The Letchworth Business Improvement District will continue for another five years, following a ballot by the town’s businesses.

The business ratepayers in the proposed BID renewal area who voted showed support for their BID’s renewal with 72 per cent of submissions backing a ‘yes’ vote.

Under its Love Letchworth name, the BID seeks to act as a voice for town centre businesses and uses funds generated from the levy to organise events, promote the town centre and develop its offer.

Chris Gerard, chairman of the Letchworth BID, said: “On behalf of the BID board, I would like to thank all the town centre businesses for demonstrating their ongoing support for the BID.

“The success of the ballot renewal is testimony to the tireless efforts of the businesses and the Letchworth community as a whole, who have been working collectively to deliver on the BID objectives.

“We would like to invite business representatives to join the volunteer management board in the new financial year to help steer the BID and enable businesses to have a more direct input into the way the new objectives will be achieved.”

In preparation for the reballot, research and consultation was undertaken by the BID development team to understand and highlight key issues relating to businesses and stakeholders and to explore potential future projects for the Letchworth BID.

Based on this, priorities for the next five years were been split into three clear objectives.

The first, is to make the town centre a lively and well promoted place, with a strong sense of identity.

The BID also plans to make it more welcoming, attractive and accessible environment for visitors, workers and residents to explore and enjoy.

Its third object is to help businesses work together and represent the collective voice of outlets in the town centre.

BID manager Patricia Saunders added: “We are looking forward to further developing the events programme.

“While we, naturally, retain the popular activities, we will ensure that we maintain a good balance of food and non-food related events to provide more BID businesses with the opportunity to engage with the people they attract to the town centre.”

As part of the ‘welcoming, attractive and accessible’ objective, Patricia is keen to continue working with North Herts District Council and Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation to make the town centre more attractive and reflect its garden city principles.