When is…

The BID commenced on the 1st April 2011 and will continue for 5 years bringing positive change to Southside after a successful ballot result with 82% of businesses voting being in favour!

Julia Chance (BID Manager) took over on 1st May 2011 and in June 2011, Southside BID kicked off the Streets Plan, designed to make real improvements to our Southside streets.

A number of projects have been put together by a team of private sector and key stakeholders, including BASW, Radisson Blu, LCP Properties, the Police and Birmingham City Council. These include;

• District Wide Deep Clean – conducted by Ramora
• Retail/Leisure Crime Prevention  – 40 businesses involved in trial project of new radios & data sharing which link all Southside businesses with each other, the Police, Paramedics and the Street Warden service.
• Street Warden recruitment process underway with APCOA.
• Festive Lights 2011 – £40K investment with Southside BID and our partners L&G, Arcadian and GB Training..
• Community/Business Information & Safety – Leisure Watch, RCO and access to security advice and training.

Our Scene Programme kicked off with Pride in May 2011 and since then a number of initiatives have assisted to improve footfall to the district and provide our members with new and repeat customers.  This include;

• Our new visitor website www.enjoysouthside.co.uk
• SouthGuides -  2 distinct Area Guides on our Chinatown and Gay Village areas of Southside.
• A series of films called Southside stories, due to preview in the Spring.
• A Christmas campaign with Marketing Birmingham – Sparkling -Birmingham at Christmas
• District banners and street signs to brand our district so visitors know where to come.
• Southside Spotlights – our regular business newsletter featuring opportunities and information for your business.

All that and we have facilitated 40 businesses to access grants after the August 2011 disorder in the city centre, liaisied between businesses and the New St construction project over traffic changes and solved a myriad of problems for our members which allow them to concentrate on their business, resulting in business success.

And there is more….. watch this space for more updates.

*The district wide deep clean excluded tarmac pavements as they can be damaged by deep cleaning process.