NEWPORT city centre businesses have their say on the next week's Business Improvement District (BID) vote.

BIDs, like Newport Now, are set up to support local businesses in area.

However, local business owner, Jordan Zanchi Jones said: "The problem is getting shoppers into Newport."

Mr Zanchi Jones is the director of Euro Gallery, an art, printing, restorations and frame shop in the Kingsway Centre.

Mr Zanchi Jones said he was likely to vote yes in the ballot which ends on November 28 but he said there are issues in Newport that the BID will not be able to solve.

BIDs fund events like Christmas light count downs, as well as projects like helping businesses with their signs, saving advice, and crime management and radios between shops, and street ambassadors.

"The BID in and of itself is a good idea but more needs to be done," said Mr Zanchi Jones and he said this should be done by the council, such as lower business rates.

Newport council does not set business rates but collects them  on behalf of Welsh Government.

BIDs are funded by the businesses paying an amount into a pot. In Newport, the businesses that are part of the BID are businesses with a rateable value of £5,000 or more a year.

Newport Now has handed out leaflets to businesses in Newport city centre with information about the BID and the upcoming vote on November 28. 

BIDs are set up when businesses in the area vote to create them and keep them.

However, many businesses and business owners do not know much about it. The Argus spoke to several businesses and many did not know about the BID.

Manager at Cards Direct, a card shop on Friar's Walk, said she has heard about the BID but did not know much about it.

She said: "I have heard about it but I am not sure if we are signed up to it. I would not have a clue about it."

Newport Now is one of 340 BIDs in the UK. Newport Now has been BID since 2015. At the last ballot, in 2019, 64% of businesses voted to keep the BID.

For a successful Yes vote, more than 50% of businesses that vote, must vote in favour of keeping the Newport Now BID and of the businesses that vote, their combined rateable value must be greater than 50% of the area's total.