New Culture & Commerce board unveiled for Liverpool BID
Liverpool BID Company has unveiled the new Culture & Commerce BID operating board, with a mixture of independent and major businesses operating in the city, alongside public sector organisations from arts, culture, tourism, hospitality, commercial and professional services.
The BID is a private, not for profit organisation representing the interests of more than 1,000 businesses in Liverpool. BIDs are constituted by law and are designed to provide an independent voice to improve the areas in which they work.
Liverpool has two BID areas, the Retail & Leisure BID and the newly established Culture & Commerce BID, which covers the former Commercial District BID, St George’s Quarter and the waterfront.
Both BIDs are overseen by an operating board, signing off business plans, budgets and major projects delivered by the BID team, as well as an executive board looking after the governance, finance and strategy of the company.
The expanded Culture & Commerce BID Area, voted for by businesses in Spring 2021, has a new operating board, made up of businesses who submitted their own representatives.
Coming from a variety of sectors, including Liverpool’s Lunya restaurant, Fazenda, arts organisations including NML and Tate Liverpool, professional services firms like Griffiths & Armour and Moore & Smalley, the board represents businesses looking to help shape the next chapter in Liverpool’s development.
The new board includes: Mark Blankstone (Blankstone Opticians), Chris Capes (Peel), Graham Dagnall (DWF), Sue Darwell (Bruntwood), Matthew Donnelly (Griffiths & Armour), Faye Dyer (ACC Liverpool), Stephanie Harrison (Regenda Group), Ross Hazelhurst (Grosvenor Casino), Julia Carolina Coutinho Huf (Fazenda), Laura Irving (Tate Liverpool), Julie Johnson (Morecrofts), Sean Keyes (Sutcliffe Consulting Engineers), Peter Kinsella (Lunya), Phil Malthouse (Brock Carmichael Architects), Ian McCarthy (Lavvu), Gabrielle Monks (Home Office), Alan Robson (Project Four Safety Solutions), LauraPye (National Museums Liverpool), and Andy Webster (MHA Moore & Smalley Chartered Accountants).
The new expanded BID area comes with a five-year business plan of £7m investment for Liverpool city centre.
The commitments made during the ballot included upgrading public spaces and civic squares, creating a Subvention Fund for business events, improving city centre connectivity, improving the gateway access to the city centre, leading on Christmas animation and expanding the BID Police team and BID street rangers.
Chair of the Culture & Commerce BID operating board, Julie Johnson, said: “BIDs represent the donation of two valuable resources to a city – time and investment.
“Accountability and good governance are vital to ensure the strategy and the use of these resources is for the greater good.
“Liverpool BID is committed to making the city a better place to live, work and thrive. That means improving connectivity and the public realm, investing in culture and tourism, making the city safer and more secure and providing a vital voice for business and industry across a wide variety of sectors.
“Working together is more important than ever as we emerge from the pandemic and make the city more attractive to both its businesses, residents and those wanting to invest into it.”
Laura Irving, head of development, Tate Liverpool, said: “I’m pleased to be joining the Culture & Commerce BID operating board to ensure that arts and culture remain at the beating heart of our city’s strategy.
“The BID brings together so many diverse businesses, but what unites us is a desire to see a welcoming city centre that creates the best conditions to live, work and visit.”