Annual Report 2019

Barrow BID – Annual Report 2019

Summary
This past 12 months has been my first full year as the BID Manager and it has been a pleasure to work with lots of new individuals, businesses and organisations to co-ordinate and deliver a series of events, projects and initiatives within the town centre.

At the start of the year we launched our Programme of Improvement document, which highlighted the areas we felt were important to the transformation of Barrow town centre and assigned a budget to the various categories within the plan, which included: Events, Parking & Signs, Urban Regeneration, Technology, Marketing, Beautification & Cleaning, Special Project Grants, Business Premises Grants and more.

The year has seen Barrow BID deliver on a number of initiatives and events within the Programme of Improvement as we look to instill a sense of pride in local people, change the perception of the town so people view it with more positivity and promote the town to people who may have become disengaged and visitors who may not have previuosly considered Barrow as a destination.

Our aim is to provide 'return on investment' on levy payer's contributions to create a 'better, brighter, busier and boosted town centre and the following initiatives have had some success over the past 12 months:

Soapbox Challenge event in June 2019 which attracted 13-14,000 people to the town and boosted the economy by approx £300,000
A re-branded Festival of Transport, which attracted more participants and more visitors.
The production of a tourist leaflet for the town, which had a print and distribution run of 11,000
Installation of end-of-street signs in Cavendish and Scott Street to promote businesses on the side streets
Partnered on the Tour of Britain coming to Barrow and set up a Fanzone to retain visitors in the town
Funded cleaning equipment and partnered on town centre community cleans
Promoted the town via Cando FM, the Mail and Huddlehub as well as other publications
Organised a series of events during the last festive period
Purchased new Christmas lights, which we won't see till November 2019
Created a new Heritage leaflet and partnered on a heritage walk through the town
Funded a number of businesses to improve their business premises
Provided funding for special events and projects in the town centre

We underastand that all of the above won't have helped every business in the town, but we are dedicated to regenerating and transforming Barrow town centre and we look forward to undertaking even more initiatives, projects and events in 2020. Look out for a Roarsome year ahead!

Colin Garnett (BID Manager)

The BID Board
The BID Board is made up of individuals from a broad range of levy paying businesses and presently consists of 8 Directors:

Large Retailers: Simon Craig – Chair (M&S); Paul Hodgson (Rymans)

Small Retailers: Sandra Collings (Cumbria Embroidery & Print); Phil Heath (Heath’s Toymaster)

Services: Allan Kerr

Hospitality, Food & Drink: Sam Hughes (Duke of Edinburgh); Kay Bower (Labour Club)

Not-for-profit Organisations & Charities: Keiron Hart (SAFA)

There are still a number of potential Board places available and should you wish to put yourself forward, please send an email to manager@barrowbid.co.uk

Members
The BID is looking to encourage as many of the levy-paying businesses as possible to sign up to become BID Members. This will give two benefits: firstly, as Barrow BID is a company limited by guarantee, being a Member will allow a vote on key issues at the AGM or other key meetings; secondly, by registering an email address as a Member, we will be able to better communicate directly with Members on key BID issues.

Financial Summary
Click Here to open up the financial report from the year end 2019

Minutes of AGM
Click Here to open up the minutes of the AGM - October2019

Chairman's Report
Click Here to open up the Barrow BID Chairman's Report

Chairman's Report
Chairman’s Report October 2019

Dear Members,

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to attend this year’s AGM.

This is just a brief overview of some of the work that the BID have been involved in over the past twelve months – not everything because we would be here all night and I’m certain the board would agree that we have enough of those!

The year started with a thought provoking session from Geoff Ramm on how to improve the experience for both visitors to the town and customers to our businesses and, as a board, we agreed we needed to take some action.

We created a Special Projects Grants scheme to enable community groups and organisations to deliver activities and events within the BID area - this has been well received and examples of how this has been used include; Christmas carol competition, This is Me flashmob, Love Barrow running event and an upcoming Santa Dash.

We have held our third car show – now branded as Festival of Transport which has gone from strength to strength, with its own committee, sponsors and exhibitors requesting places instead of having to be chased, we see this growing each year and becoming even better attended in the future.

Our Festival of Comedy was also well received with some fantastic feedback from attendees and hosts and this is also something that we believe can be grown into something that will benefit more businesses in the future.

And how could I possibly ignore our first Super Soapbox Challenge? Approximately 14,000 people onto the high street, a high profile celebrity, hospitality spending through the roof and a feel good factor this town centre has not experienced for what seems a lifetime!

There were hurdles (not on the track but maybe next year!) and not everything worked or was best positioned but we have listened, taken on board suggestions and will try to learn from mistakes and work with you all to try and ensure that as many members as possible benefit from future events.

We have partnered (alongside BBC) Zest Community Action Group in some additional high street cleans and provided them with an industrial weed clearing machine and this, in conjunction with equipment provided by the council have enabled them to keep our town tidier.

We are continuing to lobby and work with BBC and CCC to improve our traffic circulation and potential public transport routes into the centre. Due to the costs involved, this work needs to be supported by government funding and I’m pleased to say that following a joint bid, we have been shortlisted to receive some of this funding in the future.

Our business front improvement scheme has also seen numerous businesses take advantage of our match funding in order to improve the look, commerciality and enhancement of their property and I would encourage more of you to apply for a grant.

We are just about to embark on a gateway improvement scheme starting at the station where a lot of our footfall comes from. Directing them into our town centre and letting visitors know what our town has to offer. This is a scheme that will spread throughout the BID area in due course.

I could of course go on and on but as promised I wanted to keep this brief, I would encourage you to talk to Colin or the board if there is anything that is causing you concern or you have a suggestion to make.

Finally, as I hinted at in February, due to the fact that my business will cease to trade in the BID area from March next year, I will be ineligible for a position on the board and as such will have to resign. I have decided that this AGM, as it is year end for the BID, is therefore the best opportunity for me to do so.

Paul Hodgson has deputised for me on several occasions now and has put himself forward to take over the role of chairman. This has been welcomed by the board and I hope you all give him the same level of support that I have had during my time in the chair.

So, with my address complete and the BID in good shape, I wish you farewell and good luck for the future – please look after my town!!

Simon Craig (Chair) October 2019