WE are at a point with the Okehampton Business Improvement District (BID) where after a series of open meetings and consultations with town centre businesses we are prioritising ideas for the BID business plan.

These ideas have all emerged from the business consultation event held in July and have now been transferred into a questionnaire. This questionnaire is available for Okehampton business people and traders to put forward their views on what they feel are the most important issues to tackle in order to improve business in the town.

These prioritised ideas will then go forward to form the BID business plan. This plan will be used to secure match funding from the local authorities, grant funding bodies and our local charities for any levy that will be secured from businesses in the area. This will make our £1 go a lot further than if we had to each improve our businesses on our own.

There is definitely merit in us working together in these times of economic recession. We should all stick together and help each other and not adopt an 'I'm all right, Jack' attitude. That kind of thinking will cause even more businesses to go under at a time when some of our colleagues most need our help. The BID business plan containing the ideas and actions from our business community is the document on which we will all eventually vote to decide whether the BID will proceed.

The business community is carrying out the survey alongside other consultations, ie, the consultation of the outcomes of the West Devon Retail Study.

The outcomes of these two key consultations are being fed into one Okehampton Vision Group which is a collaborative group comprising representatives from the chamber of trade, the BID, the three local authorities (town, borough and county) and the local community. The Okehampton Vision Group will ensure that any development plan put together for the town fully reflects the views of all key stakeholders.

Kay Bickley

Chairman of the BID Steering Group

Upcott House B&B

Upcott Hill

Okehampton