The West Dunbartonshire town of Alexandria, on the southern end of Loch Lomond, could be in line for a major economic boost if a vote succeeds next week, November 14, to designate the post-industrial area as a Business Improvement District (BID).
The move is being driven by local businesswoman Sian Wilkie, Director of Wilkie’s Eyecare, which has a practice at 136 Main Street in Alexandria, as well as one in Dumbarton and another in Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire.
If the ballot of local businesses is in favour of the BID, the centre of the town – which has seen mixed fortunes over the course of its more than 200-year history – could benefit from a complete re-branding designed to make it not only more attractive to locals, but also to act as a magnet for the hordes of visitors to the nearby Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.
It could also create an invaluable stimulus for business owners who have seen the town’s mercantile offering decline in recent years through a lack of investment from the local authority and central government and a radical change in retail spending behaviour.
Sian Wilkie, who needs other businesses to agree for the BID to become official, said: “Alexandria has a unique Main Street, with lots of independent firms and shops, but it has seen a real fall-off in recent years both in its aesthetic appeal and with loss of retail offerings.
“We must make sure that more enterprises are not lost and, as a local business owner myself, I want to protect jobs for the greater good of the West Dunbartonshire community. We want to work with the council to effect change, but the BID will allow firms here to put a pot of money up to take ownership of their own future.
“The centre of the town can look a lot better, and can accommodate a much higher footfall. We are very close to the National Park here, but visitors just pass us by. There is no signage to direct people to us, which the BID could help with, and we could provide support for businesses in areas such as staff training, advertising and better branding.”
A Business Improvement District is a part of a town, a tourism and visitor area, a commercial district or a specific theme, such as food and drink, in which businesses work together to invest in local improvements for the benefit of their communities.
BIDs can only exist if they get support from a clear majority of local businesses in a vote. They operate for up to five years and are developed, managed and paid for by businesses through a compulsory BID charge, which in the case of Alexandria would start at just £360 a year for smaller enterprises.
Alexandria is no stranger to entrepreneurship and industry. It was home in the early 1900s to the Argyll Motor Works, which at one stage employed 1,500 people making sought-after cars from a custom-built factory with a gold-leafed dome and a magnificent marble staircase.
One of the people it trained was John Logie Baird, the inventor of television, who worked as an engineering apprentice for Argyll – as did the man whose face was the first to be transmitted on television in 1926, Oliver Hutchison.
Sian Wilkie said: “People here have understandably become a bit jaded of late, and sometimes can feel that nothing ever changes. But there is a lot of positivity about the BID and, with councils facing more cuts, it would be good for businesses to have their say – and the power to influence their own destiny.
“People who previously have been on the fence have now come on board, and the existing trades group is very supportive. We have talked with other BIDs, in Paisley and Milngavie, in East Dunbartonshire, and there are a lot of positive stories about what can be done.
“It is crucial that we make the project cost-effective, with smaller business paying less in terms of a levy and bigger concerns shouldering a greater share. But there’s such a lot that can be done.
“First of all, we have to address the current state of the town and then, once we’ve improved it, shout from the rooftops to let people know about it.”
