SMALL businesses in central Colchester are being urged to cast their vote on whether to make the town a Business Improvement District (BID).

SMALL businesses in central Colchester are being urged to cast their vote on whether to make the town a Business Improvement District (BID).

Every business with a rateable value of more than £10,000 in the proposed BID area is eligible to vote before the deadline on November 28 on the draft proposal, and should have received a voting paper from Colchester Borough Council's Returning Officer. The results will be announced on Thursday, November 29.

Iain Wicks, chairman of the north east Essex branch of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “We believe it is very important that all the businesses in the BID area vote because if the BID goes ahead they could well be paying extra business rates to finance its work - up to 2% extra on top of their existing rates bill.”

The FSB was encouraging businesses to vote so that they can decide how the £2.5million raised over the five year life of the BID will be spent, he said.

Among the proposals are extra street cleaning and improvements to the environment, free night buses, extra police community support officers and improved marketing and special promotional events, including at Christmas.

Full details are contained in the BID document. For more information, visit www.colchesterbid.co.uk