THE Northwich Business Improvement District (BID) has reflected on five years of ‘hard work’ as its first term comes to an end.

Northwich BID was adopted by businesses in 2014, and will this summer face a vote on its renewal as ‘BID 2’ through to 2024.

The initiative has invested more than £150,000 in town centre events over the past five years, and BID manager Jane Hough has highlighted a number of other support streams that would disappear if the BID were not renewed.

Jane said: “Since 2014, the BID has strived to make Northwich a better place to not only work and do business but to visit too.

“With partners we’ve worked hard to change the appearance of the town centre which has included the funding of 28 railing baskets, flower towers and over 60 hanging baskets along with the bedding of 3000 plants throughout the spring and summer."

Jane added that an extra 13,000sq m of cleaning had been undertaken thanks to BID funding, along with the work at Pocket Park.

More than 60 training courses have also been delivered, benefitting 400 Northwich employees, and PR and social media support has also been offered.

“All of this support would come to an end if the BID didn’t get a yes vote," Jane said.

Over the past five years, the town has finished runner-up in the Great British High Street Awards and receive the Silver Gilt in the 2018 North West in Bloom Awards, as well as offering an eclectic calendar of events.

BID events co-ordinator Stephanie Leese said: “Over five years, more than £150,000 has been invested in extravaganzas and events like Now Northwich and The Charlatans’ CW9 event which brought thousands of visitors in to Northwich.

“In 2018 alone, events and festivals saw nearly 30,000 extra people heading in to town compared to the previous year. Footfall figures for December 2018, released by the British Retail Consortium and Springboard, revealed a drop of 2.6 per cent in footfall. Northwich however bucked this trend with the town seeing an increase in footfall by 2.6 per cent at the end of December 2018.”

n Eligible businesses will vote on BID 2 over the coming months. See more at northwichbid.co.uk