Vote result sees continuation of Inverurie Business Improvement District

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Inverurie has voted for its Business Improvement District (BID) to continue for a further five years which was announced during an event in the town's Garioch Heritage Centre today.

We Are INverurie's inaugural term had come to an end and BID levy payers had the opportunity to vote until 5pm yesterday to decide if it should continue.

It has been operating since 2017 and been responsible for a number of projects in the town including the Pride of Inverurie Awards; funding for the Inverurie Business Association, Inverurie Events and Inverurie Environmental Improvement Group; the purchase of new Christmas lights and organised a number of events including the In-Tune music weekender, Fake But Fab tribute festival and the festive parade.

It has also subsidised the provision of hand sanitising stations; provided business training for first aid, customer care, food hygiene and social media; arranged hanging baskets and planters and undertaken extensive business promotion and marketing campaigns for Inverurie in general.

The BID is business-led where a levy is charged to all commercial buildings that fall within a defined area of a town.

This levy will allow projects and services to be undertaken above those that Aberdeenshire Council, Police Scotland, VisitAberdeenshire and Bear Scotland offer.

At the event in the Garioch Heritage Centre returning officer Aberdeenshire Council chief executive Jim Savege made the vote declaration and outlined there were 125 votes cast in the ballot out of 212 eligible premises, with 83 in favour of the BID proposals and 42 against.

Mr Savege said: "Town centres are absolute key to the heart of our communities in terms of how they function and how they work and operate.

"From a council perspective BID as a mechanism is great. We see it gives an opportunity to give a cohesion in terms of businesses; to get a common ambition agenda together; to give opportunity of efficiency in terms of best practice and really to see communities invest in themselves in terms of giving a greater diversity of business activity, so it is a very positive proposition.

"It has been great to see how that has developed and I would suggest that Inverurie and Aberdeenshire in tandem have been leading the way nationally. We have seen that in the recognition and response we've had from national colleagues who have come to see how the BID has been working here as a good benchmark for how other places should be working as well."

The full ballot breakdown was:

• YES – in favour of the Business Improvement District proposals for the areas within Inverurie as specified on the Ballot Paper – 83

• NO – not in favour of the Business Improvement District proposals for the areas within Inverurie as specified on the Ballot Paper – 42

The rateable values of the relevant properties in respect of which these votes were cast were as follows:

• Aggregate of the rateable values of the relevant properties in respect of which a person voting in the ballot has voted for the BID proposals (A) - £3,593,700

• Aggregate of the rateable values of the relevant properties in respect of which a person voting in the ballot has voted against the BID proposals (B) - £755,250

• The total number of eligible business premises (total number of ballot papers) of which a person is entitled to vote in the ballot was 212.

• The aggregate of the rateable values of relevant properties in respect of which a person is entitled to vote in the ballot was £6,797,050.

• The aggregate property rateable value in respect of which a person, excluding rejected ballot papers voted was £4,348,950.

• The return rate (turnout) in respect of those eligible to vote was 55.80%.

• The return rate (turnout) in respect of rateable values was 63.98%.

Since 2014, the council has formally supported Business Improvement Districts.

Following consultation with the businesses, a BID proposal and business plan is drawn up which forms the BID company’s five-year plan for the delivery of the additional projects and services.

Although BIDs are business-led, a legal partnership has been in operation between the council and the BID companies since 2017.

We Are Inverurie's BID manager Derek Ritchie said: "We are very pleased with the result and itching to get going again and deliver all the projects in Inverurie for another five years.

"During this past term we were stalled by the Covid-19 pandemic and we weren't able to deliver the amount of projects we had planned for our first five years, but we managed to get a decent number of projects completed considering the circumstances that held us back. We did provide a lot of support to help businesses throughout the coronavirus period.

"We are heavily involved with the events in Inverurie like the Christmas lights switch-on, Pride of Inverurie Awards and more recently The Queen's Platinum Jubilee, which have been huge successes.

"Through the ballot process every levy payer within the defined area in the town centre all got one vote. If they were unable to cast their vote then that was not counted."

Projects that have been outlined for the next five years include installing a dedicated CCTV system in the town centre; help to push on the transport interchange and promote a public art installation focusing on a local theme using artists from the community.

The BID will continue to provide funding to Inverurie Environmental Improvement Group for floral displays and will look into providing hanging baskets for the premises at the North Street roundabout area.

Mr Ritchie added: "We are looking forward to the next five years and can't wait to progress the upcoming projects."

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