NEWPORT’s city centre is entering a Renaissance with Friar’s Walk and the new ‘business improvement district’ coming together at the same time.

That’s the message from those working on Newport Now, a scheme to get all 400 businesses based in the centre to invest collectively and improve the city streets.

Laura Smith, who manages the BID (Business Improvement District) day-to-day, gave an update on how the project is going at a Newport Civic Society meeting on Thursday.

After a majority voted for it, all businesses in the new district (from the railway on one side, as far as the Usk and Charles Street) will pay a certain amount, in proportion to the size of their businesses, to improve the shopping environment with the hope of boosting trade.

Ms Smith said: “It’s a beautiful coincidence that [new shopping centre] Friar’s Walk has happened at this point and the BID have been set up at this time. It’s almost the beginning of a new phase of city centre management in which public and private interests are both represented.

“We have a second chance at a first impression.”

The aim is to give business owners more of a say in how their streets are managed, with the first collective schemes introduced in North America in the 1970s.

They have taken longer to establish in the UK, with Newport the third community in Wales to set one up after backing from the Chamber of Trade.

One of the specific objectives in Newport is to increase the number of people coming into the centre by challenging perceptions that antisocial behaviour is a big problem and that many of the shops are empty.

Disused shops will no longer present a depressing and boarded up facade, organisers hope, with a competition for local artists to display their work there.

“The idea is to give empty units a bit of a facelift,” Ms Smith said. “We’re not suggesting it’s a longterm solution to the problem but it will certainly impact in the short term. If you think about a shopping centre, for example, you won’t have big vacant windows.”

Other plans including making nights out safer by helping doormen and police coordinate with taxi drivers, and hiring ‘ambassadors’ who will be able to advise visitors on attractions and heritage like the Newport Ship and how to find their way around.

Christmas will have a “real shine” this year, Ms Smith said, with businesses helping to make sure the centre will be dazzling and bright.

One of the conditions for the BID is that it cannot replace council services - anything that is funded must be in addition to what the local authority already provides.

Every five years, businesses will get the chance to vote again so if they don’t see the benefits Newport Now could be dismantled.