I’ve often wondered how some cafés survive. Thankfully this woman has stated plainly the expenses of providing us with a place to sit down, have a coffee and something to eat , which is a godsend when you are in the middle of a town centre and want some refreshments.
Enter BID (Northampton Town Centre Business Improvement District) who have taken on the mantle of improving the Town Centre and providing additional footfall for the businesses within the Town Centre. Rightly so , this café owner has said that the annual fee of £238 has not achieved anything apart from a few plants and that the cleanliness of the Town Centre is deteriorating to the extent that it will put people off visiting.
The café owner published her monthly expenses on Facebook , I was really shocked at the amount of money that it takes to run a premises. The mandatory levy imposed by BID is a mere bagatelle when compared to what she is paying out each month. She said that soon she would have to charge ten pounds for a bacon sandwich just to break even.
The lady has been summoned to Court for the non-payment of this £238, which now has costs added to it. Yet she has no say in the performance of BID in promoting her business. A representative of BID visited and took some photos and the lady heard no more, and they charge £238 a year for that. No wonder she is unimpressed.
It reminds me of the Government Quango’s that people use to complain about. In truth this case is not just about Northampton, we must question all the expenses of these “Town Centre Development BIDs”, my home town has been decimated and many people who were trying to run businesses have left.
I wish the lady well .
Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏












