Discover King’s Lynn, The King’s Lynn BID is this week launching a number of actions to help Town Centre businesses get ready to re-open their premises in the forthcoming months. Free signage for premises and webinars on risk assessment and becoming COVID-19 Safe are amongst the support being offered.
“To say that most town centre businesses are having a hard time at the moment would be an understatement,” says BID Manager Vicky Etheridge. “One of the roles of the BID is to support business, the Board and I are clear that we will do what we can to assist businesses with the process of re-opening. These are some of the short-term practical things that we can offer.”
The help being provided will be funded by a grant that the BID expects to receive from central Government in the coming weeks. The Minister for High Streets, Simon Clarke, announced a £6.1m resilience fund for BIDs in England on 1st May. The fund has been set up to assist BIDs with running costs and enable them to carry on their important role at this critical time. “We were really heartened to read the Minister’s words of support for BIDs, “says BID Chair, Sharon Edwards of Mapus-Smith & Lemmon. “As he said in his statement, BIDs have a unique role to play in championing town centres, supporting local business and leading the renewal of our high streets. We anticipate receiving around £10,000 from this fund and will be putting it all back into activities that support our levy payers.”
The BID is funded by an annual levy on businesses within a defined area of King’s Lynn town centre. This year’s levy bills for the period April 2020/21 are yet to be sent out in recognition of the difficulties that many businesses are facing. “We are working with the Borough Council to set a date to issue the bills and offer monthly payment plans. We recognise that many will not be able to pay this year and we have budgeted for that, without a BID there is no organisation or single voice that has the business community as its primary focus. The BID will be even more important to champion business needs and importance of a vibrant town centre as part of the recovery process. The Board and Vicky are really keen to hear business ideas about what recovery might look like and how the BID can best support them. We will be contacting levy payers about this shortly, in the meantime, do get in touch with Vicky.”
To find out more about the webinars, signage and other support available please contact Vicky Etheridge, BID Manager on 07387 752 226 or email; [email protected]