Weymouth BID Limited held their Annual Meeting on Thursday 8th February 2018 at the Ocean Room Weymouth Pavilion. The meeting was attended by 50 businesses who heard about last year’s projects as well as future plans for the BID including the 2018 Renewal Campaign.
Ian Ferguson as Vice Chair opened the meeting and welcomed Levy payers, the Weymouth BID Board of Directors represented by Dennis Spurr, Julia Cohen and Steve Bassett plus new Chief Operations Officer, (COO) Claudia Moore. Chair Steve Newstead did not attend the Annual Meeting but gave a statement. Steve Newstead said “I have given notice to the Board of Weymouth BID of my intention to step down as Chair of the Weymouth BID as soon as a suitable replacement can be found due to work commitments, job role change and location. I have enjoyed my time at Weymouth BID over the past 6 years. I was part of the initial Steering Group, appointed on the first Board of Directors and I accepted the role of Chair in 2014. During the past four years as Chair of the Weymouth BID, I have met many interesting people and worked on lots of challenging projects and events such as Waterfest event, the Pub Watch scheme and the introduction of Weymouth’s first real ice rink in 2015. I would like to wish the new Board of Directors well and sincerely hope that a new Chair is appointed soon, to enable the Board to achieve a successful “yes” vote for a second term of the Weymouth BID.”
Ian Ferguson Vice Chair of Weymouth BID said “This meeting is held to inform levy payers of the progress made by the Weymouth BID in 2017 plus some of the projects and events in the pipeline for 2018. It will not take the form of an Annual General Meeting due to the framework of the current constitution, but this will be addressed in the Renewal for BID 2 in 2018. The Accounts for the year are now available on line at www.weymouthbid.co.uk together with an up to date list of current Board members. Mr Ferguson went on to say “We have also instructed an independent accountant to conduct a forensic review of the current financial status of the Weymouth BID and the previous year’s accounts. This review will then be made available to Levy payers for consideration”.
The first meeting of the BID 2 Steering Group committee was held on Monday 5th February when plans for the BID 2 renewal were discussed. All businesses were invited to apply to join the steering committee at the meeting. Claudia Moore, COO of Weymouth BID said “Plans are well underway for the renewal process but we are up against tight time lines to allow us to go to ballot in May or June of this year. It vital that businesses get on board now to help with the formation of the plans, the bid levy area and the creation of the new business plan. Some of the ideas put forward so far include a new constitution allowing bid levy payers to vote on election of Directors and how levy will be spent, new Purple Flag accreditation in conjunction with the Weymouth Town Centre Manager, car parking schemes and art installations throughout the town. Events such as Feast, Easter Dinosaur event and Waterfest were also popular. I also intend to make the entire process totally open, completely transparent with the inclusion of businesses whilst building on the lessons learnt in the first term of the Weymouth BID.”
The meeting also received presentations from Dave Lakins of Key Digital who manage the “We Are Weymouth” website and social media platforms and Claudia Moore, COO of Weymouth BID who updated the meeting on key projects and events which are currently in work at the Weymouth BID. Cllr Ryan Hope also gave the meeting an overview and update on behalf of the Weymouth & Portland Borough Council scrutiny committee.
Full minutes of the Annual Meeting will be available on the website by 16 February and the slides from the Annual Meeting presentation will be uploaded on Monday 12th February 2018.
The Weymouth BID Board are looking for new directors and steering group members to come forward from the business community to ensure that a good cross section of business sectors are represented on the board, in particular they are looking for representation from independent retail businesses and the service sector. Anyone interested should apply to [email protected] or contact the BID Office on 01305 779410.”
