Business leaders in Garstang, near Preston, are meeting tonight to discuss setting up two Business Improvement Districts on the town's High Street and on the Leachfield Industrial Estate.

Joanne Golton, of the Garstang Partnership, said town leaders were drawing up a feasibility study for the plans which would see businesses pay an extra one per cent on their annual rates.

Officials involved in successful BIDs in the Lake District town of Keswick and on an industrial estate in Hyndburn, east Lancashire will also attend tonight's meeting.

Mrs Golton said: "People we have spoken to think it is a good idea and we are now looking at how much money can be raised and what projects traders would be interested in using the money for.

"It is only an one per cent increase, so for a business spending £4,000 in rates it would only be an extra £40 a year, so the money is not so much the issue.

"If we get enough support now then we will be speaking to a lot more people in the town with a view to drawing up a proposal."

The plan follows a similar proposal being launched by the Fulwood-based North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce to create a BID in Preston city centre, bounded by Ring Way.

It is expected that proposal will go to the vote this autumn.
Garstang Chamber of Trade committee member Damian Carr, who runs Carr's Jewellers on the town's High Street, said tonight's meeting would be to "clear up any misconceptions" about the BID.

He said: "The purpose of it would be to improve the economic sustainability of the area which is covered by the plan."

The BID meeting at Garstang Arts Centre starts at 5.30pm.

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