BASINGSTOKE Together, the town’s Business Improvement District (BID), is ‘winding up’ operations, after businesses chose not to renew it.

Basingstoke Together, which was funded by the businesses in the town centre, was seeking a second five-year term after first being set up in November 2015.

However, in a close-call vote of business rates payers held last month, it was decided that the organisation should not be renewed, with 52 per cent in favour of scrapping it.

This week, the company took to its social media to announce it was going dark. The team wrote on Twitter: “Basingstoke Together's social media will be deleted at the end of next week.

If you want to keep up to date with the latest news, events and more from the town centre and beyond please follow @LoveBstoke.”

Jane Stewart, chief executive of Basingstoke Together, told the Gazette: “I think it’s very sad, particularly as we approach our unlocking, because there is so much that we could have done to support businesses through that, and in fact have been doing.”

Jane explained that the company’s role officially halted at the end of March, but that as it winds down its operations, it has offered its services to numerous businesses at this exciting but equally daunting juncture of reopening.

“It’s just sad that this is the end. I would like to say a massive thank you to all the businesses that have engaged with us over the last five years, It’s been an absolute privilege to serve you,” she said.

Jane has previously suggested that a relaunch of a BID in the town may not be too far off.

When asked if she anticipates a revival, she said: “I think once businesses realise the gap that is left then there is every possibility, when the economic climate allows, for a BID to be implemented once again in the town centre.

“But that really is down to need for the businesses, and there is so much going on for the future for the town centre.”

Referencing the council’s upcoming town centre plan, which sees Hemingway Design, Allies and Morrison and JLL appointed at a cost of nearly £200,000 by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to develop a vision for the town centre area over the next six months, Jane said: “If you look at the work that Hemingway [Design] has done for other towns, they certainly listen to what people want.

“Basingstoke as a town has huge things going for it. It has a world-class concert hall, a vibrant theatre. It has Festival Place. We have got the harmony between the historic and the cultural.”

Sending a message to residents, she added: “I would urge everybody to shop local, to support their local town centre. I understand that lots of people have been shopping online, it was bound to increase over lockdown. But now let’s go back and support your local businesses.

“They need you.”