One Warkworth – BID to beat bureaucrats

Warkworth has massive growth ahead of it. Designated as a satellite town in Auckland’s Unitary Plan, Warkworth is expected to grow from a town of 4500 people to be over 25,000 within the next 20 years. The motorway extension is due to be complete by October 2021 and the first tranches of development land are having private plan changes proposed, and sods are being turned already.

Warkworth needs a strong voice to represent it with all this imminent growth and change. Without it, the future of Warkworth will be left up to the bureaucrats in Auckland Council, Auckland Transport, other Council-Controlled Organisations and private developers. The hopes, aspirations and needs of the community could well be left behind.

One Warkworth Business Association has been working hard to fill this void in the last three years. We’ve been proactive in our approach with Council organisations, we’ve been making sure the community’s voice has been heard. We’ve also been assisting our member businesses and running events and functions, not only for our members, but also for the community at large. We think we’ve done a reasonable job with the resources that we’ve had, and Murray Chapman and his helpers certainly have had the best interests of the town at heart.

To date, we’ve been funded by our 250 plus members and 23 sponsors. The sponsors have accounted for 70 per cent of our income. Without their benevolence, One Warkworth is at serious risk. We can’t do what we do without resources, and it would only take losing a few sponsors, who in reality support us to support the town and don’t get a great return on their investment, to end the viability of the association.

It is for that reason that we are proceeding with a campaign to create a Business Improvement District (BID) in Warkworth. The voting will be held from Feb 17 to March 16.

There are some important differences to this BID campaign compared to the one proposed in 2016. This time, there is a flat levy of $500 plus gst to be charged to each rateable property, split between the number of businesses in the property. Last time, it was a mechanism based on the capital value (CV) of the property and some businesses were going to have to pay thousands of dollars each year. That is not the case this time. Given that a lot of our members are one of two or three tenants in a building, many will end up paying the association less than their current membership fee of $240. For those in the BID area, they will not be required to pay membership fees and the BID levy. We will no longer have membership fees for Warkworth businesses, but we will have associate membership for those who work outside of the BID area who wish to continue to support One Warkworth.

One misconception of BIDs is that Council controls where the money is spent. That is not correct. It is spent by the association itself in line with a two-year business plan and budget, which is approved by the committee of the Association and at the AGM. It is money collected from local businesses, spent by locals for the benefit of locals.

Getting the BID across the line is critical to the long-term survival of One Warkworth. We ask for your support. We need people to vote, and we need people to vote “yes” to the BID in Warkworth. We are stronger together.