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08
Mar
D-Day for Ripon businesses as ballot result imminent
On Thursday next week, the result of a ballot involving 260 businesses in Ripon is expected to be announced.
Companies are voting on whether to grant a second term to Ripon Business Improvement District and the outcome will play a major role in determining the city’s economic future.
Ripon has one of about 350 UK BIDs — organisations formed and funded by businesses to improve commerce in a defined geographical area.
Five years ago, firms voted by 70 votes to 17 in favour of setting up Ripon BID. Now they are voting on whether to grant the BID a second five-year term.
If they vote ‘no’, Ripon BID manager Lilla Bathurst and two colleagues will lose their jobs, the BID’s Westgate office will close and its efforts to promote the city will cease.
Ms Bathurst says:
I feel passionately about the need for visitor marketing of Ripon as its own standalone destination and I’d be sad to see the work we have done go.
But if we don’t get a ‘yes’ vote, the company will be wound down, the website will close, the social media will stop, the Shop Watch radios will have to go back, nobody will update the notice boards. There will be no promotion of Ripon from us it will be back to relying on individual businesses to do it.
Ripon BID manager Lilla Bathurst, with the Sky Wheel's owner and operator Walter Murphy
Brand Ripon
It’s an unlikely scenario. About 90% of BIDs win second-term renewal ballots. But since Ripon’s 2021 BID vote, Knaresborough retailers have voted ‘no’ to a BID and last month hotels in Harrogate voted against creating an Accommodation BID.
Ms Bathurst is understandably wary:
I don’t think one can ever feel confident. What I want to see is a high turnout so we have a good mandate and are confident in being able to say the majority of businesses want us to continue.
Ripon BID’s original business plan was based on giving Ripon its own brand identity. Its Visit Ripon website is now number one on Google for events in Ripon.
City centre footfall has gone up by 24% since the BID started and the tripling of Shop Watch radios, which allow retailers and police to share crime information, has contributed to a 40% reduction in reports of shop thefts. The BID has also secured £180,000 of funding into Ripon, which is more than the BID’s annual budget of around £170,000.
Additionally, Ms Bathurst says the BID has fostered collaboration among retailers. She highlights a recent deal involving the Portly Pig pub and Prima Pizzeria, which allows drinkers to order a discounted pizza from Prima and eat it in the pub, as an example.
Alice in Wonderland
The BID’s activities in 2025 included the Big Sky Wheel, street cleaning, an augmented reality trail, support for Christmas lights, 80 hanging baskets, sponsoring Ripon Theatre Festival, festoon lighting in Spa Gardens and publishing 30,000 Ripon at Christmas brochures.
It will continue to focus on marketing, events and trails if it secures a second term — a heritage trail featuring some of Ripon’s many curiosities is among the new ideas. Ms Bathurst adds:
We’d also like to look at the Alice in Wonderland connection and make more of that, continue to grow the radio system and continue to apply for funding for larger projects.
The Ripon BID area.
The BID area, which extends to Lightwater Valley, Grantley Hall, Markenfield Hall and Newby Hall, is much bigger than Harrogate BID’s. Retailers with a £5,000-plus rateable value pay a compulsory levy to fund its work.
Many firms appear less keen on another possible levy — Labour mayor David Skaith’s proposed tourist tax that would see all North Yorkshire visitors pay an overnight charge.
Ms Bathurst says:
One thing that worries me was David Skaith saying he wanted this to happen in 2027. If that happens it will be incorrect because it will be rushed through. There are questions to be answered, such as what are we classing as a visitor? It needs more time and thought and more consultation with businesses. Also, visitors already pay 20% VAT on hospitality so why should they pay an extra tax on top?
Mayor David Skaith talking to Lilla Bathurst on a visit to Ripon.
Parking charges
Concerns about Ripon’s economy also prompted the BID to support the campaign that successfully led North Yorkshire Council to U-turn on massive car parking tariff hikes on April 1.
Ms Bathurst says:
Not only were the rise in tariffs for the Market Square and The Arcade car parks brutal but so was the proposal to charge after 6pm. We have the National Insurance rises, the minimum wage increase, new valuations on business rates on April 1. All of that hits on the same day and then to add in increased parking charges on the same day was not conducive to the evening economy.
She is still talking to Tesco about its controversial post-6pm parking charges on Marshall Way.
I’m in discussions with the Tesco manager who fully understands our position and has reflected that back up the chain so I’m hopeful that there will be more discussion on what could fit.
If businesses vote ‘no’ to the BID this week, someone else will need to take up the baton on such issues.
Ms Bathurst, who moved from Hull to take on her current role, is keen on another five years promoting Ripon.
It’s the variety — it’s bins one day, big wheel the next, children’s activities and trails, theatre festival… it’s a bit addictive. It can be frustrating and thankless at times but then you get a business that says, ‘thank you, couldn’t have done it without you’.
The waiting should be over by this time next week.
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