Bid will give businesses a say in the future direction of city
Oct 22 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal
Sean Bullick, director of the Newcastle City Centre Partnership
THE proposed Business Improvement District for Newcastle City Centre is one of the biggest and most ambitious, not just in the UK, but in the world.
And so it should be for a city of Newcastle’s historic significance; arguably the original “world city”, inventing for, and exporting to, every corner of the globe throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
Newcastle’s success then, as now, was built on the ingenuity and ambition of local business and talent. As a city, we continue to benefit from this with world-class professional services, an exceptional academic and research reputation, fantastic shops, restaurants and bars and, of course, an unrivalled ability to deliver a fabulous night out.
Despite this, there are some areas where we need to do better and others where we are actually falling behind our competitors, both national and international; a visit to Manchester, Edinburgh, and even now, Liverpool will confirm this. So how will the BID tackle these issues in practice? On an everyday level, it will deliver a cleaner, greener and more secure city centre, better marketed, signed and with more going on to attract, and hold, the visitor.
On a different level, the Bid will give business a real say in the future direction and development of the city, as it comes together over a series of issues of mutual concern: parking; licensing; road closures; policing, backed for the first time, by significant funding.
It also provides the opportunity for business to inject the necessary ambition into the many major physical redevelopments planned for the city centre: Pilgrim Street; Science Central etc, ensuring they are of international calibre and quality.
In difficult economic times the pooled, individually-small contributions from business, together with the matched funding they will attract is the most efficient way of investing in our city and ensuring that, in the short, medium and long-term, we compete with the best.
