Bedminster Town Team and Business Improvement District
TownCentred advised Bedminster Neighbourhood Partnership in their application to become one of the first Town Teams in the UK and successfully secured one of only twelve Town Team 'pilots' including £100K government grant in a competition attracting nearly 400 entries.
This grant was almost doubled in the first six months of operation through various 'leveraging' of other public agencies such as the council and Arts Council before being quadrupled in with the successful creation of a Business Improvement District that guaranteed a further £400K for Bedminster's retail streets over the subsequent five years and was renewed again in 2018.
A £400,000 grant to pilot key elements of the East Street Vision led by the BID and summarised in the video below. This together with a positive planning culture led by the BID means 2000 new homes are planned in the immediate vicinity and will form the basis of demand and the transformation of East Street over the next three years.
Specific achievements include:
reduction in Bedminster's retail vacancy rates (by approx 25%) compared to almost no change in the city-wide rate over the same period;
creation of the Business Improvement District (2013 and successful renewal (2018) which entailed consultation and campaigning of 350 businesses to create the BID platform via a vote which was overwhelmingly positive
launch of the 'Beautiful Bugs of Bedminster', Paradise Gardens Multimedia, Street Fayres/Markets (including street closures), high quality street art, 'pocket-parks', and Christmas lights projects;
exploiting social media platform in which the Facebook element alone is peaking at 35,000 hits per week;
helping to change the planning culture in favour of positive development with the building of nearly 2000 homes nearby (providing economic demand for the high street for decades to come
Further infomration in the 5 Year second term BID Business Plan adjacent and below the video summarising the parallel work creating a long term Vision for East Street:
Bedminster BID 5 Year Plan 2018.pdfFurther reading:
Business Facing Website and Reports
Customer Facing Websites and Media