’t always been seen as being in the best interests of the commercial heart of the city.

“A successful BID vote will put the decision-making back in the hands of the business community itself and we’ll be making the decisions that we all know will deliver real benefits and a more secure future.”

For more information about CH1ChesterBID, visit www.ch1chesterbid.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Elle Brunton .