BID manager Jonny Noble said: “A key part of our role is to help the city centre thrive and that means doing all we can to ensure retailers, leisure operators, hospitality providers and service businesses and the like are given every chance to get back on their feet after the blows they have suffered as aa result of the pandemic. Our aim is to encourage people to come back to the city centre and rediscover what a fabulous place it is but we also recognise that this has been an unprecedented set of circumstances and many small businesses in particular will be overfaced by the rules and regulations and will need some guidance as to where to find the support they need. We hope by providing this free, easily-accessible platform we can give them some encouragement and Nikki will be seeking to interview specialists who will help reassure them that better times are ahead.”

The podcasts will be published on YouTube and details and links will be available on the Bradford BID website, bradfordbid.co.uk.

Mrs Chadburn said: “These podcasts will be all about different aspects of business support, to help levy-payers with their recovery phase as they get back to business. Each episode will cover a different aspect of support, including such things as HR and recruitment advice, employment law, training and marketing, for example, with a range of interviewees giving guidance based on their sphere of expertise. We’re very keen for levy-paying members to tell us what help they need and I would urge them to let me know – via the Bradford BID website – what areas they would like us to cover and any questions they want us to try to answer during these sessions.  We’ll be talking during the podcast about some of the projects we’ve devised and are working on to help them, such as the LoyalFree app which provides a host of interactive city centre trials which encourage visitors to spend more time here and residents to rediscover some of the places they may have forgotten or have not been to for a long time, as well as providing an outlet for special offers and discounts that businesses might want to give to help bring in trade.” 

She said the first episode – already available – features details of some exciting new initiatives coming up, including a series of business networking meetings with guest speakers and a new task force to tackle some city centre issues. “We’ve also organized some free training courses for businesses and their staff and one of the podcasts will feature someone from the Virtual College explaining how useful these are and how people can take advantage of them,” said Mrs Chadburn.

Details of the podcasts and when they will be available will be published on the BID website and social media accounts as well as in the BID’s regular newsletter for levy-payers.