Liverpool has two BID areas, the Retail & Leisure BID and the newly established Culture & Commerce BID, which covers the former Commercial District BID, St George’s Quarter and the waterfront

Liverpool BID Company has unveils its new Culture & Commerce BID operating board.

There is a a mixture of independent and major businesses represented on the board alongside public sector organisations from arts, culture, tourism, hospitality, commercial and professional services.

The BID is a private, not-for-profit organisation representing the interests of more than 1,000 businesses in Liverpool. BIDs are constituted by law and are designed to provide an independent voice to improve the areas in which they work.

Liverpool has two BID areas, the Retail & Leisure BID and the newly established Culture & Commerce BID, which covers the former Commercial District BID, St George’s Quarter and the waterfront.

Both BIDs are overseen by an operating board, signing off business plans, budgets and major projects delivered by the BID Team, as well as an executive board looking after the governance, finance and strategy of the company.

The expanded Culture & Commerce BID Area, voted for by businesses in spring 2021, has a new operating board, made of businesses who submitted their own representatives.

Coming from a variety of sectors, they include restaurants Lunya and Fazenda, arts organisations, including NML and Tate Liverpool, and professional services firms such as Griffiths & Armour and Moore & Smalley. The board members are:

• Julie Johnson, Morecrofts (chair)
• Mark Blankstone, Blankstone Opticians
• Chris Capes, Peel
• Graham Dagnall, DWF
• Sue Darwell, Bruntwood
• Matthew Donnelly, Griffiths & Armour
• Faye Dyer, ACC Liverpool
• Stephanie Harrison, Regenda Group
• Ross Hazelhurst, Grosvenor Casino
• Julia Carolina Coutinho Huf, Fazenda
• Laura Irving, Tate Liverpool
• Sean Keyes, Sutcliffe Consulting Engineers
• Peter Kinsella, Lunya
• Phil Malthouse, Brock Carmichael
• Ian McCarthy, Lavvu
• Gabrielle Monks, Home Office
• Alan Robson, Project Four Safety Solutions,
• Laura Pye, National Museums Liverpool
• Andy Webster, MHA Moore & Smalley

The new expanded BID Area comes with a five-year business plan £7m investment for Liverpool city centre.

The commitments made during the ballot included upgrading public spaces and civic squares, creating a subvention fund for business events, improving city centre connectivity, improving the gateway access to the city centre, leading on Christmas animation and expanding the BID Police Team and BID Street Rangers.

Chair of the Culture & Commerce BID operating board, Julie Johnson, said: “BIDs represent the donation of two valuable resources to a city – time and investment.

“Accountability and good governance are vital to ensure the strategy and the use of these resources is for the greater good. Liverpool BID is committed to making the city a better place to live, work and thrive.”