Ho Ho Ho - It's strange to be thinking of Christmas plans when we seem to have almost skipped an entire season and dropped straight from Spring to Autumn, but now is the time to come together if businesses want to collaborate on Christmas activities. To try help facilitate this, I am hosting a Zoom meeting on Thursday 24th September at 6pm. If you are able to join us, please email me and I will send a link to the meeting - info@ilkleybid.co.uk.
Since returning to working in the office, we have moved to upstairs offices in the Town Hall to allow for social distancing. We are therefore not currently offering the weekly 'drop - in ' sessions but you can still make arrangements to come in and see me, book a telephone call or an online meeting or I am happy to visit you providing appropriate guidelines are followed.
Following many enquiries, we are pleased to launch our Voluntary Membership offer, more details below.
If you do not already follow Ilkley BID on Facebook or Twitter, please do so. https://www.facebook.com/IlkleyBID/ and https://twitter.com/IlkleyBID We've been sharing all the relevant government updates and local news for businesses as well as sharing members posts. If you want to bring something to our attention so we can interact with you, remember to tag @IlkleyBID in your post so we get a notification.
If you have any queries about any of the current or proposed plans, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Best wishes,
Helen.
UPDATED COVID-19 MEASURES - NEW RULES FOR BUSINESSES Following the Prime Minister's announcement on Wednesday 9th September, new measures are now in place which will affect the hospitality, hair & beauty salons and the leisure, tourism & travel businesses. It is now mandatory for businesses to collect NHS Test and Trace data, which must be kept for 21 days.
From 14 September, if your business is a restaurant, pub, bar or takeaway you must let your customers know that by law they can only visit in groups of up to 6 people (unless they are visiting as a household or support bubble which is larger than 6).
Government links to the "Working Safely" guidance relevant to your business can be found on our website: https://ilkleybid.co.uk/covid-19-advice-updates.
BID Voluntary Membership Online applications for Voluntary BID Memberships will be open from Monday 21st September on the BID website which details two options for LS29 businesses. Businesses who operate in the LS29 area qualify for the membership if they operate from premises with a business rateable value or are listed at Companies House. Other businesses that do not qualify can take advantage of our advertising package which includes a listing on the Discover Ilkley website, the LoyalFree app and social media promotion. Voluntary membership starts at £120 + VAT and advertising packages from £100+ VAT.
Kickstart jobs scheme The government has introduced a new Kickstart scheme which is a £2 billion fund to create hundreds of thousands of high quality 6-month work placements aimed at those aged 16 to 24 who are on Universal Credit and are deemed to be at risk of long term unemployment. Funding available for each job will cover 100% of the relevant National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, plus the associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrollment contributions.
For businesses looking to take on more than 30 young people, you can apply directly to the government. However, if you are looking to recruit less, then you need to apply through the district's dedicated intermediary: Skills House. They will collate other like minded businesses' applications and apply on everyone's behalf. This will make the application process easier for the smaller companies who only want to hire one or two Kickstarters. If you’re interested in being part of the consortium bid, please register your interest hereKickstart@bradford.gov.ukby the 25th September 2020. They will be back in touch following this date with further information and next steps.
If you’re a large employer and you are planning to submit your own application, Skills House will be able to help you with your recruitment. Skills House work closely with the Job Centre and other partners and will be able to help with recruiting young people who are in receipt of Universal Credit (a requirement of the scheme). To register your interest to work with Skills House, please email Skillshouse@bradford.gov.uk
The Ilkley Sustainability Plan: Ilkley 2030 and Beyond Public meeting, by Zoom, Saturday 26 September 2020, 10.30 to 12.30
A proposal to create a just transition to a sustainable zero carbon community
Ilkley, Burley and Addingham, like all towns and villages in the UK, are going to change radically in the next 10 years. That is the inevitable consequence of the Climate Emergency declarations that have been made by the Westminster government, Bradford district and Ilkley Town Council. By 2050, or before, the nation has to reach ‘net zero’ carbon emissions. And the Committee on Climate Change warned government this year that we are not on target. So huge progress has to be made by 2030 to reduce our impact on the climate, as well as tackling the related biodiversity crisis.
Change is needed to reduce energy use in our homes and businesses, greatly increase walking and cycling and eliminate emissions from motorised transport, change our diets, slash consumption of materials and products, conserve and enhance nature and increase carbon storage in soils and vegetation.
The draft Ilkley Sustainability Plan seeks to address these issues, and more. But it needs residents, businesses and those who work or go to school here to understand and input to it. This is your chance to shape the future of the place in which you live and work.
LoyalFree Update
FREE Advertising & Marketing Tool for BID Members
Winners have now been drawn for the LoyalFree competition which ran throughout August to encourage people to download and use the LoyalFree app. Three prizes of £100 have been awarded and these vouchers are to be spent at an Ilkley business. We have already presented one of the winners with her prize which was attended by Cllrs Kyle Green, Anne Hawkesworth & Mike Gibbons who kindly donated £100 to this project. The lucky winner chose to spend her winnings at The White Stuff in Ilkley.
IF YOU HAVE'T REGISTERED FOR LOYALFREE please register your profile by sending an email to info@loyalfree.co.uk in the following format:
BID area: Ilkley
Business name:
Offer / loyalty scheme: (if you don't have an offer yet leave blank)
T&Cs.
Discover llkley The new Discover Ilkley website is now under construction. We are pleased to be working with Ilkley Town Council who have contributed £8000 to help us develop some aspects of the Discover Ilkley campaign.
FREE Online Courses for BID members Don't forget to take advantage of the free online and subsidised courses available to BID members and their employees. We are offering our BID members up to £20 off any of the courses which incur a fee (each BID member business can use up to three £20 vouchers).
There are lots of great practical courses available on our online learning portal including; Digital Marketing, Home Deliveries for Food Businesses, Essentials of GDPR, Leading Remote Teams, Food Safety & Hygiene, Health & Safety at Work, Infection Prevention and Control and many more. Also lots of general interest courses - Get Moving, Get Healthy and Mental Health Awareness and Wellbeing for example.
The online learning is done on the main Virtual College website but you will need to enter via the joint BIDs portal to access the extended range of free courses. Here is the link - https://bidslearning.vc-enable.co.uk.
August Monthly Sales Data Thank you to everyone who completed the Sales Data survey last month. The new survey for the month of August is now live. Please go to: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/7PGFCG8. There are just 4 quick questions and we don't ask for specific figures, just the general trend of better or worse than the preceding month. It's very important that we collate this data so we can analyse the impact of the Coronavirus on our local economy. Thank you.
Business Photography for Levy Payers Before Lockdown, Althams Travel Agents took advantage of our free photography service and here is a great photo of the Ilkley team. If you would like to book the service or to find out more information please email info@ilkleybid.co.uk.
Wishing you all the best and hoping to see you all soon,
Helen & The Ilkley BID Team
