Paul Reach, Chairman Dartmouth BID
Paul Reach, Chairman of Dartmouth BID
“Since the BID vote, which showed a majority of business rate payers who voted to support our business plan, we’ve been working very hard,” says Paul Reach, Dartmouth BID chairman. “We now need to put it into practice – our aim is to increase revenue for Dartmouth businesses and reduce their costs. We are looking at many ways of achieving that.”
Paul is one of the main drivers behind the Dartmouth Business Improvement District project and has had a varied career in management.
Born in Bury St Edmunds in 1946, he started his career as a production engineer at Rolls Royce in Derby in 1963. Developing his skills through study at the University of Derby, he went on, over the next 30 years, to become President of a Swedish based multinational company with subsidiaries in 6 European countries.
But his life completely changed when he moved to Dartmouth with his wife Brenda to start the D’Art Gallery in Lower Street in 1999.
In the 15 years since, both Paul and Brenda have got heavily involved in the community and worked to promote the town and support its charities and community groups.
Paul has been a town councillor, chair of the Dartmouth Business Forum, Trustee of the Flavel and now has taken on the role of BID Chairman.
He says he feels the responsibility being chairman brings and is determined to deliver for Dartmouth businesses.
“The BID levy payers have a right to know what is being done with their money and we have a responsibility to deliver for them,” he said. “We have now set up the business structure of the BID Company – we have the nine board members in place and South Hams Council have provided bridge funding while setting up the Levy collection process. We are answerable to the businesses of the town and we have to improve the business climate for them with tangible actions. “
64 percent of voting ratepayers voted for the BID plan, representing 74 per cent of the rateable value. The BID team and their marketing agency Chaos held marketing workshops earlier this year. Their purpose was to create a profile of the town’s strengths that can be used to brand and market Dartmouth.
“More than 100 people came along to those workshops,” he said. “Chaos are an experienced agency and they have now brought together those ideas into tangible concepts for a marketing campaign to tell the world what a marvelous place this town is – with a focus on bringing people to Dartmouth year round.”
The practical elements of the BID Company are also falling into place.
Paul said: “We will soon have our BID Manager in place who will be working full time to drive the project forward and make sure we are communicating with the people of Dartmouth so they can understand what we are doing and why.”
He said the key to getting Dartmouth’s BID to work is making sure that it addresses a number of key concerns and challenges during its five year term.
“50 percent of our budget is allocated to marketing but we also have allocated funds to reduce business costs,” he said. “We are looking at bringing in a company that has helped campaign for rates reductions elsewhere in the country and we are looking at other schemes to reduce the overhead cost burden on local businesses.
“To measure the success of the marketing plan we are talking to companies who measure footfall and we are also looking at schemes to help attract more people to the town through free parking schemes and other offers. We can’t solve the parking problems in Dartmouth but we CAN improve it and ease the problems parking issues cause.”
Despite the positive news coming from the BID team, Paul is aware of the challenge they face and the scepticism it faces in some quarters.
“Of course there are sceptics – and in many ways that is a good thing. We have to make a difference to the lives and businesses in the town. Every ratepayer in the town needs to understand what we are doing, why we are doing it and feed back to us about its effectiveness.
“At the end of the five years we will ask the business ratepayers of Dartmouth to vote for another five years of the BID – if we have done our job properly, we will come through that vote. The majority of BIDs around the country have been successful in that aim - 48 out of 51 have voted yes to a second term – and I see no reason Dartmouth should be any different.”
First published By The Dart May 2014