Whilst I was away……
1. I have returned from two weeks holiday to hear the great news that the Isle of Wight Destination BID was successful and that work is now ongoing to bring the new arrangement for the whole island in to place for the New Year. Congratulations to all concerned.
1.1. The Isle of Wight model, albeit island based, along with the largely rural model deployed in Scotland for Visit Inverness and Loch Ness gives further opportunities for the development of other wider area BIDs, as wells as for the more usual urban destinations based BIDs that we are now becoming reasonably familiar with. Examples of destination based BIDs of all shapes and sizes can be accessed via the updated Britishdestinations.net page: https://britishdestinations.net/business-improvement-districts-and-tourism/ .
2. The Coastal Communities Fund (CCF) application process for CCF funding for the period 2017/18 to 2018/19 in England opened in May (and is now closed). In Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales it opened on 4 July and closes on 17 August in Scotland and Northern Ireland and 29 September in Wales. More details can be accessed via: https://britishdestinations.net/new-funding/coastal-communities-fund/ccf-201718-202021-update/
2.1. Of note, the date for applications for the next two year tranche of bidding has been given in the Big Lottery website as 2017, when logically for funding for 2019/20 -2020/21 it might reasonably have be expected to have been 2018? Whether this is a simple error or an indication of either minor administrative or major structural changes to the presumed goal posts needs to be investigated further. We will let you know, but as it stands bids for the next tranche will be taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland sometime in 2017 and not 2018 as you may have been expecting. Arrangements for the next round in Scotland have yet to be announced as these will now have to tie in with ongoing plans to give their Parliament direct control of all Crown Estate revenues generated within Scotland.
British Destinations 