THE Helensburgh and Lomond Chamber of Commerce is holding a public meeting in the town this week over the prospect of setting up a Business Improvement District, or BID, in the area.

The Chamber says it’s concerned that businesses in Helensburgh “may be approaching [the idea] without being given a full picture of what is involved”.

The meeting, at the Helensburgh and Lomond Civic Centre on Tuesday, October 2, will be addressed by journalist Karen McRostie, who has previously raised questions about the BID process elsewhere in Scotland - particularly in Auchterarder in Perthshire, where the prospect of a BID foundered after too few local businesses expressed support for a vote on the issue.

It follows the establishment by the Chamber of a ‘Helensburgh BID Information’ page on Facebook.

A Chamber spokesperson said in a statement: “The Chamber has set up a Helensburgh BID Information group to garner information about what exactly a BID is; how a BID Group is set up and who runs it; what the full potential of the BID levy might be; and who potentially will have to pay it.

“The Chamber believes that the only way to establish whether a BID development is really in the best interests of local businesses is to ensure that all the information, for and against, is available to the people who will be making decisions that will affect their businesses and organisations for at least five years.”

Business Improvement Districts – recently relaunched as simply ‘Improvement Districts’ – are set up following ballots of business owners in a defined area, with a vote of 50 per cent plus one vote of those taking part required to bring a BID into existence.

Where a BID is established, business owners are required to pay a levy, dependent on their business’s rateable value, on top of their non-domestic rates to fund the BID’s work.

The Chamber’s spokesperson said: “BID companies have the power to decide not only how much you pay but also how big an area they will tax, and they can change the rules at will.

“Once the BID company has decided the area boundary every single property listed on the non domestic rates register will be invoiced for the tax.”

Phil Prentice from the Scotland’s Towns Partnership, which oversees the national BID scheme, said in response: “The Helensburgh group is very much still at discussion stage about what a BID might or might not do for Helensburgh - i.e. they are still consulting to develop some proposals.

“Nothing has been agreed. Things are simply being discussed, and then these discussions will be widened out to others, once there is something to show and talk about.

“One of the ideas was to bring the Chamber on board as a partner – if a BID was progressed then some resource would go towards building up the Chamber to focus on business development for the town.

“This is the sort of relationship I’m agreeing with Scottish Chambers to ensure there is a national impact for Chambers.

“However I’ve seen a Helensburgh BID Facebook page being created which is full of factual inaccuracies (no BID in Scotland pays 5%, Karen is not a BID expert etc) and FB usually leads to negative social media trolls from the anti BID movement, who will potentially poison everything for the town before it’s even had a chance to consider something new.

“This is disappointing given the desire to build partnerships, however perhaps Karen and co can come up with some decent ideas to help Helensburgh."

Tuesday's meeting starts at 7pm.