Causeway Coast and Glens Council votes to back Coleraine BID business plan
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council will vote in favour of the the Coleraine Business Improvement District’s (BID) final business plan – despite DUP objection.
At a full council meeting on Tuesday, September 3, members approved officers’ recommendation to give a ‘yes’ vote on eight ballot papers issued to council in relation to the proposed activities listed in BID’s Business Plan for 2024-2029.
Activities highlighted within the Business Plan included raising Coleraine’s profile by “increasing the budget spend and delivery efforts on marketing Coleraine as a historic market town” and working with local organisations to create brand new, bespoke festivals next year.
Council will also continue to work with BID to “collect future levy payments as part of an updated Service Level Agreement” which all businesses within the BID area must pay, should the overall vote be successful.
According to the business plan, all businesses within the defined area, with a rateable value of or exceeding £9,000, must pay an annual levy of two percent on the rateable value of any individual property. The BID levy rate will be fixed for the full five-year term.
Council’s Director of Leisure and Development, Pat Mulvenna, said the plan will be presented to all businesses which meet the criteria, allowing them to “vote accordingly”, apart from charity organisations and places of worship excluded from levies in the next term.
PUP Councillor Russell Watton proposed approving the yes vote and said BID had “made a difference to the town for a minimal amount of money”.
However an unsuccessful motion, put forward by DUP Alderman Aaron Callan, asked members to abstain as voting “should be led by businesses and not by local public authority”.
“Voting shouldn’t be led by the public sector,” Ald Callan added. “It should be led by local businesses in the Coleraine town centre and what they want.
“Let their voice be heard and not be overridden by the votes coming from public sector, as that’s the standard process that most councils across UK take now in terms of good process.”
Ms Mulvenna pointed out that council only accounted for eight out of 262 eligible votes, and therefore was “very much are in the minority in terms of what comes out of this voting process”.