Business Improvement District poll set for November

It looks like a poll of businesses located in the City centre will be held in November to decide whether to establish a Business Improvement District (BID) in York City centre. The plans were approved by the Council’s Executive last week. The ballot will be run on behalf of the Council by the Electoral Reform Society.

For the bid to be approved it will need to secure the support of over 50% of the businesses in the area both in simple and in rateable value terms. If there is a yes vote, then the first levy on Business Rates will be available for investment during the next financial year starting in April.

Over £800,000 a year is expected to be raised from the levy each year.

The four priorities for funding have been identified as:

Appearance and environment
Events and Festivals
Safe and secure
Business Support and Development

Further details here (and see footnote)

This is the second attempt to establish a BID in York

The BID team still have to clarify several issues before the poll.

The impact on marginal businesses – which add to the character of several of the City’s streets – may be adversely affected by the 1% increase in Business Rates that they will have to pay. Businesses with a rateable value of less than £12,500 are exempt from the new charge
Similarly any additional investment in the City centre may draw trade away from sub-urban shopping areas like Front Street. The Make it York economic development organisation has yet to address the issue of sub-urban prosperity.
The boundaries of the proposed BID area exclude many of the City centre car parks (Bootham Row, Union Terrace, Marygate, St Georges are not included). These car parks are often the first areas that visitors see close up when they arrive in the City. If part of the plan is to invest in cleanliness, street maintenance and floral enhancements, then car parks should be on the list.
The BID board is currently self appointed. Elections to a new board are promised if a BID is agreed. However no guarantees have so far been given that different sectors (visitor attractions, retail, commercial, hospitality, residents associations etc.) will have a seat at the table. Similarly the requirements and aspirations of different geographical parts of the City do vary, so some sort of spatial spread of representation would be desirable.
And finally the documents published so far by the BID organisation fail to tell us what “success” will look like. There are no performance indicators or targets. The relationship with “Make it York” is unclear although the terms of an SLA with the Council were agreed last week. Canny businesses will want to see the performance base data before they commit large sums of money to the project.

If these, and other, issues can be addressed before the ballot takes place, then the establishment of a BID in York will be a welcome initiative.

When suggested in the last decade it was the multiple stores that sunk the plan. Now the new BID promoters must convince the likes of Morrisons and Waitrose that they should vote for a scheme which may only be of marginal benefit to them.

We hope that they are able to do so.

The BID plans are described as

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Numbers visiting city centre stable

The latest “footfall” figures released by the Council suggest that fewer people have walked through the Parliament Street area over the last year.

A 12% reduction in footfall numbers may partly be influenced by the location (and relocation) of the market while a single week increase may indicate a special event being staged.

The camera records for Parliament Street stretch back to 2009. In some weeks the numbers may have been affected by visitors being “channeled” by stalls and other street furniture either beneath the cameras or out of their range.

However using a 12 month rolling weekly average numbers have declined in recent months.

Elsewhere in the City centre, footfall cameras suggest a more stable visitor pattern.

In Church Street. the latest yearly rolling average shows 26,671 visitors per week. This is slightly down on the March figure of 27,766
Comparable figures for Micklegate show 49,605 now, a small increase compared to the 49,161 counted in March
In Stonegate, 133,569 people walked down the street each week in the 12 months leading up to August 2015. The 12 months leading up to March 2015 had seen an almost identical number of pedestrians (133,596)
In Coney Street a rolling average of 239,000 was recorded in 2010. This fell to 180,116 on the latest figures although camera locations have changed.

Overall the figures suggest that the City centre has felt the benefits of a recovering economy. However, there are some concerning trends which may require action by the new “Make it York” economic development body.

The figures are likely to strengthen the case for establishing a Business Improvement District in the City centre

The figures can be downloaded from the Councils open access web site. A summary spreadsheet is available by clicking here

Increase in visitor numbers in York City Centre

“Freedom of information” response reveals 24% more walked down Parliament Street in 2014 than in the previous year.

click

The number of visitors to the York City centre is now comparable with pre recession levels.

The area seems to have recovered from the reduction seen during the summer and autumn of 2013 when the Lendal bridge closure resulted in adverse publicity for the City across a wide part of the UK and indeed Europe.

