Annual Report 2022

Barrow BID – Annual Report 2022
Chair's Report
Barrow BID began its second term in September 2021, with over two thirds of levy paying businesses voting in favour of electing Barrow BID for another 5 year term, cementing
the real sense of business community which a business improvement district
represents.

In the period of which we are reviewing tonight, from September 2021 to August 2022,
Barrows town centre, along with the rest of the country, was still recovering from the
after effects of covid and multiple national lockdowns. With times being tough for
businesses, Barrow BID invested heavily to ensure that Christmas 2021 delivered a much
needed economic uplift. This included the extension of our Christmas lights and a
Christmas Town Centre Shopping guide which was distributed to 3000 homes in the
surrounding area. 2021 also saw the return of the extremely popular “Shop Barrow Day”
with us providing free parking across the town centre to make it as convenient as ever
for people to shop local.

As we moved into the new year of 2022, we continued to make significant contributions
as partners to the large scale capital regeneration projects alongside Barrow Borough
Council. This included representation from Barrow BID being present on the two large
scale investment projects being undertaken in Barrow, the Towns Deal (which became
Brilliant Barrow) and the Levelling Up Fund which will involve the redevelopment of
Barrow Market and the surrounding area. Throughout the period we have also continued
to help support businesses to invest in their property through a modified grant scheme,
renamed the Business Growth Grant Scheme, with a new focus on benefiting businesses
looking to develop their proposition, as well as outside organisations looking to deliver
events within the town centre to increase footfall.

As a BID, we continued to develop our calendar of large scale events, with May 2022
marking the return of our ever popular Dino Day, which saw over 16,000 visitors to the
town centre. July 2022 then saw the return of the Festival of Transport, which took place
in July, attracting over 200 vehicles to the town centre and an estimated 18,000 visitors,
making it our most successful Festival of Transport event to date. The feedback from
this event was extremely positive, with the event returning again on Saturday 15th July
this year. We took a break from the Soapbox Race in 2022 due to the proximaty of our
2021 event caused by the rescheduing following covid restrictions.

Probably one of the most significant changes which were made towards the end of the
period under review, was the internal restructuring of the BID Team. With the resignation
of our previous BID Manager, this allowed us to review the way we operated and amend
our operating model to a new structure with the key focus being on communications
with businesses, the local authority and other stakeholders, as well as sharing our
benefits (such as social media reach) and a renewed focus on substainability. This
resutled in the replacement of the BID Manager role with a new BID Project Manager and
Communications and Marketing Coordinator.

The role of a BID, of us as a group of business owners and managers coming together is
more important now than ever before. With us all working together we will overcome the
hurdles which are placed in our way and continue to build a sustainable town centre that
can be the hub of our community, a town centre we can be proud of. To this end, if any of
you have any ideas for the future of Barrows Town Centre, for what you want to see
Barrow BID delivering, then I would encourage you to get in touch with either myself or
any of the BID Board of Directors.

Jenny Fazackerley - Barrow BID Chairman

The BID Board
The BID Board is made up of individuals from a broad range of levy-paying businesses and presently consists of 9 Directors:

Large Retailers: John Edwards (The Entertainer)

Small Retailers: Sandra Collings (Cumbria Sewing & Craft Centre); Jenny Fazackerley - Chair (Jenny Stitches)

Services: Allan Kerr (Simply WallArt), Melanie Corrie (Corrie and Co), Niel Hodgson (Coastal Lettings)

Hospitality, Food & Drink: Kay Bower (Labour Club)

Not-for-profit Organisations & Charities: Jonny Williams (Cando FM), Mai Harrison (Cancer Care)

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 2022

Minutes of AGM
Click Here to open up the minutes of the AGM - May 2022

Chairman's Report
Click Here to open up the Barrow BID Chairman's Report 2021/22