BID/Council partnership adds value to city economic vibrancy
Unanimous endorsement was provided today (20th February 2020) by Members of The Highland Council’s City of Inverness Area Committee for the ongoing partnership work of Inverness BID with the Council.
Inverness BID Chairman, Peter Strachan presented the BID’s annual report for December 2018 to January 2020 to Councillors at the Inverness Town House. The report highlighted several projects delivered by Inverness BID which were supported by £102,000 Inverness Common Good Funding.
Provost and Leader of Inverness and Area Cllr Helen Carmichael said: “I am delighted to hear about the ongoing progress being delivered by Inverness BID with Inverness Common Good funding to enhance the economic wellbeing of the city centre through the coach friendly project, floral displays, gull management, marketing, safety and amenity projects. The partnership approach between BID and the Council provides added value to project delivery in the city.”
Around 135,000 coach passengers were welcomed to Inverness city centre in 2019 by BID Coach Ambassadors at the Ardross Street drop-off and pick-up facility for overseas and British coach companies. This was an increase of over 13% visitors on the previous year of 119,000 visitors. The Coach Ambassador Project was delivered with joint funding by the Inverness Common Good Fund (£9.7K) and Inverness BID (£6.8K).
Providing attractive summer decoration for visitors and locals, Inverness BID installed some 717 floral displays around the city centre. This £82.6K colourful project was principally financed (70.6%) by the Inverness Common Good Fund equating to £58.3K.
An ongoing project to control the growth of the gull population in Inverness city centre has since 2016 seen a reduction in the number of breeding pairs of gulls by one quarter (25%). In 2019 the number of eggs removed totalled 1,456 bringing the total eggs removed from the city centre since 2012 to 12,908.
Tackling city centre gull issues has been an ongoing commitment of Inverness BID and The Highland Council. A gull management project run by Inverness BID has over the past 7 years, removed almost 11,500 eggs from city centre and nearby nests preventing an estimated 600 additional gulls from fledging. In 2019 the Inverness Common Good Fund, supported the BID Gull Project with £12K out of a total £18K project cost.
Members noted the work by the BID to market the city centre as a welcoming place with campaigns such as Christmas promotions and special events; the BID’s continued participation in the Inverness Community Safety Partnership (since 2010); BID’s significant contribution in helping to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour by providing a Security Task Team and Taxi Marshall service in the city centre; and the ongoing role of BID Ambassadors helping to monitor amenity issues as well as removing fly-posting and graffiti in liaison with the Council and the Police.
BID Chairman Peter Strachan, said “I was delighted to have the opportunity to address the City Committee today to update them on BIDs activities and in particular the projects which BID delivers for Inverness City Centre in partnership with The Highland Council. We thank the Councillors on the Committee for their ongoing support for these projects and the funding from the Inverness Common Good Fund.”
Provost Carmichael added: “Inverness BID represents over 850 city centre businesses with an income levy of around £200,000 in 2019/20. This levy has been invested in joint schemes with Inverness Common Good Funding of £102,000. Without this shared approached many of these projects would not have been possible by the local authority alone. We welcome Inverness BID’s continued partnership working.”
Members also approved the recommendations of the Inverness Common Good Fund Sub-Committee to award Inverness BID £101,898 from the Inverness Common Good Fund subject to the approval of the Inverness Common Good Fund 2020/21 budget.