Paignton United!

You would think that as a community we would have some sort of common purpose. Yet when you consider that when the Paignton BID (Business Improvement District) trundled into life our beautiful harbour and its business community wasn’t included. Now why was that? Well it seems that some bright spark said that the business rates were paid to the Torbay Harbour Authority! Not true of course but enough to have Paignton telling half its story. Just to add salt to the wound I think that might have been the same year that the English Riviera Tourism Company (ERTC) left Paignton Harbour out of the annual tourist brochure. Hmm.

There is a new initiative being on the horizon and consultants have been employed to guide the decision makers Torbay Council). The initiative is the new TTR-BID (Torbay Tourism and Retail). This will be the first ‘super’ BID of its kind in the UK. In a BID area all businesses pay an additional fee via the business rates to fund area improvements. The payment is legally enforceable and so if you’re in the included area then you have to cough up your share.

In these financially challenging times we must all take great care when spending hard earned cash. With that in mind it is important that you pay careful attention to what is going on. We’ve have already demonstrated that the BID in Paignton isn’t fully inclusive because a major asset, the historic harbour, had been left out.

If this new TTR-BID becomes a reality we need to ensure that it is something we really want and that the money collected is spent wisely. It has the potential to unite the community and we can then welcome a more ‘united’ Paignton. How lovely that would be!

Keep the smile!!