The body that aims to improve Newcastle city centre has launched a bid for a fourth term in office.
NE1 has published a consultation document outlining its plans and priorities for the next five years, with proposals to make the city centre cleaner, greener and safer, as well as staging events that bring people in to spend money at local businesses.
The plans have been presented ahead of a vote in October where city centre businesses will decide whether to continue NE1’s operations. The business improvement district operates with a levy taken from firms in the NE1 postcode, with the money raised going to city centre improvement schemes.
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Since being set up in 2009, the organisation has led plans to revive the Bigg Market and also brought improvements to the city’s riverside. It says its priorities for the next five years would include providing a stronger voice for businesses, improving access to the city centre, making the area safer and cleaner, and celebrating different quarters of the city centre.
NE1 chief executive Stephen Patterson said: “It is a hugely exciting time for the city and NE1. Over the past six months, we have been discussing the challenges and opportunities facing the city’s business community and today, we have launched our formal consultation on businesses’ priorities for the next five years.
“Over the next month, we will be contacting all of our businesses to test and refine these priorities. It is an opportunity for each business to influence and shape NE1’s plan for the future.
“It is remarkable what the business community has collectively achieved over the past five years, and there is much to look forward to. The economic foundations of the city are strong and Newcastle is on the cusp of something special.
“It is crucial that the voice of business is heard at the highest level when decisions are being made that will have a lasting impact on the city. Now is the time for business to set the agenda and chart a course for the city until 2029.”
The levy on 1,400 city centre businesses raises around £1.8m each year for NE1’s work. When they were last given the chance to vote on whether NE1 continued, the body was backed by 88% of those voting. Companies will be balloted in September on whether to support NE1.
If backed by the business community, NE1 says it will continue to lobby locally and nationally to increase investment in the city, as well aiming to improve parking and public transport provision.
It wants to celebrate different areas of the city centre and deliver events that drive footfall into city centre businesses, as well as raising the profile of the city centre. And in a bid to improve the area’s sustainability, it says it would make temporary city centre greening and biodiversity measures permanent, as well as waste improving communal recycling.
Since being set up, NE1 says it has attracted £41.4m of investment into the city centre on top of its levy, and has led the creation of Newcastle Restaurant Week and the Business Crime Reduction Partnership. Its consultation comes at a time of major change in the city centre, with a number of major office blocks being developed around Pilgrim Street and the city council saying earlier this week that it hasn’t given up on plans for significant pedestrianisation of the area.
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