Norwich Chamber Council and the Norwich Business Improvement District have agreed to work together on specific issues affecting businesses in Norwich. A particular area that is being looked at is accessibility to Norwich.
Norwich Business Improvement District Transport Strategy
Established in November 2012 the Norwich Business Improvement District (BID) is an inventive and progressive organisation run for local businesses by local businesses. Covering a defined area of the city the BID team works to improve the trading environment and identifies additional projects and services that develop the city centre. Norwich BID enhances and promotes the local environment for its businesses, employees, customers and the community.
The overarching vision of Norwich BID is to; Make a clear positive impact on the vitality of the city centre and the success of the businesses within it. Stefan Gurney, Executive Director of Norwich BID said “One of the key areas of interest for the BID is accessibility and transport to Norwich – an issue that affects us all.”
The BID Transport Strategy focusses on setting out guiding principles for accessibility:
- Ensuring ease of access for businesses, their employees and their customers
- Linking improvements directly to the economic vitality of businesses
- Minimise the increases in traffic levels
The requirements for achieving this include:
- Traffic volume changes justified by evidence of increased ease of access
- Schemes are tested against a “weighting” system for all methods of access
- Demonstrate how the solution performs ‘locally’
- Changes to scheme phasing are assessed against the wider impact on the city centre viability and sustainability
- Works are planned and phased to minimise impact on road users
- Use the ring road system to move traffic in and out of the city in “loops” or radials rather than across the city centre
Schemes need to deliver
- A safer and more accessible environment for cyclists and pedestrians
- Promote quicker and more reliable public transport services
- Reduce the impact of road works and disruption
- Enable access for the less mobile users
- No increase in journey time
- No reduction in road capacity
- Annual reviews against original principles and changes in market environment
The BID is keen to hear the views of city centre businesses, to work with partners towards shared goals and to seize opportunities, get in touch 01603 727930 or email [email protected]
If your business is outside of the Norwich BID area, then the Norwich Chamber Council is keen to hear from you on the same issues. You can contact Nova Fairbank on 01603 729 713 or email: [email protected].
