Your City. Your Business. Your BID
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UNDERLAND Your City. Your Business. Your BID. Sunderland BID renewal plan for 2019 – 2024 “I think the BID has been great for the city. It’s CONTENTS brought businesses together 04 FROM THEN TO NOW and actually got people 05 OUR VISION 06 YOUR VIEWS working together for the 07 CHALLENGES WE FACE TOGETHER good of the city.” 09 WHAT’S NEXT? 10 CITY PRIDE David Fox, Manager, 14 CITY PROMOTION Tequila, Tequila 18 CITY VOICE 22 DON’T JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT 24 SUNDERLAND BID AREA 25 BID LEVY 26 WHY SUNDERLAND NEEDS A BID 29 THIS IS WHAT YOU WILL LOSE 30 WHY VOTE YES 32 THE RULES 02 03 FROM THEN TO NOW…. Sunderland’s Business Improvement District (BID) is entering the final phase of its first, five-year term. OUR VI ION Since 2014, the BID has invested more than £3m in the city centre. During our first term, key projects have included: ▪ Substantial Christmas programme including: the ice rink, entertainment, street food and drink VISION: ▪ 5 Restaurant Weeks ▪ 2 Sports Fanzones A VIBRANT CITY ▪ 16 editions of Vibe Magazine ▪ 6 Clean Sweep projects CENTRE, CREATING ▪ And so much more OPPORTUNITIES For a recap of what has been achieved since 2014, FOR EVERYONE. please read our ‘Story So Far’ pull out document. The past five years have been very exciting It has been an exciting and successful start to what but they have also been a learning curve. will hopefully be a much longer journey. The second stage of that journey starts here. Using Out of experience comes strength and we the knowledge, insight and skill that has been gained have listened to what our Levy payers have over the past five years has helped us create a had to say and that has allowed us to create relevant and achievable plan for the future. a strong vision for the city centre. Our vision is clear – we will be focussing on the THANKS FOR HAVING US… needs of our businesses along with identifying the opportunities and challenges that we face together. The BID would not have had the successes it has had to date without the people who have OUR VALUES come on this journey with us. The business owners, the stakeholders, the key partners – Have BELIEF in everything we do everyone has had their part to play and Deliver with PASSION hopefully will continue to work with us. Always encourage POSITIVITY Thanks again Facilitate maximum ENGAGEMENT And be as good as our word. We will deliver our plan SUCCESSFULLY by being e. [email protected] FOCUSED and truly living by t. 0191 562 3130 what we BELIEVE in. 04 05 CHALLENGES WE FACE TOGETHER The BID was not set up to replace council services. However, the Local Authority still has to make further cuts in its budget and is clear that its priorities are around its statutory YOUR VIEW responsibilities. We will continue to work with the council and businesses to ensure the city centre is both welcoming and appealing. Along with further cut-backs from the council, there are a number of other challenges facing the city centre: Between January and June 2018 we conducted extensive research and consultation. This Challenge 1 Challenge 2 Challenge 3 Challenge 4 insight and feedback gave us a clear indication of what you would like us to focus on going forward. Sunderland is no different Competition from Getting into Sunderland The city centre is seeing to the rest of the UK when neighbouring cities is fierce. is an ongoing concern for an increase in retail crime, it comes to the challenges Therefore, continued businesses, visitors and anti-social behaviour and facing the high street – promotion of Sunderland shoppers. begging. so it’s vital that we work City Centre is necessary. Priority One Priority Two Priority Three together and take action to The BID will continue to It is vital that we tackle combat the changing habits We need to attract visitors work on behalf of businesses these issues head on and A CITY TO BE PROUD OF PROMOTING OUR CITY WORKING TOGETHER of shoppers. and also ensure our local with car park and transport work in partnership to residents have reasons to providers to remove make sure there is a very The opportunity lies in stay closer to home. barriers to access and clear message that our city diversifying the offer and encourage people to stay centre is not the place that YOU SAID: YOU SAID: YOU SAID: creating a city centre longer. will tolerate poor behaviour community that engages and theft. visitors. The BID will drive this agenda and facilitate a 70% continue to 70% continue to 88% continue collaborative approach to engage with agents, absent raise the profile of Sunderland to lobby local and national ‘reimagine