Canterbury Connected Business Improvement District (BID) was launched in October 2014 following a ballot in July 2014. The BID’s vision is:
“Canterbury will be a vibrant, exciting, well connected and successful business community; and attractive, green, safe and enjoyable destination for customers and clients, shoppers and staff, residents, students and visitors; a profitable place in which to do business.”
To achieve this, the city needs to strike a balance between the ability of people to access it in large numbers and the pressure this can create, which could potentially impact negatively on the other desired outcomes. Who wants to go to a place if the experience of getting there is awful or the place itself is under so much pressure it has lost what made them want to come in the first place?
So, transport & access is at the heart of our city’s future:
- 48,000 people live here with a major expansion plan in place over the next 16 years across the 6 Districts that comprise the city’s sub region
- 30,000 + students study at our universities, the largest ratio of students to residents in Europe
- 7,000,000 unique visits take place to Canterbury each year (this doesn’t include residents or employees), the second largest visitor/resident ratio in Europe after Venice
The BID’s Transport & Access Group has looked at these issues and in response to the City Council’s Sustainable Transport Strategy has formulated a BID Transport & Access Policy which can be read here. The BID consulted on the policy during and November and December 2015 and now that relevant comments and suggestions from levy payers have been incorporated, the Policy has been formally adopted by the BID Board in January 2016.
Business consultation on Canterbury City Council Parking Proposals 2016 – 2020
Canterbury City Council’s parking proposals are an important development in the city’s commercial life. The BID has consulted across the levy payer community through an event held at the Cathedral Lodge on 18th January where the Council Leader Simon Cook outlined the Council’s proposals to businesses and through the BID Transport & Access Working Group which formulated the BID’s Transport & Access Policy (see above). To see the Council’s proposals in full, click here and the response to those proposals submitted on behalf of the BID here.