The recovery seems to have extended into 2015 with 24% more pedestrian movements logged in January 2015 compared to 2014, with 10% more recorded during February

A complete day by day footfall monitor for cameras in Parliament Street, Coney Street, Church Street, Micklegate and Stonegate can be downloaded by clicking here. The latter 4 camera sites have been operating for less than a year, making comparisons difficult

Some caution should be used when looking at the footfall numbers.

The cameras may have been relocated in the past while special events and market stall locations, can “channel” greater or lesser numbers of people into range of the cameras.

The data is not of course a measure of how much people are spending in the City centre.

York Business Improvement District – last chance

The Council’s Cabinet will tomorrow agree to spend £25,000 on a second attempt to establish a “business improvement district” (BID) in the central part of York.

It is 10 years since the first attempt was made. BIDs require the support of the majority of businesses in an area if they are to be able to use supplementary rate income to fund economic regeneration initiatives.

A decade ago, a similar scheme failed to gain widespread support and was abandoned.

At the time, several of the national chains (who exercise a large number of votes in any ballot) refused to participate in the scheme, while the Council had taken steps to freeze (and at Fossgate reduce) parking charges – so there was less incentive for change.

In addition the City centre was generally trading well – as it is today. There are relatively few empty shops in the core area and the latest footfall figures show number increasing (which is what you would expect as the country emerges from recession)

The initiative has come in the wake of the 3 “free” parking morning’s trial which was funded through S106 contributions from a development at Monks Cross. That funding ends soon and the Council last week agreed to a Green party proposal to a general increase in car parking charges. The background, therefore, maybe one of the “perfect storm” with several marginal businesses in the City centre likely to feel the pinch.

In 2007, the BID project was led by an experienced manager who had done similar schemes successfully elsewhere.

This time the former editor of The Press newspaper is likely to be in charge.

The business case is unconvincing at least in so far as it fails to debate what has changed, over the last 10 years, which could result in the majority of business now voting for an initiative which would increase the amount they pay in Business Rates.

The Council says that, if successful, the BID would expect to generate an additional £800,000 a year which would be spent on “an improved city centre environment in terms of public realm, security, increased footfall, events and cleanliness”

York’s City centre shame

The York Council has been criticised for losing control of the City centre.

Disabled busker on Coney Street

Residents have been dismayed by the sight of severely disabled buskers taking up pitches on Coney Street. The scenes are more reminiscent of post Napoleonic war Britain than would be expected in a modern, relatively wealthy, City.

There was no sign of any Council official taking any action to address the problem.

“Carnival” lacked samba beat

No fewer than 4 buskers were operating in the Coney Street area on Saturday with one “Silverman” seeking to emulate the famous “Purpleman” by sitting on a bicycle albeit looking bored.

Busking used to be regulated in York but the new Labour Council decided in 2011 to make the restrictions only advisory.

Similarly the “pedlar” situation seems to be getting out of control. Pedlars are coming into the city selling their goods on “pedlar’s licences” but they are not actually adhering to the conditions of the licence which require them to keep moving unless making a sale.

They are selling from huge stalls on wheels but staying in one “spot” all day long. They need to apply for a street trading consent.

Cars in conflict with pedestrians on St Sampsons Square

The City centre decline can be traced back to the removal of an effective City Centre manager nearly 2 years ago. The Council may have realised their mistake as they announced last month a further major shake up in the remaining members of the team.

£160,000 is being cut off the budget, staff are being sacked and it seems likely that the management will shortly fall into the hands of an independent agency.

The Council’s decision was – of course – taken behind closed doors.

Whatever the structure the new managers will need to make progress quickly.

Not only do we have the problem of weed growth blighting the appearance of public structures – Ouse Bridge is still heaving under the burden of vegetation – but also poor forward planning is leading to police and civil enforcement staff being over whelmed.

Yesterday (Saturday) the Council had scheduled a (Samba lite) Carnival in the City centre on the same day as a Race meeting and a major football match.

Weeds still growing on Ouse Bridge – still no Council statement

So not only were buskers out in numbers, but there were obvious safety conflicts between the crowds in St Sampson’s Square and vehicles that had strayed into the area.

Even the number of A boards on the public highway, in areas like Church Street, seems to be on the increase.

The Council staff who work in the City centre deserve more support than they are getting,

The Councils Labour Leadership also need to spend more time reviewing the consequences of the decisions that they have taken.

