Businesses along Yorkshire coast count costs of flawed vote – The Yorkshire Post says
It is indicative of the extent to which one local authority in particular – Scarborough Borough Council – sought to manipulate support, including casting votes on behalf of its own building assets, when private businesses, the very people who know how to make money, had legitimate concerns about a BID stretching from Staithes to Spurn Point, and the benefits that they would receive in return.
The result? More than £400,000 owed by firms that come under the auspices of Scarborough Council, a town hall viewed with suspicion, while East Riding Council is now taking legal action to recover levies owed by enterprises in its jurisdiction.
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Hide AdHowever it is hard not to sympathise with all those firms who believe that they were mis-sold the original proposal in a flawed process.
Yet what is most exasperating is that BIDs are a tried and tested way of improving the prospects of specific localities.
There has also never been a greater need for a Yorkshire Coast BID – coastal towns are also one of the critical tests of the Government’s levelling up agenda.
But such schemes only work effectively if they are a genuine partnership between local government and the private sector, one built on mutual respect and trust.
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Hide AdAnd while it remains to be seen how the Yorkshire Coast BID recovers from this predicament, what is plain is that North Yorkshire County Council will need a coherent strategy for the coast when it supersedes district councils like Scarborough from 2023.
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