The BID in Hampstead will be disbanded later this year

THE board running a business levy scheme being wound up in Hampstead has been asked to explain what money is left over and what will happen to the cash.

The New Journal reported last week how the Hampstead Business Improvement District – usually known simply as the BID – was being shut down amid a rebellion from traders who questioned what they were getting for their money. A referendum on whether to extend the scheme for another five years had been just weeks away.

Els Bauer, who co-chairs the board with Hampstead Butcher and Providore owner Philip Matthews said discussions were now set to begin on whether businesses would be reimbursed, or if members would like unspent money to be donated to a project for the village. “

We’re trying to agree what is the best way,” she said. “We want to get a feel for what might be best, whether it’s Christmas lights or if they want their money back.

“We have to understand the procedure and a BID being wound up is not something that happens every day. We’re having discussions with Primera [the management firm running the BID] about what needs to happen and we’re finding that out. Then we’ll speak to the businesses. It’s not for us to decide what goes back to people.”

According to the government regulations governing BIDs, the money should be refunded. But Ms Bauer hopes people will choose to donate the money, if the rules allow. She added that she expected some fees to be deducted by Camden Council as part of managing any potential reimbursement process, and a decision had to be taken about what money would be spent in the scheme’s final months on street cleaning and flower baskets.

“They still might be disappointed with what they get back,” she said.

Daniel Rosenfelder, whose architects firm Rosenfelder Associates has been in Perrin’s Court for 44 years, said he wanted to have the money returned: “For small firms like mine it can be a great amount of money, especially as we’ve not had any rate reductions. It’s all been a nonsense and it’s been taking money off businesses for services that Camden [Council] are supposed to be doing.

“Camden should be doing the Christmas lights not us. In Perrin’s Court we’ve done them ourselves for years.”

Ms Bauer, the owner of estate and lettings agency in Stella Lange, said she was still upset about the decision taken to cancel a proposed ballot and pull the plug on the BID after one five-year term. “I’m very sad,” she said.

“We spent a lot of time to try and get things done in the village. I was prepared to talk to businesses to explain again what it is we do and why it would have been a valuable thing to do.”

The BID, which since it formation in 2016 has charged a compulsory levy to businesses, shops, state schools, charities and NHS surgeries, will formally cease at the end of July.

Ms Bauer said the board and Primera believed a number of the bigger firms were set to abstain, or not vote, in the ballot which was one of the factors behind it being withdrawn. “No” posters had appeared in shop windows before the proposed ballot and the Hampstead Village Voice magazine had run a relentless campaign against it.

She added that having been part of the previous NW3 Business Association, which was voluntary, a new organisation being called for along those lines could fall into potential trouble.

“The trouble is that what happens is they want other people to put money in, so they will just sit there and say ‘this is good’, but not put any money in themselves,” she said.