“Free” parking review meeting today

The decision to allow free car parking at some City centre car parks has been called in for reconsideration. The meeting takes place later today (Monday) commencing at 5:00pm at West Offices.

The main area of concern relates to the proposal to have free parking between 8:00am and 9:00am – times when the highways network can be congested, and most City Centre shops are closed.

Those studying the reports, by officers of the Council, have been surprised that no modelling work appears to have been undertaken to assess the impact that the additional traffic would have on journey times.

Similarly the papers fail to provide any detailed assessment of the assumptions made regarding the reduction in income that the changes may have on the Council’s budget overall, although much of this will be offset, for a short time, by use of Section 106 contributions from the developers of Monks Cross.

All in all, there are a lot of questions still to be answered on a policy change which is supposed to be implemented on 26^th May.

City centre visitor numbers show small increase in February

Continuing mild weather, and a recovering economy, boosted visitor numbers in York City centre by 3% during February compared to the same month in 2013.

Although the increase is less than is being experienced in similar High Streets elsewhere in the country, no doubt tourism chiefs will point to the success of special events such as the Viking Festival as part of the explanation for the reversal in fortunes.

The modest increase is unlikely to be enough to deflect criticism from the unpopular Lendal bridge closure which continues to dog the reputation of York City centre.

Huge increases in car parking charges – which are scheduled to be introduced later in the spring when York residents will lose their “Minster badge” discounts – are another cause for apprehension.

The first Saturday in March saw 38,882 visitors recorded on the Parliament Street footfall cameras.

This compared to 50,054 on the equivalent Saturday last year.

The full footfall figures can be seen by clicking here.

Latest City centre shopper numbers – Lendal Bridge trial could go on and on and on

The Council has issued the latest City centre footfall figures.

The figures show more people visited Parliament Street during December and January this winter than in the equivalent period 12 months ago.

However compared to 2012, numbers are down by 9%.

The decline in shopper numbers is likely to have been influenced by the Councils decision to impose substantial car parking charge increases.

It appears that the “free” car parking day on Saturday did not produce the hoped for increases in footfall.

The numbers monitored on Saturday (1^st Feb 2014) was 31,974 compared to the busiest Saturdays in the two previous years when 37,137 (2^nd Feb 13) and 40,951 (28^th Jan 12) people respectively were recorded on Parliament Street.

The full figures can be found here.

Meanwhile the Council leaflet, issued to residents, which talked about “Reinvigorating York” has been branded as misleading.

Claims made in the leaflet that, post the Lendal Bridge closure, “bus reliability had improved” are in conflict with the Councils own published monitoring reports.

The 4 month monitoring report (another is now due covering the period to the end of January) shows that changes to bus journey times have been insignificant although the majority are taking longer to complete their journeys.

One (the number 7 Park and Ride link to the Designer centre) showed an increase in delays of over 3 minutes during December.

The leaflet hints that the Councils Leadership does not intend to suspend the closure at the end of the 6 month trial on 28^th February.

Rather, they are now intending to prolong the ”trial” until they analyse the monitoring data which has been produced. The Council have declined to say how long this backroom analysis will take.

Meanwhile the latest survey results continue to show 79% opposed to the Lendal Bridge closure, 7% support it while 14% remain undecided.

92% say that traffic congestion in the City is getting worse.

The number of PCNs issued on Lendal Bridge and in Coppergate had reached 53,420 by the end of last year according to official figures published on the Councils web site.

Bizarre twist in footfall pantomime

With the Council resolutely refusing to reveal the reduction in the number of shoppers using the City centre since the Lendal Bridge restrictions were introduced, they have today announced investment in yet more “footfall” cameras.

Many will wonder whether spending money on more cameras can be justified when the authority apparently don’t want to believe the results of its existing two cameras (which are located in Parliament Street and Coney Street).

A beleaguered Council Leadership has agreed though that the decline in the numbers accessing the City centre over recent years is higher than in similar City’s elsewhere.

The Labour Leadership was quick to celebrate increased footfall in the run up to Christmas 2011 but since then a huge increase in car parking charges, and steps to further reduce on street parking, have taken their toll.

Now, the way that the Lendal Bridge restrictions have been introduced is already having a major impact on the City’s reputation with visitors and potential shoppers.

The Council seem to be following a strategy based on a new saying, “If you don’t like the facts, spend more money looking for alternative facts”

The Council has not revealed how much it intends to spend on the additional cameras.