Abingdon

“Abingdon BID's failure will make trader's 'suspicious' of new schemes”

AN UNPOPULAR scheme to improve trade in Abingdon town centre will make it ‘more difficult’ for any new projects to be successful.

That is the view of business owners who led a campaign to rid the town of the Abingdon Business Improvement District (BID), which collected a compulsory yearly 1.5 per cent levy from town centre traders. Though it was officially dissolved as a company in February after more than a year of controversy refunds are still in the process of being returned by Vale of White Horse District.

Ian Collett, who owns The Bookstore on Bury Street, said: “While it didn't make things worse it didn't make things better either. "The problem is you need people who understand the town and have fresh ideas. Footfall isn't something you can just snap your fingers and solve." He added: "I think it is going to make things more difficult for something similar in the future and there is going to be a degree of trepidation."

Another business owner behind the call to end the scheme early, who did not want to be named, said most traders were ‘glad to see the back’ of BID and agreed there would be suspicion of any attempts to work collectively that looked like ‘BID under another name’.

Read the full article →