A PROPOSAL to introduce a scheme in Galashiels where businesses pay a fee to go towards town projects has received emphatic council support.

The Business Improvement District (BID) would see firms charged an additional levy on top of their normal business rates.

Councillors on the local authority’s executive committee gave unanimous backing to the BID process at a meeting this month.

Businesses are set to be balloted on the plans in November.

Jedburgh councillor Scott Hamilton, the council’s executive member for business development, said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity for Gala to be going down this route.

“The BID process is about bottom up, it’s about the communities taking ownership of projects, of ideas and being able to deliver them and having the funding to meet that.

“It’s an ongoing commitment which will have to be made by this council, not just in terms of hard contribution but in terms of development and time, but I think that it’s one we should be meeting.

“This is a community here that has opportunity, it has ability to grow and it has a track record of working to deliver on this.”

Galashiels councillor Fay Sinclair welcomed the proposal.

She said: “I think there have been a number of initiatives in Gala to try and do what this is trying to capture over many years so to formalise it in this way...I think it’s a great opportunity.

“I think that the work that has been done to date stands Gala in a really good position to build on that and really become an excellent destination, more so than it is at the minute.”

A BID for Galashiels was previously considered in 2018 but failed to attract the required backing of businesses at the ballot.

Council leader Euan Jardine, a representative of Galashiels, said: “Obviously I’m going to support this, I think there’s a lot of potential there. It doesn’t seem that long ago since the last BID in 2018, it feels like yesterday, but I think this time there’s a bit more energy, it’s a bit more joined up.”

The council estimates the levy could provide almost £170,000 each year to help deliver projects.

One of the current 33 BIDs operating in Scotland is in the Borders, in the Tweed Valley.

Tweeddale East councillor Robin Tatler said: “It definitely works, it has been very successful”

The Galashiels BID area includes around 350 eligible properties.