A campaign for Carnoustie to become a Business Improvement District has failed after 59% of businesses rejected the plans.
The BID scheme would have seen companies in the area contribute to a pot which could then be spent on a variety of projects for the benefit of the businesses, townsfolk and visitors.
The contributions for businesses would have been set at between £300 and £6,000 a year depending on rateable value with the expectation of a pot of cash worth more than £75,000 a year to spend.
Announcing the results of the ballot at Carnoustie Access Office, Angus Council’s chief executive Margo Williamson revealed that out of 96 votes made, 57 businesses rejected the plans with 39 in favour.
Peter Burke, who led the Connecting Carnoustie steering group, said: “I’m not surprised but very disappointed that businesses have taken the long view for the benefit of their own business, the community and future workforce.
“I was a shop owner when the plans were first mooted and it seemed such a no brainer for me.”
A majority both in terms of number of businesses and by rateable value of votes cast was required for the BID plans to succeed.
The results suggested that large businesses supported the plans.
The rates total for businesses supporting the BID was £881,900 compared to £457,075 to reject the proposals.
A number of small businesses in the town are understood to have considered the proposals too expensive.
“This is a smaller town with lots of small businesses and in order to generate sensible amounts for the projects that businesses said they wanted, we had to have a reasonable rate,” Mr Burke added.
“A rate of just over £5 a week for smaller businesses was not in my view wrong.”
Maureen and Derek Sturrock of Sturrock Computers had been vocal in the community about their opposition to the plans.
They noted that more than 30% of the funds raised would have been spent on administration costs – to Angus Council processing the payments and to a BID manager on £15,000 a year.
Maureen said: “We didn’t think it was a good idea because they were asking for so much money. We were going to be about £400 a year.
“When you look at other BIDs around the country we were being asked to pay about double or even more than BID areas like Bathgate.
“It would have meant we ended up with empty shops.”
Some companies in Carnoustie are now planning to look at forming a business association.