THIS month the Winsford Industrial Estate Business Community will have a choice to make – that choice will be to vote for or against a third term for a Business Improvement District (BID).

A Business Improvement District enables groups of businesses to commission projects that will lead to improvements in their local trading environment, funded through an additional levy charged through the business rates system.

The funding raised from the levy, is ring fenced and held locally, and invested in added value projects and services.

If approved BID 3 will run from 2016 to 2021, building upon the numerous successes, improvements and developments that businesses on Winsford Industrial Estate have seen during the first nine years of the BID and will be delivered against three key themes.

The BID on Winsford Industrial Estate was first established in November 2005 when 89 per cent of companies located on the estate voted ‘yes’, making Winsford the UK’s first Business Improvement District to be located on an industrial estate.

Since then the estate has gone from strength to strength, now home to 150 companies, employing more than 4,000 people and delivering a series of improvements, benefits and schemes designed to allow businesses, and their employees, to flourish.

Since 2006 the BID has seen almost £1million of private sector led investment in a whole host of projects and services including a dedicated CCTV system, mobile security services and other crime reduction initiatives.

As a result crime has reduced significantly, falling to an all-time low on the estate.

Pete Price, chairman of Winsford 1-5 Business Environment Group, said: “A successful “Yes vote” in November 2015 will see the BID 3 business plan continue to deliver a programme of new projects and maintain those projects and services delivered over the last 9 years.

“Simply, if we the business community Vote ‘No’ – everything that we have achieved so far will be lost and – worse – this opportunity will be lost.”

Jane Hough, Business Improvement District Manager, added: “The Winsford 1-5 BID has enabled the industrial estate to flourish with additional private sector investment allowing a range of benefits and improvements made to the area.

“The next five years would see an additional £574,000 being invested in the estate to ensure that Winsford Industrial Estate retains its position as one of the premier flagship industrial estates in Cheshire and the Northwest.”