We asked your opinion
The BID consultation was undertaken with a broad cross section of businesses in the form of one-to-one interviews, a series of open meetings and several electronic communications.
169 eligible people (some with multiple units in the town) have been interviewed and surveyed on a 1 to 1 basis to date. These 169 represent 44% of those eligible to vote.
The overall aim of the consultation was to assess opinions on ways to enhance and improve the BID area and give more incentive to visit and invest in the town centre. The results of these surveys and consultations have been combined and form the basis of the Business Plan and BID Proposal
Businesses have received emails, telephone calls, newsletters, newspaper articles, one-to-one visits throughout the BID term and the consultation process to keep them informed of progress. The website www.bid4oban.co.uk has been kept fully updated with information throughout the development of the BID The Board of Directors considered the response from the 1-to-1 consultations, surveys and public meetings as sufficient to decide on the projects and services proposed in the business plan.
What should a BID focus on?
Overall, the most important areas a BID could improve on were ranked by the businesses in order of importance as:
Access and traffic management
Marketing and promotion
Clean and attractive
Business support
Training initiatives
Lobbying and a Business Voice
From the surveys, it was determined that:
Businesses would like:
A well promoted and vibrant town
To attract more visitors and see increased spend
A raised profile for the town by closer working with OLTA
Help resolve parking issues addressed within the BID area
To create a cleaner, greener and more attractive town centre
To extend the season with more events in the quieter months
A more diverse High Street to attract customers
Improved business support and advice