Bristol City Centre’s BID for Covid-19 recovery
Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) to outline key milestones at annual meeting (Weds 14 October):
– 7000 hours of additional street cleaning in response to COVID-19
– COVID-19 Hub to support businesses and residents
– New City Centre BID police officer
– Launch of #BristolTogether – supporting businesses as they safely reopen
New project highlights video here
Image captions
Top row L to R: Covid-19 hub; Bristol safeguarding marshal; BID street cleaning; TAP for Bristol point;
Bottom row L to R; Bristol Light Festival x 3; #BristolTogether hearts, College Green
New video highlighting key projects available online here
The Bristol City Centre Business Improvement District (BID) will this week host its annual levy payer meeting online, outlining projects and achievements of the last 12 months including its rapid response to the Covid-19 pandemic in order to support businesses in the city centre.
Throughout the pandemic, the City Centre BID team has worked to keep the city safer, cleaner and welcoming for all, whilst representing businesses in discussions with the local authority, police and other partners. This week’s meeting for the BID’s 763 levy payers will provide an update on how funds have been spent to deliver value for Bristol city centre and its businesses.
Disinfecting high contact locations to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission has been a key area of activity and resource and saw Bristol attract national media attention as one of the first cities to be actively managing the safety of public spaces.
The highly responsive BID cleansing team continues to provide daily cleaning across the city centre. In the last year they have spent over 7,000 hours deep-cleansing pavements, doorways and business frontages, including washing over 170 doorways every day. The team has also recently completed training in the use of specialist chemicals to enable removal of ingrained graffiti from buildings with limestone facades, saving levy payers’ money and improving the look and feel of the area.
Bristol City Centre BID this year funded a new, dedicated city centre police officer working to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in the BID area. He is supported by a new streetwise officer who has helped more than 60 people move to a life away from the streets. In addition, the new TAP for Bristol contactless donation scheme raised £30,000 since its launch in September last year to directly support homeless people and those at risk of homelessness.
Two safeguarding marshals 1400 hours of patrolling the city centre streets, focussing on unoccupied property during the lockdown period. Alongside Bristol street pastors, who are also supported by the BID, they offer a friendly face and can report issues and incidents to get them quickly resolved.
In February, the BID launched Bristol Light Festival – one of the city’s most successful events this year. The Festival attracted 100,000 additional visitors to the city centre with an average spend of £59 per person. In total, the campaign reached over 72.1 million people and brought an economic benefit to the city of £5.8 million. Planning is now underway for Bristol Light Festival 2021 with a revised programme taking into account all COVID-19 guidance.
As the city began to safely reopen this summer, the City Centre BID developed and delivered the city-wide ‘Bristol together‘ campaign which made its name with 374 socially distanced hearts in Queen Square, College Green & Castle Park. The hearts featured in 127 media outlets worldwide and reached over 61 million people. Led by Bristol City Centre BID in partnership with Visit Bristol, Business West, Broadmead BID, the One City Economy Board and Bristol City Council, the campaign continues to support economic recovery through its promotion of Bristol as a safe and welcoming place for all.
Ongoing cost savings have been achieved for levy payers through a range of projects and initiatives including the BID’s collaborative waste contract with Veolia which has seen increased recycling rates and an average of 31% cost saving for businesses.
Speaking ahead of the annual meeting, which is being held online via Zoom on Wednesday 14 October 2020 at 10am, Keith Rundle, Operations Director at Bristol City Centre BID said:
“Like the businesses and organisations we represent, this year we have adapted and reacted to the unprecedented challenges brought about by COVID-19 and to support our levy payers. It is now more important than ever that we work together to promote the Bristol city centre as a safe and welcoming place and to encourage people to spend time here. We continue to build on our ‘Bristol together’ campaign along with our key partners to deliver real impact for city centre businesses. We were humbled and delighted by the love shown for our Bristol Hearts – not just here in our great city but around the world.
“As Bristol City Centre BID’s third year comes to a close, we want to build on the successes so far and continue to introduce creative and exciting initiatives to promote this fantastic city of ours. The Bristol Light Festival was an excellent example of how events can bring more people into the city and we hope to be able to take this on further next year, safely and in accordance with COVID-19 restrictions.”
Bristol BID is funded by city centre businesses and is one of five BIDs in Bristol and one of 300 across the country. Nationally BIDs generate over £750m which is invested in delivering local initiatives and improvements above those mandated by local authorities.
Levy payers of Bristol City Centre BID can register their place for the annual meeting here.
Key projects and highlights from the BID’s third year are summarised in this short video