the high street’. landlords and investors to and change perceptions locally government and represent A QUESTION... improve the look and feel of tired and nationally local businesses on city Can Sunderland afford to be without and neglected buildings centre matters a BID? 52% continue to If the BID is NOT re-elected there is NO other 66% work promote the city centre to 78% continue organisation that will pick up the city centre collaboratively with partners Wearsiders, encouraging to provide promotional priorities you have told us you would like to and local police to deal with retail visitors to enjoy everything opportunities for businesses OPPORTUNITIES crime and anti-social behaviour on offer regularly see addressed. The projects that have been Sunderland is on the cusp of an exciting transformation, started and the plans for the next five years with over £1.5 billion already invested and further that have been outlined in this document 67% continue announcements due later this year of more investment will not happen. There is NOTHING that will 61% provide Street 48% continue to working with local community for the city centre from Sunderland City Council. Rangers who rapidly respond to sponsor and support city centre groups to improve the city replace the BID. cleaning and maintenance issues events to attract visitors centre The BID will ensure that it plays its part in making the area attractive to investors, while also making sure the For more info see page 29. voice of city centre businesses is heard. CONSULTATION AND ENGAGEMENT ANNUAL BUSINESS MACRO AND MICRO RENEWAL PROJECT SPECIFIC ONE-TO-ONE MEETINGS THE BRIDGES RESEARCH BIG CITY ECHO SURVEY SURVEY BID AUDIT QUESTIONNAIRE Feedback from working The team have regular contact CACI Annual Survey providing Echo readers gave their views on a Independent telephone Identifying challenges Survey sent to all BID groups and surveys with businesses insight into the shopper profile host of key issues interviews with 100 and opportunities Levy payers and consumer behaviours of businesses in 2015, 2016, 2017 The Bridges 06 07 WHAT’ NEXT? We’ve listened to your feedback We’ve developed a plan We’re responding to the changing face of the city We’re focused on your needs We’ve established our priorities: CITY CITY PRIDE PRIDE CITY CITY CITY CITY PROMOTION VOICE PROMOTION VOICE Please read the rest of this If you prefer, you can read a For more information visit document to see exactly what our summary online and watch a www.sunderlandbid.co.uk plans are – and how you can be a short video which captures part of them. the contents of the next Full details of the ballot process five year plan. and your opportunity to vote can be found on page 30-31. 08 09 We all want a city centre we can be proud of. Our aim is to strengthen pride, change ATTRACTIVE STREETS perceptions and see to it that the city centre is a WELCOMING, SAFE, CLEAN and We will continue to deliver dedicated cleaning and ATTRACTIVE environment for businesses and visitors. maintenance projects and promote a litter free city through our tidy-up initiative, Clean Sweep and targeted messaging on the bins. We want to build on our work so far by improving the look and feel of the city centre through additional floral displays and street art to ensure the BID area is a pleasant SR1 STREET environment to walk around and work in. RANGERS And we will introduce initiatives to help reduce the problems caused by the high number of gulls in the city We will provide friendly and centre. resourceful Street Rangers who rapidly respond to cleaning and maintenance issues. PRIORITY ONE They will be the ‘eyes and ears’ on the street, responding to reports TACKLE CRIME AND ANTI-SOCIAL from businesses on issues that BEHAVIOUR require urgent attention. We are working closely with Northumbria Police, The Bridges The rangers will be highly visible and Shopping Centre and other businesses to reduce the amount engage with businesses on a daily basis of anti-social behaviour in the city centre. providing information and another regular point of contact with the BID. CITY Our aim is to increase the visibility of authority on the streets and develop a programme of initiatives to tackle crime. We will continue to play an active role in Shopwatch and Pubwatch and work collaboratively with these groups on projects to deal with specific PRIDE safety and security issues. OPEN FOR BUSINESS We plan to continue to engage with agents, absent landlords, investors and other partners to bring empty spaces back to life. We want to open the doors for more pop-up shops/offices/creative hubs and look at innovative ways to improve the look and feel of tired and neglected buildings.