A STEERING group tasked with helping to deliver Worcester’s proposed Business Improvement District (BID) has appointed its first chairman.

Stuart Bailey, director at Thomas Guise Solicitors in Foregate Street and heads the commercial and residential property teams, has taken on the role to bring together businesses from a range of sectors and locations within the city centre.

He said: “I am delighted to be chairman of a group which really wants to help drive footfall and increase spend in the city centre. It is a crucial time for businesses to get together and say what projects they want to see which will help to achieve that. We already have an excellent steering group and I want to ensure that we can use the feedback from the businesses in the city centre to have projects which really will make a positive difference to traders.”

A BID is a scheme where businesses identify projects or services, additional to those ordinarily provided by councils and the police, that will add value and agree on the level of funds which they will contribute themselves in order to deliver them.

It is expected to raise about £300,000 per year in Worcester for five years.

The steering group, which comprises representatives of the business community in the city centre, has been tasked with ensuring that the BID contains the projects which businesses most want.

While individual meetings with retailers, office managers and owners conducted to date have suggested they would most like to see increased levels of marketing, more events, greater links between the riverside and city centre businesses, the introduction of street rangers, and enhanced pedestrian signage, the BID’s project manager Adrian Field said he is still keen to hear from more businesses.

For more information contact Adrian Field on 01905 722337 or send an e-mail to info@worcesterbid.com.