Reassurance has been given to small businesses in Helston that they will have a say on whether the town should become a Business Improvement District (BID).

It came at the last meeting of Helston Town Council, when concerns were raised about the direction the Helston Business Improvement Partnership (HBIP) was heading.

It will soon be time for the town’s businesses to decide whether they wish to become a BID. This is effectively a larger version of the HBIP, funding projects and improvements to benefit the area’s economy.

However, it is at a cost to the businesses, who would have to pay an extra percentage on their business rates – usually one or two per cent – to fund it.

It was this that councillor Gillian Geer said was causing concern to some of the smaller businesses – herself included.

Mrs Geer, who owns Gillian’s Tubs in Meneage Street, said: “Owning a small business in the town, it worries me hugely. I have had no communication myself, as a business person; therefore I would assume others haven’t.”

She said while stores such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s might be able to pay, “for the rest of us, once that BID hits the ground we all have to pay and nobody in Helston has got money to do that.”

However, acting chair of HBIP Wendy Radford-Gaby said the businesses would vote on whether they wanted a BID or not. For it to go ahead, the majority of those voting have to vote “yes,” and those positive votes have to represent more than 50 per cent of the total rateable value of all votes cast. However, there is no minimum level for turnout of businesses.

If the BID vote is successful, all businesses in the town will have to pay the fee, regardless of how they voted.

An exception to this would be the smallest businesses who pay less than a certain amount of rates, who could opt to be exempt of paying – although they would also not get a vote, said Mrs Radford-Gaby.

Currently the consultation was still in the very early stages, she said, and businesses would not yet have been contacted.

“If it’s the will of the town and there’s enough small businesses saying this isn’t in the best interest of Helston, they have the right to vote against it. It’s not going to happen overnight,” she added.

Despite this, Mrs Radford-Gaby, who also owns a business in Helston, said: “We hope we can educate all the business owners in the town.

“For me it will cost about £300 a year to opt in, but I see that myself as a marketing tool where I can have a return investment. It means BID is in the best interest of Helston as a whole.”

She said that HBIP was reaching a point where it would have to stop, when the funding ran out, adding: “Then we ask, ‘Do we just stop and marketing will stop, or do we become a BID and that helps to market the town?”