A note from our CEO Ian Sandison to all our Levy payers to say thank you and explain our work since March 2020.
Dear BID businesses,
Cambridge BID has almost 750 levy payers and this is how we are funded. 88% of these businesses pay less than £2,000 and 70% pay less than £1,000, so the BID really is a broad community-based fund that benefits the city.
The past year has been tough for all businesses and on behalf of Cambridge BID and our board I want to say a huge thank you to the vast majority of levy payers who have paid this year. If you have yet to pay, please get in touch if you would like to discuss anything.
Host webinars to support hundreds of businesses get their initial and current Government grants
Explain the furlough schemes and signpost businesses to the various loan schemes
Support the city in re-opening with thousands of floor stickers, used by over 200 businesses
Lead for businesses on the City Centre Task Force and Mayor Palmer's wider City Centre Reopening plan for the region
Support businesses with queue management protocols and guidance to make their business covid safe
Lobbied Cambridge City Council to provide the £1 parking offer which was in place for many months last summer
One of the areas of concern for businesses was the inequality of the lockdown one government grant schemes that did not provide assistance to the over 400 Cambridge businesses with a rateable value of over £51k, our support for the Raise The Bar campaign means from the second lockdown last November these businesses now benefit for millions of pounds of Government grants across the city.
Almost all of the above would be outside of our usual project delivery so we had to adapt very quickly to the needs of our businesses.
Since the city reopened last year we have:
Launched our Cambridge reopening safely campaign
Filmed a series of 'Know Before You Go' videos that have been viewed over 30,000 times
Assisted many businesses to have more outdoor seating
Supported the city wide Eat out to Help Out campaign
Our weekly footfall reports have enabled businesses to adjust their opening hours and the city to ensure Covid Marshalls are deployed at the right times.
Our city wide street cleaning programme was delivered as normal and deep clean over 50 streets
Our Christmas Gift Magazine was delivered to over 70,000 houses in the region
Our Love Cambridge Gift Card was the No.1 selling scheme in the UK in November. Our November and December sales were triple that of the previous year. Nearly £70,000 in Gift Card Balances must be spent in the city this year. If you haven't already signed up to accept the card, please ensure you do so.
Our Taxi Marshals were fully active from July to Christmas
Our virtual Christmas Switch On event had a social media reach of over 50,000 people and the video was viewed over 20,000 times
We delivered a full programme of Christmas lights, to animate the city and we have left several street festoons in place
Like you, we also furloughed some staff members for many months and some of our projects were not delivered.
In June, the tourism service for the city Visit Cambridge and Beyond closed. The BID board agreed that since many of our businesses are dependent on the visitor economy, that we should take this on. We are now part of a consortium with Cambridge City Council, Fitzwilliam Museum Enterprises and Kings College and we have formed a new Visit Cambridge.
Since June we have:
Bought some of the assets of the previous business
Relaunched the www.visitcambridge.org site in a simpler form
Worked as a consortium to secure a £710k Combined Authority Grant for the Visitor Welcome
Working with Visit Britian, Visit England and Visit East of England to improve the profile of Cambridge
Developed a brief for a fully bookable website so the consumer will be able to plan itineraries, see interactive maps, search for things to do, it will have a business listing and the capability to handle hotel, attraction, museum, tours and punting bookings to be delivered early summer
Developed a brief for new mobile Visitor Welcome vehicle from which we can meet and greet visitors as the arrive in the city
Supported Cambridge City Council on a programme to animate the cities streets in the summer as more areas will have outside seating for dining and leisure
As we look towards 2021-22 we are also developing an ambitious programme of project delivery, once safe to do so. This will include:
Our outdoor cinema screenings will return
We will screen Wimbledon and the Olympics across the city
Our mystery shop programme will return
We have added 50% to our dedicated Independents fund
We are developing a range of PR and staycation campaigns for the city to bring domestic travellers here
We are developing a range of business support projects that we will announce more details about soon
Once again, our work is 100% funded by our levy that we spend to support your business and your city, sincere thanks to those that have paid.
Myself and the rest of the BID team are always available. If you would like to get in touch me with, my email address is ian.sandison@cambridgebid.co.uk
All the best,
Ian Sandison
CEO Cambridge BID
