IS SPENDING £10,000 a year on the town’s hanging baskets money well spent? That is the question Tavistock Business Improvement (BID) will be asking its members at the AGM next month.

At a meeting of the Tavistock BID board of directors recently, members decided to bring the subject of hanging baskets forward as an item to discuss with BID levy payers at the AGM on October 17.

BID pays roughly £10,000 a year to supply hanging baskets to numerous shops around the town throughout the summer.

This year there were 198 baskets.

The figure also takes into account maintenance of the brackets and baskets and the watering and feeding of the plants.

The directors now want to know if business owners involved in the BID feel that this is the right use of this money or whether it could be changed or managed differently, to free up some money to be used elsewhere.

BID manager Janna Sanders told the Times: ‘We think it is something that needs looking at. We want to gauge whether levy payers feel it is worth the money or whether it could be better managed to free up some funds for other things such as promotion of the town — I think Tavistock is very under-promoted.

‘We’re not advocating not having hanging baskets, we just want to open up discussion about it. It’s an item on the BID plan that needs discussion. If people consider this to be good value for money, maybe we could look at different ways of managing it. We need the levy payers to come to the AGM to tell us what they think.’

At the board of directors meeting, discussion was had about what could possibly be done to make Tavistock attractive in place of hanging baskets. Some ideas included children creating their own baskets, children designing bunting, having bunting up from the end of May until end of September, alternating years for bunting and baskets, allowing BID baskets to be hired by individual shops to create their own basket and providing collection tins in shops for odd change towards baskets/sponsorship.

The BID is a collection of businesses which pay a levy into a ring-fenced account for improvements to the town as agreed by members in a voted-for five year plan.

Tavistock BID members are invited to the AGM at The Bedford Hotel, from 6pm to 8pm.

• What do you think? Is Tavistock enhanced by its hanging baskets or do you think money could be better spent on other things to promote the town? Email us on [email protected]