Across its first five-year term, an investment of over £5 million through the levy paying businesses has made a significant difference to the city. The introduction and delivery of key initiatives co-ordinated by the Bristol City Centre BID team have included a seven-days-a-week cleansing team to remove graffiti and deep clean businesses property and frontages, several safety and crime reduction initiatives including a dedicated PSCO and Streetwise Officer, street pastors, and the set up and co-ordination of Bristol’s first Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP). The creation and delivery of innovative events and campaigns to attract visitors to the city centre have included Bristol Light Festival, Hearts in Parks, Christmas Adventures and the annual festive lights.
BID Updates
Bristol City Centre BID reveals proposal for the next five years
Prospectus available for Bristol businesses to review and feedback to shape the BID’s prospective second term.
16/06/2022
Since being voted in by the businesses of Bristol in 2017, Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) has delivered innovative and strategic projects to help make the city a more safe, welcoming, and better place to live, work, study and spend leisure time.
Bristol City Centre BID is heading towards the end of its first five-year term. The renewal for a second term from 2022-2027 will be decided by a ballot in September, when city centre businesses will have the opportunity to vote on the future of the BID. To help inform this decision, the BID team has put forward it’s proposed plans outlining how it will continue to support city centre businesses across a second five-year term.
The proposed plans for the next five years will include projects and initiatives that enhance the city’s welcome, support, represent and connect city centre businesses, promote safety in the city and use innovative placemaking initiatives to attract new visitors to the city centre.
Bristol City Centre BID’s prospectus includes the proposed plans and the city’s businesses are invited to continue offering feedback until early July, either by arranging a meeting with the team, registering for an in person consultation session on 21 June at The Clayton Hotel, or by completing the online survey.
Following this consultation period, a final business plan will be presented on 20 July at a levy payer business event, and businesses will have the opportunity to vote for the future of Bristol City Centre BID in the September ballot.
Vicky Lee, Head of Bristol City Centre BID
Looking back across our first five-year term, we are proud of the new projects, initiatives and work delivered, addressing some of the city centre’s challenges, finding new ways to bring people into the city to benefit its businesses and making Bristol a more welcoming city. A key piece of work was supporting businesses across the pandemic, we had to adapt to the needs of the city’s businesses and support them through exceptional circumstances. This demonstrated our ability to react to current challenges of businesses and shape our support accordingly. Moving towards the prospective second term, we remain focused, committed, and ambitious to build on the last five years’ successes whilst also recognising that our future work must be shaped by the requirements of the businesses it supports. The consultation period offers the opportunity for businesses to feedback on our proposal and help inform our business plan for the next five years, so that we can continue delivering a better Bristol for all.OVERVIEW OF BRISTOL CITY CENTRE BID’S PLANS FOR ITS NEXT FIVE-YEAR TERM:
- Delivery of visitor experiences and events that attract new audiences and create additional reasons to spend leisure time in the city centre. Bristol Light Festival and Light Up Christmas will be two key annual events that will support businesses through the winter months by encouraging visitors to the city centre.
- Transformation of public shared spaces using Bristol’s wealth of creative talent with projects focused on art, greening, and improvements to outdoor areas.
- Continuation of the seven-days-a-week cleansing service responding to businesses requests for additional cleaning on businesses frontages and street cleansing.
- Support for greener business by helping to equip businesses to reduce their environmental impact. A Net Zero Charter will be developed for the BID area, which will align the One City Plan to achieve net zero by 2030.
- Working in partnership with Bristol City Council, Visit Bristol and local businesses to achieve a collaborative approach and position Bristol City Centre as an attractive and safe place to work, live and play.
- Develop the ‘Love Bristol’ brand, with a focus on driving footfall and spend.
- Support talent and skills in the city to help people move into work, promote the benefits and amenities of working in the city centre and retain the talent of students in the city.
- Maintain and progress the Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in the city and ensure continuation of intelligence-sharing schemes.
- The introduction of a dedicated Police Officer to support businesses experiencing crime.
- Support Bristol’s night-time economy by representing levy payers and influencing strategy and future policy.
- Promote integration through dedicated Policing resources and partnerships with Bristol City Council to actively address the crimes causing most harm to business.
- Support and represent businesses, by being the collective voice to influence strategy and create a business community.
- Launch of a new sponsorship fund available for applications by businesses to create projects or initiatives that will benefit the city centre and its business community.
- Continue TAP for Bristol, raising funds to help those at risk of homelessness or already in crisis.
The future of the BID is really important to us; we’ve been fortunate to work with them on projects like Bristol Light Festival which has been incredible in terms of footfall. It’s important that the city’s business community give feedback now, it is a chance to have our voices heard and shape the future of the BID and improvements for the city.
Trish Brown, Operations Director at St George’s Bristol