Yorkshire DBID - incompetent or deceptive?

For a BID to have any chance of success it really does need the real majority support of it’s businesses, otherwise it’s just setting the BID up for failure. The BID Consultant leads the Council and Steering Group through development of the BID, but we’ve seen that they really don’t care about explaining both sides of the voting argument or encouraging ballot participation, they on have one aim, a YES mandate no matter how it’s achieved.

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Council Solicitor Declares Yorkshire Coast DBID Ballot Flawed and Government BID Regulations Not Fit For Purpose.

23rd April 2021 - Scarborough Borough Council’s own solicitor says their BID ballot was ‘FLAWED’ and that government BID regulations are ‘NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE’. So here’s yet more evidence against the undemocratic practices with which BIDs are forced in, and the dirty tactics BID Consultants like Mo Aswat of the Mosaic Partnership play in this (Yorkshire DBID is another of his failed BID ballot processes).

The Yorkshire Coast Destination Business Improvement District (DBID) controversially won a mandate at ballot in late 2018 and Mosaic were the BID Consultants, read our Case Study on the DBID here. Mo Aswat has in the region of 15+ years experience with BIDs, had developed over 80 BID proposals when conducting this DBID, and he was even involved in writing BID rules and guidance. So given all this you’d think he’d have the ability to advise running a great ballot, wouldn’t you?

The ballot had very low voter turnout (a very common theme when you look at Mosaic ballots), and the BID was forced in on the say of just 10% of all the businesses. But unluckily for Mosaic, Scarborough Borough Council commissioned an independent investigation into the ballot, which was conducted by Peter Stanyon, Chief Executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators.

The full Stanyon report can be downloaded here, but what follows are some highlights for you lifted directly from the report into how the DBID ballot was run under Mosaic’s guidance:

“the DBID area is large. ….. lack of clarity over the distribution across the area as a major concern.”
“No clearly defined map of the DBID area.”
“I’m surprised a map of the DBID area was not readily available throughout”
Re the feasibility study; “several businesses that are listed as supporting the BID have categorically denied they gave it a ‘thumbs up.’”
“business owners did not feel they were made aware of the implications of the proposal”.
“the correspondence (ballot papers) was not clearly identifiable as being of importance, ‘looking like junkmail’.”
“There was no process in place to attempt a re-delivery of the ‘undeliverable’ documents”.
“The team were heavily reliant on the guidance and advice of Mosaic”
“I have concerns however that the advice, guidance and support provided by Mosaic was not as thorough as that the team required”
“I do have significant concerns as to parts of the process”
“there are several steps that could have been done better”
“reliance of advice from Mosaic was fundamental”
“I have significant concerns in respect of the list of voters”
“the list of voters submitted by Mosaic to the ballot holder was done far too late”
“I have 2 concerns with the list of voters.”
“first, that the list did not consistently include the names of the bill payers where they appeared in the original data. When the data was cleansed, they were replaced with the words “owner/occupier”
“Second, I have significant concerns as to the inconsistent way in which the list was filtered”
“The list classified hereditaments differently, with car parks and wireless stations having their Notices of Ballot and ballot papers sent to correspondence addresses whereas all others were sent to hereditament addresses. This had a disproportionate effect on those hereditaments belonging to the local authorities”
“In the interests of encouraging participation the names where known should have been used”
“many of the owners will not have been at the hereditament address when the ballot was being undertaken, the tourist season having ended”
“This classification, although not in direct contravention with the regulations, is in my opinion incompatible with the ballot being administered in a consistent and fair manner”
“I am not convinced that the revised business plan was communicated to all 1,354 businesses”
“communication between the DBID proposer and the levy payers has been lacking throughout”
“The inconsistent approach followed was inappropriate”

So ask yourself, does this independent report point to a BID development process and ballot that was conducted by a very experienced and supposedly competent BID Consultant? Clearly not, it’s independent evidence of Mo Aswat and Mosaic’s dirty tricks, calculated actions not to encourage voter participation in the ballot, which led to low voter turnout and a ballot win decided by a huge number of council votes. Mosaic knew all too well what they were doing by deliberately erasing the known names and addresses of the persons entitled to vote, and sending ballot papers to the hereditament addresses instead of the billing addresses the Council had provided to Mosaic. Mosaic did this and much more knowing that a good amount of ballot papers would not be returned, and it worked – they got a low voter turnout and the YES promised to the Council, despite only 10% of all eligible businesses actually voting in support of the BID!

click here read our full yorkshire coast dbid case study

Gibraltar BID - incompetent or deceptive again?

A couple years after the Yorkshire Coast debacle Mo Aswat was still applying (as he is today) his tactic of low voter engagement and questionable ballot paperwork sending advice, but it backfired in a spectacular way in Gibraltar post ballot in 2022, when businesses caught on how they’d been duped!! The situation was so bad that the Gibraltar government got involved and the BID shut down within months of the ballot!

Google about Gibraltar BID yourself and you’ll see the devastation Mo Aswat left there, and here are a few of the headlines, click on them to read the article:

A group calling themselves ‘objectors to the Business Improvement District’ has formed

Downtown Gibraltar BID faces backlash as businesses object to levy

Business owners slam new BID project and vow not to pay their bills in protest

Moratorium on BID levies as Govt steps in to defuse business row

Company that runs Gibraltar BID project winds down as businesses rebel against costs

BCP ABID - incompetent or deceptive, yet again?

Here we go again in 2024. Hotels in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) are up in arms following a BID established on the say of only 16 of 75 hotels, yet 42 are supporting an appeal to the Government against the ballot result!

Same old story of lack of awareness and consultation with businesses, and questionable ballot processes.

Read more on our BCP ABID case study page here.

The pattern of behviour by Mo Aswat and his company Mosaic Partnership, is clear for all to see!

Lack of integrity.

Mosaic are going around securing BID development contracts based on lies to those funding them, and BID voters. As an example lets take Main Street BID in Gibraltar with a ballot in October 2020, where Mosaic claim “a 100% BID success rate, with every BID they’ve worked on successfully voted in by the businesses involved.”