MORE than 40 business owners and managers attended the second stage meeting of the proposed Business Improvement District (BID) recently, to produce ideas for possible projects to enhance Tavistock.

Now voting on the ideas is taking place.

At the meeting, the business owners worked in groups and came up with more than 100 ideas that would benefit the town if the BID is voted in.

Many common themes arose, including car parking and how to tackle it, marketing Tavistock, including an events calendar, heritage tours, increased signage and a website to promote the town, working with the young people in the town to encourage their involvement and many more ideas.

Robert Creber, owner of N H Creber of Tavistock in Brook Street, said: 'It was interesting and good to see so many business people in one room sharing ideas.

'I do think we need to get parking and traffic management right before we do any other projects. If people can't park they can't spend money. I look forward to voting on the projects.'

The projects are now on the BID website and business owners and local managers need to register and vote for the projects they want included in the BID business plan.

The first round of voting has already begun and will finish on Friday December 17.

Once the votes have been gathered, the projects that have received the most votes will go back on the website and round two of the voting process will take place in January.

A BID is a partnership between a local authority and the local business community to develop projects and services that will benefit the trading environment of a set area, funded by a levy on the businesses.

The money is collected by the borough council and put into a ring-fenced account.

The top voted projects will be taken and looked at to check how viable they would be to implement within the expected BID levy fund. These will then go into the BID business plan which will go before the business community in February.

The BID ballot is expected to take place in June.

Business owners and local managers who would like to vote on the proposed projects should visit http://www.tavistockbid.co.uk">www.tavistockbid.co.uk click on the link under 'Vote Now', click on 'Register here' and enter details.

Another screen will appear giving a password which voters need to make a note of and use every time they log in.

Business owners will have ten votes. There will be a list of projects and descriptions for voters to choose. Click on the project to vote for it (it will appear highlighted in grey once the vote has been cast).

Anyone with questions regarding the BID and how to vote should contact Lisa Waddling on 01822 618115.