THE company behind Belfast’s Business Improvement District (BID) has unveiled a strategy it claims will deliver £5 million of additional funding to Belfast city centre over the next five years.
'Belfast One' has set out a mission to "Promote, enhance and support Northern Ireland’s capital city".
The organisation, which has the support of the business community, will have a say in how the city is marketed, maintained and managed.
The group's managing director Clare Maguire said: “Our overarching goal is to make Belfast the very best it can possibly be, by promoting, enhancing and supporting what is already in place, and what makes it such a great city to work, live and do business in.
“The next few months will see us begin to roll out a new marketing strategy which will showcase the city’s unique offering and help us drive footfall.
“We have also become the majority funder of the PSNI City Centre Beat scheme. Originally a Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce initiative, the City Centre Beat officers have been working to help address the social and safety issues our city centre faces for over 10 years.
"This new source of funding will allow the initiative to continue and will mean that the officers can be even more focused on the needs of city centre businesses."
She added: “We will also be helping to further support businesses, aiming to save them money by carrying out a trade waste and recycling audit in the city centre.
"It will be our mission to negotiate a better and more importantly lower priced service with enhanced buying power and more accountability and we are working with experienced consultants to draw up a tender for this at the moment.
“By working in partnership with Belfast City Centre Management, Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce, Visit Belfast, the Department for Communities and Belfast City Council, we will make it our mission to improve business life in the city centre which we believe will have a ripple effect on the whole of Northern Ireland.”
In the last decade more than 200 BIDs have been established across the UK and Ireland, including Newry and Ballymena.
For full details on the Belfast One business plan visit: http://www.belfastone.co.uk/business-plan
