What's the future for OX1?

Now the not-for-profit company OX1, which recently lost a vote among Oxford's city centre business ratepayers on whether to introduce a one per cent levy to fund extra services - on top of their business rates - is facing an uncertain future.

Its chief executive and only employee, Oliver O'Dell, had hoped to turn the city centre into a Business Improvement District (BID), but last month that initiative went awry when 56 per cent of 356 voters rejected the proposal.

Turning the city centre into a BID (in line with 75 other such BIDs now in the UK) would have brought changes including six uniformed street wardens; a clamp-down on pedlars, particularly in Cornmarket; a better managed street entertainment programme; training schemes for individual busineses to deal with terrorist attacks or natural disasters; regular counts of footfall in the city centre; and research into customers' perceptions of shopping in Oxford.

The deputy leader of the city council, Ed Turner, said: "Now we are in discussion with our partners in the county council about the way forward. We shall ask Oliver O'Dell to explain where he wants to go now. I think it a shame that the BID was not successful, but obviously we want to get value for money. Now we shall take a quiet, calm look at the situation - and not do anything hastily. But there is a dilemma here, and we shall speak to others, including the traders themselves"

He added that the city council remained "completely committed to commercial development in the city centre".

And there is the rub. Oxford, after all, is not, and never has been, a town where the objective of promoting commerce is clear-cut. Business ratepayers here are a disparate lot.

Unlike, say, Swindon - where Mr O'Dell did, indeed, succeed in introducing a successful BID before taking up his Oxford job - many OX1 board members are college bursars, not shopkeepers at all. Others are at least as interested in attracting tourists into the city as they are in persuading people to drive in by car and buy goods in shops.

And traders in Oxford have, in any case, organised themselves into groups such as Rescue Oxford, the High Street Traders Association, the Covered Market Group, and Broad Street Traders to represent their interests - so how does Mr O'Dell justify his continued receipt of funds from the public purse? After all, such grants now represent 90 per cent of OX1's money with the other ten per cent coming from its board members - who include the Estates Bursars Committee of Oxford University, the Westgate, the Clarendon Centre, Oxford Preservation Trust and the Oxford Bus Company.

In answer to that question, Mr O'Dell has now produced a sheet of paper addressed to Oxford City Council and headed Our Reason To Exist.

That reason, according to the sheet of A4, is twofold: firstly, to "introduce new quality management processes into the city, working with new and existing partners"; secondly, to bring "an expert challenge to key city processes such as security, events, promotional activities and communication".

I asked Mr O'Dell to elaborate. He said: "In the first case, I mean that we shall do such things as monitor visitor perceptions of the city - for example, does the experience of visitors exceed their expectations.

"In the second case, we would use our expertise to challenge some of the ways services such as security, are delivered."

The owner of the Oxford Cheese Company in the Covered Market, Robert Pouget, was "flabbergasted" to hear that the councils were still paying out over £100,000 to OX1. He said: "We are paying ever increasing rents to the council and they simply waste it. I voted against the BID because I considered it a rip-off - people wandering about wearing T-shirts with OX1 written on them, asking other people if they are happy - but I am appalled that they are still paying out to OX1 now.

"People come to Oxford because of its history and to admire the beautiful architecture. Instead, they see mismanagement and piles of uncollected rubbish in the streets. The city council throws easy money about, instead of tackling the problems it is paid to tackle. I wonder how much the glossy promotion material for the BID cost?"

In contrast, Albert Ford, owner of Plain Leather, also in the Covered Market, voted for the BID. He said: "The concept seemed good. Traders would have had control of a lump of money to promote Oxford." He added that he would reserve judgement about the fact that the councils were still funding OX1.

A spokesman for the Broad Street Traders, Frank Watson, who runs four city centre shops, agreed. He said: "We'll wait and see where Oliver O'Dell goes now. Of course his funding still comes from us through rents and rates, but at least we're not having to pay an extra levy."

Dave Waller, strategic policy and economic development manager at Oxfordshire County Council, said: "The county council supported the OX1 Business Improvement District bid because it thought OX1 was providing useful drive and management capacity to the process of improving management of Oxford's retail centre.

"Even though the bid has failed, the county council continues to think that they are important in bringing about the improvements that we are all seeking - that is why funding continues."

One last point. The answer to Mr Pouget's question about how much the promotional material for the BID cost is: £20,000 - on top of the councils' funding. Mr O'Dell explained that the money came from another public body, the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).