Businesses in Durham City have voted in favour of the organisation responsible for marketing the City to people living locally, to drive-up footfall and repeat patronage, meaning Durham Business Improvement District (Durham BID) will return for another five-year term.
Voting took place during the course of the past month with all levy paying businesses eligible to have their say. 63% of businesses voted for the return of the BID (112 votes in favour out of 181), seeing the delivery of much-loved events like Christmas InDurham, Fire&Ice InDurham and the hugely successful Balloons InDurham, continue to be part of the City’s events calendar for another five years.
Adam Deathe, business engagement manager at Durham BID, said: “We are absolutely delighted. Without the BID, a lot of things that people enjoy but take for granted in the City, like the Christmas lights switch on or spring planters would not take place. With the businesses’ support, not only can we continue to deliver what we’ve always done, but we can look to expand and build on our successes, bringing even bigger and better events to the City for people to enjoy for years to come.”
Durham BID’s second term will come into effect from November 2017, with the first of its events under the new term in the City being the yuletide celebrations with Christmas InDurham. Plans are now underway for the festive season and much, much more into 2018 and beyond.
Dr Keith Bartlett, Chair of the Board of Directors at Durham BID, concluded: “Since its inception five years ago, the BID has gone through considerable and positive change. In the past year alone, Adam and the team at the BID – along with all of our other delivery partners including AH Events and Filament PR – have brought 50 events to the City, including Balloons InDurham which saw Durham promoted to in excess of 33 million people nationally on the Spring bank Holiday. This type of exposure is not only resulting in higher footfall figures bucking the national trend, but also encouraging repeat patronage to the City, while supporting the local economy.
“Businesses across Durham are seeing and feeling the benefit following the transformation the BID has gone through and I’m delighted Adam and the team have gained the levy payers’ support – a very well deserved result. We’re genuinely excited by what the future holds and would like to thank all of the businesses for their support, while also expressing our thanks to the public for choosing to spend their leisure time in the City, and in turn supporting local businesses. Here’s to the future – we’re thrilled to still be part of it!”
In addition to the delivery of events, Durham BID has extensively re-developed its website while launching its consumer-facing InDurham Loyalty Card (IDLC) scheme, seeing visitors to the City subscribe to the programme whereby for an annual fee of £5, the users receive exclusive deals, discounts and offers from participating businesses across the BID zone. In addition to the strong digital agenda, Durham BID provides a voice for businesses of the City and works hard for them behind the scenes when negotiating with City stakeholders to ensure that the interests of business are considered.
For more information about Durham BID and updates on events in Durham, people are asked to visit: www.durhambid.co.uk