Quest to recapture greatness of city

Apr 27 2009 By Christopher Knox, The Journal

Companies in Newcastle city centre have voted to establish the busiest and one of the most ambitious Business Improvement Districts in the country. Christopher Knox meets the man behind it, Sean Bullick.

IT'S hard to leave the company of Sean Bullick and not come away brimming with Geordie pride. He clearly has a lot of passion for Newcastle, which serves him well as chief executive of the company behind the UK’s newest Business Improvement District, Newcastle NE1 Ltd.

It is also fitting that we conduct the interview at one of the city centre’s newest green spaces, at the recently refurbished Old Eldon Square, and it is improvements like this that are at the heart of what Bullick hopes to achieve with NE1 over the next five years.

NE1, which was launched this month, is run by a 13-member board which includes some of the city’s most respected business figures, including Tim Lamb, general manager of Eldon Square Shopping Centre and Bob Senior, managing director of pub and restaurant operator Utopian Leisure.

It is the 90th BID in the UK and one of the most ambitious, with the centre containing more businesses per square mile than any other improvement district – more than 3,300 in all.

The business improvement district concept was introduced in Kingston Upon Thames in 2004 and is a public-private partnership in which businesses in a defined area elect to pay an additional tax in order to fund improvements to their trading environment.

Firms in Newcastle will be levied each year based on their rateable value, for which they will expect NE1 to carry out a series of practical measures designed to enhance the city centre and encourage more visitors to the area.

It is a huge challenge, but one Bullick is keen to embrace and he is keen to get his teeth into the job of helping advertise Newcastle to the rest of the world.

"Historically speaking, Newcastle was one of the world’s key centres for business and innovation," says Bullick. "It was one of the first cities to be trading and manufacturing on behalf of the whole world.

"The Lit and Phil in Newcastle was the first building to be lit by electric lightbulbs and the city was the country’s fourth largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge.

"The city centre was an absolute powerhouse of the industrial revolution, but sadly its majesty has all but been forgotten.

"It’s up to all of us to help return the city to its rightful position as one of the greatest in Europe and NE1 will have a big part to play in that." With an initial budget of £15m, Bullick already has a number of schemes he is looking to implement over the coming months, and also wants NE1 to be the eyes and ears of the city centre’s business community.

The more physical measures will include the introduction of distinctively uniformed rangers, who will monitor the cleanliness of city centre streets as well as business doorways and frontages.

"Pocket parks" are also planned for the city centre. These will be small outdoor spaces for people to relax in, which are hoped to persuade shoppers to spend more time in the city streets, with street performers and other attractions hoped to add a splash of colour and vibrancy to the landscape.

Edinburgh-born Bullick is also looking into ways of solving the problem of empty stores on the high street and is discussing a number of measures.

"These will be the measures that get the more immediate response from businesses in the city centre. Firms will want to see their cash used immediately and be able to see the results for themselves," he says.

"In this respect, I believe everything is going extremely well, although like President Obama, we will be judged properly after our first 100 days."

After completing a history degree at Newcastle University, Bullick studied law at Newcastle Polytechnic until 1990.

After running his own private law practice he joined Newbury media technology company Quantel as a company solicitor, an experience which he said gave him a taste of the high life.

"It was certainly an interesting experience, as even though our offices were out in the countryside, we had to give off the impression to some our high-profile foreign clients that were still an important organisation.

"This meant flying them in via private jet to the coast before travelling by helicopter to one of the nearby towns, before driving them in a Bentley to Newbury.

"It was all a bit mad looking back, a bit like living like James Bond, and definitely not something that would be done by companies now, especially during the recession."

Quantel’s range of blue-chip clients placed a little bit of pressure on his shoulders, with one particular customer preying on his mind more than others.

"We used to provide all the equipment for most of the television news broadcasters and I would have to explain everything if things didn’t go to plan during a transmission," he recalls.

"In the early days I had so many sleepless nights imagining something going wrong with Trevor McDonald’s bongs. Fortunately nothing major happened." From there he went on to represent breakfast cereal firm Quaker as its legal counsel and travelled around Italy, Spain, France and Germany, all in the name of oats.

"People ask whether I was given a lifetime’s supply of porridge and I have to say that I have never been much of a breakfast man, no matter how much I’ve wanted to please my employers," he smiles.