The business plan to ballot timetable is being rushed and is not inclusive.
On 7/1/20 Taunton BID finally shared their ballot timetable as follows:
Note how:
Until now Taunton BID have been showing a lack of openness and transparency by not sharing their planned timetable, keeping it close and sharing with only the Steering Group and SWT Council. It’s been totally disrespectful of Taunton BID, and an example of what one can expect if BID gets voted in. Taunton Deane Borough Council acknowledged the last failed Taunton BID 2007-12 had problems with communication and transparency, and on many fronts we’ve seen exactly the same again the past few months.
When you consider how critical the business plan is as the culmination of a 5 month consultation process (plus many more months of unofficial consultation beforehand, and BID has actually been in planning for a couple years now), doesn’t it feel all a bit rushed?
The business plan was provided to SWT Council in early December 2019, but Taunton BID won’t provide the voting businesses a copy until early February, so yet another lack of openness and transparency! That’s 2 months after there’s been a copy they could be sharing with businesses for their thoughts and feedback now in order to “tweak”. Other BID’s do this, for example Newtown BID currently going through the same BID development process as Taunton right now, are planning to go to ballot in the summer of 2020 following their consultation process this year. After problems with their BID Consultants and recognition of a lack of transparency and business engagement, the steering group there are aiming to be as inclusive and open as possible in an attempt to get the BID scheme up and running in the town. Consequently they’re releasing the Newton BID draft business plan in early 2020, in order for as many businesses as possible to get involved and have a say on the actual business plan i.e. scrutinise and feedback on it etc. But not Taunton BID, their business plan has been written and seen by only a handful of people out of c400+ businesses and they don’t want this type of inclusive approach, but surely it’s common sense, and so you have to wonder why on earth they’re ignoring an inclusive approach to finalise the business plan?
The SWT Full Council meeting on 27th January is when the Council will vote on whether to allow the ballot to go ahead (besides other things such as proposal approved, ballot funding confirmed and Council votes against businesses for their business assets like the public toilets). Given the fact that Taunton BID are telling us when the ballot will take place, surely it’s clear to see that the Council decision pre-determined? Given SWT’s lack of openness and transparency by taking the unusual step of making everything about BID secret, you have to wonder what’s really going on behind closed doors and the agreements made between SWT Council and Taunton BID?! We can only assume Taunton BID have had the "nod & wink" behind closed doors that the vote will go their way, wouldn't expect anything else from a Council in an attempt to help force in an extra business rate scheme!
The Taunton BID timetable from providing the businesses the Business Plan to going to ballot, is just so rushed and non-inclusive. The Business Plan is the document our BID would operate from and all businesses will decide their vote on, so why Taunton BID are hiding it from businesses and intending to rush this final stage really doesn’t make sense. They should be releasing the draft business plan as soon as possible rather than sit on it for 6 weeks, so they could canvas opinion and feedback from as many businesses as possible, finalise it and then put it to the vote. After all the hard work of the Steering Committee so far, it appears the Taunton BID Consultant is not doing the best for Taunton, and instead trying to get them to quickly slide a poor Business Plan into ballot!
P.S. If you would like to download a copy of the Taunton BID January newsletter with a precis of the Business Plan CLICK HERE.