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12 June 2020c0sk8dBid

Bournemouth Coastal BID has secured £100,000 in grants for businesses since the coronavirus struck.

Manager Fiona McArthur became aware that many enterprises in the seven ‘villages’ it represents did not realise what they were entitled to.

She phoned around all manner of companies and helped them receive what they were due in the form of interruption grants.

This could be the difference between some of them surviving or dying.

The BID’s ‘villages’ are Tuckton, Pokesdown, Southbourne, Boscombe, East Cliff & West Cliff, Seafront and Westbourne.

The Coastal Business Improvement District (BID) is a business-led partnership that delivers additional services.

Areas of tourism have been hardest hit with the enforced Covid-19 restrictions and the hospitality, retail and leisure sectors remain in peril.

The Coastal BID also secured around £60,000 in further grants to enable it to continue its work.

Fiona said: “It’s vital that we keep our businesses open because they create jobs and boost the local economy – and families depend on them.

“I became aware that there were businesses who didn’t realise that they were entitled to a grant.

“Part of the BID’s remit is to help businesses and that is what we did by informing them what they were entitled to and helping them claim it.

“For a small, independent business £10,000 makes a huge difference.

“We are now moving to the next stage and assisting them as they begin to reopen.

“It’s vital that people use what they have or they will find that it has gone, which is why we want communities to support what’s on their doorstep in all our coastal ‘villages’.”