A clear majority of retailers are in favour of creating Brighton and Hove's first Business Improvement District, early surveys have found.

The Business Forum is gradually gauging levels of support for the idea of forming a BID in a section of the city centre which could cover The Lanes, North Street and North Laine.

News of the support is a welcome boost to the plans. A BID is where traders agree to pay a levy on their business rates - usually about one per cent - to spend on things like Christmas lights, graffiti removal or street cleaning.

Traders decide how the money is spent. In this case, it could be up to £1.2 million per year over a period of three or five years, if everyone in the proposed area agrees to a BID.

The Business Forum, which is driving the proposals, aims to hold a referendum on May 26 to determine whether a BID can go ahead. It can only be enforced if it wins the approval of more than 50 per cent of those who vote in the referendum.

So far 60 per cent of businesses surveyed by the forum have backed the idea, 32 per cent have rejected the proposals and eight per cent are still undecided.

Christmas lights are coming out a clear winner with 41 per cent of businesses citing them as their first preference to spend money on but marketing and security are also strong preferences.

Only 11 per cent wanted the money to be primarily targeted at graffiti removal.

The Business Forum is surveying businesses on a street-by-street basis. The areas covered by the BID, which will go to the vote in three months, will be determined by those who indicate approval in the surveys being carried out now.

If traders in one street say they do not want a BID they will not be asked to vote in May.

Tony Mernagh, chief executive of the Business Forum, said: "It's important to stress that the final BID area has not been decided yet - it will expand and contract as the surveys come in.

"We then have to hope that those who said yes in the surveys follow that up by voting yes in the referendum but experience of local and national elections suggests you can not rely on that.

"Circumstances could change everything. If Britain became infected with bird flu and businesses lost a third of their workforce, I think the idea of BID would get lost somehow."

The final BID that goes to the vote will include a detailed plan on how the money would be spent. To gain approval, the cash would probably have to be spread over various areas.

BIDS originated in America in the Seventies and have rejuvenated hundreds of cities in the past 30 years, notably the Times Square district of New York. So far, 16 BIDs have been established in the UK. Critics argue they are too costly - roughly £50,000 is spent on feasibility studies and votes before a BID is even launched - and give businesses too much influence.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006