Paying the way to a safer city

Jun 9 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

BUSINESS leaders will this week be asked to contribute to a city improvement fund which could see thousands of pounds spent on cleaner streets and extra nighttime security.

Members of the City Centre Partnership will hold two meetings this week to convince Newcastle managers to vote for a plan which will see an extra tax made against their properties – but the cash raised controlled by the businesses themselves.

The CCP wants to use the fund, a levy of 1% of the rateable value from eligible businesses, to raise £7.5m to spend on making Newcastle a more desirable shopping location. If a majority of managers agree, the CCP can set up a Business Improvement District, allowing them to add to the work already done by the council.

CCP director Sean Bullick will this week tell mangers that while the partnership will still hold the council to account and ensure the minimum standards of street cleaning and security are met, if they want to stand out they will have to pay for it.

The BID could fund a major deep clean of Newcastle’s streets and regular top-up sweeps as private companies are brought in to add to the work already done by the council. And in order to offer “a little extra reassurance” a night, the BID would fund taxi rank wardens and possibly extra police officers, as well as highly visible daytime wardens to provide help to tourists and shoppers.

Mr Bullick told The Journal: “We always get the question, why does the council not just fund this out of our rates.

“Well the tough answer is they don’t and it is something we can either accept or we can improve it ourselves.

“The end result from spending this money will be people coming to the city and saying ‘it was gorgeous there’ and right now we are not going to get that sort of reaction.

“It is up to us to make Newcastle the place people want to come back to shop at.”

The CCP’s campaign to secure business support for the BID is backed by Bob Senior, managing director of Utopian Leisure.

He said: “Newcastle city centre is one of the safest in the country and we need to remind people of this. The Bid will do exactly that as well as providing additional reassurance to the wider family and early evening crowd we really want to attract.

“Together with the careful targeting of leisure operators who aren’t yet in the city, we’re going to see increased footfall. And with the matched funding the bid will access, we’ll be doubling our investment right from the start.”

And Tim Lamb, general manager at Eldon Square, has also offered his support.

He said: “The Bid is fundamentally about ambition and driving footfall; getting the basics right, providing all city centre users with a top class, clean and attractive environment has to be the starting point from which to deliver this.”

Bid meeting

THIS week’s first Business Improvement District meeting is in St George’s Way, Eldon Square, at 6.30pm on Tuesday.

The second meeting is at the Guildhall on Wednesday at 6pm.