CuparNow is well into the final 12 months of its first five-year term. Now, a Business Plan for a second five years (2025-2030) has been published proposing halving the annual levy for 89% of all businesses and organisations.

Successes to date mean the levy can be cut – with plans for advertising revenue to reduce the reliance on levy income together with additional investment that’s being attracted to the project. The ambition is to remove the need for a levy altogether by the end of the second term, creating a sustainable model that will help to support the town and our community long into the future. Read on for more – and to download a copy of the 2025-2030 Business Plan …

Building on Success …

We would like to say ‘thank you‘ to all who have supported us since the project launched formally at the end of 2019. In that time, we have built a combined digital audience that tops 125,000 – readers of our Blog, followers on social media as well as those who have dipped in to watch or listen to content featured on our YouTube and Podcast channels.

That audience – together with the widening reach of CuparNow’s engagement – is the reason we are able to look at halving the levy for the vast majority of businesses and organisations in the CuparNow Digital Improvement District area.

In just over five years, we have built a combined, engaged digital audience that is a real asset for the town and our community: as explained in our Business Plan, we will continue to deliver support for businesses – capturing, sharing and promoting dynamic content from levy-payers to our ever-growing audience – at the same time as creating an advertising platform that will enable businesses and organisations to pay to access that audience.

And such is the success of CuparNow – especially in supporting not just the Cupar community but communities across north-east Fife – that we will bring additional investment to the project – again, all enabling us to reduce the levy for more than 9 out of 10 businesses and organisations in the town.

Next steps …

When businesses voted to back CuparNow in a ballot at the end of 2019, that set up a five year term – a term that ends this Christmas.

Beyond that? The Steering Group of businesses (made up of business owners and managers in the town, together with one elected and one officer representative from Fife Council) have decided to go for a renewal ballot. That will be held in February 2025, albeit with a very different approach that will see the annual levy reduced considerably for 95% of businesses and organisations in the town.

All of our work – supporting businesses, community groups, culture and tourism initiatives, education and training providers, environmental projects, health & social care partnerships as well as resulting economic development in and around the town – is funded by the town’s businesses and organisations.

The successful ballot – back in 2019 – set up a legislative process within Scotland’s Planning Act whereby each business pays an annual levy based on their property’s non-domestic rateable value. Liaising with businesses at the time, we kept that levy as low as possible for the vast majority of the town’s businesses – just £100 per year. Only the bigger businesses and employers in town paid more.

Although our Business Plan on which we won the ballot said the levy would be index linked, we took a business decision not to make it so – not least of all due to Covid and lockdowns hitting all hard within months of our start. Had we? That £100 would now be £124.

Business first …

The support we deliver – enabled by levy payers – goes far beyond the individual support we provide for any one business or organisation.

That said, every business contributing to CuparNow is supported by our work: from categorised listings and profiles on our Blog to shared content via our social media channels and targeted e-shots – promoting products and services, helping companies to recruit as well as highlighting events and activities.  We also issue B2B communication sharing all manner of information including access to business grants, support services from Police Scotland and much more. The most recent? A video shot in support of Bell Baxter High School’s upcoming Careers’ Fair inviting businesses to get involved …

The whole – as a community benefit – is far greater than the sum of the parts.

The following are just some of those benefits – all of which will end if businesses choose not to continue their support beyond the end of the current term.

All ages …

Throughout, it has been our ambition to help support all ages across our area. We have monitored our channels’ data recording analytics and insights to track and report on the demographic of our audiences.

We are pleased that the content we create and share resonates so widely across all age groups. The infographic below highlights this: the only caveat is that many digital channels do not report U18 numbers and so we know our audience of youngsters is higher than that shown.

Cupar’s diaspora …

It is you who has helped us to grow such an engaged audience – people who live and work in the town as well as those who have a connection, through schools, clubs, the college or any of the businesses and community organsiations. You are our advocates.

The content we create and share – and have done so uninterrupted through the last five years – is picked up by our audiences who, in turn, share with friends, family and colleagues … close to home and further afield. As a result, the message spreads far and wide.

The map (below) shows the readership of our Blog through the last year – thousands of readers, the vast majority being close to home – all helping to amplify and promote Cupar. We are very proud to have readers in every time zone around the world!

Another five years …

We are asking businesses and organisations to vote for us again – to allow us to continue this vital support for our town, businesses, community groups and so much more.

It is true to say that those who have been open to our support have received the best return on their investment and involvement. Sadly, some – a very small minority – have been naysayers. That saddens us as we are here to help and support all but can only do so if they fully engage.

As we have promised throughout the last five years, we have wanted our unique digital improvement district model to evolve – and for us to look at ways of reducing the financial burden falling solely on levy-payers. We have done just that.

If we are successful in the renewal ballot, we will halve the annual levy to just £50 per year for 89% of businesses and drastically reduce levies for a further 6%.

The biggest businesses and organisations in the town – the 5% who receive the greatest benefit from our work and the amplification of Cupar to an ever-growing audience – will be asked to pay more. We think that is the right thing to do.

As explained, we are able to take this step because of CuparNow’s successes …

• Audience Growth & Reach – our combined, engaged audiences provide us with the opportunity to offer paid advertising that will generate income to offset the levy. Information on this is contained in the Business Plan.
• Investment – we are also bringing third-party investment to Cupar, again, ensuring the levy can be reduced for the vast majority; this means we can guarantee there will be no index linking of the levy for the next five years. The levy in 2025-26 will be the same as in 2029-30.

Together, these three funding streams – the levy, advertising revenue and investment – will enable CuparNow to continue in the event of a successful ballot.

We have submitted a proposal to Fife Council (within the legislative requirements) to inform them of our intention to proceed to a renewal ballot. Accompanying that is a 55-page Final Report & Business Plan outlining the work we have delivered since 2019 and the planned delivery to build on those successes through 2025-2030. This Business Plan has been written with the support and approval of our Steering Group. It is most likely that it will be updated between now and the issuing of ballot papers.

You can download and read the Business Plan by clicking on the front cover (below).

If you have any feedback or suggestions of coverage over and above that featured in the Plan, feel free to contact us.

Open Meetings …

If we are successful in the February ballot, ABCD, the town’s Business Association will become our Steering Group – together with elected and officer representation from Fife Council. ABCD plans to hold open meetings to which all levy payers will be invited in the countdown to the Ballot where the Business Plan will be presented and there will be Q&A sessions. Dates, times and venues will be set for these soon – and published widely. It is expected there will be meetings later this month, November and January. More will be shared on this via our social media and B2B channels.

But you do not need to wait for these meetings should you have any questions or concerns: you can contact us at any time and we can arrange a 1:1 meeting or call. Simply drop an email to us via this link – giving your name, business/organisation and nature of enquiry – or call and leave a message on our number: 01334 870858. We will respond as soon as we are able.

Yes or No?

We cannot stress enough that a failure to win the ballot in February will see all of our work end.

The graphic below lays out just some of our achievements and successes – all enabled through our collaborative approach, working with businesses, organisations a community groups.

If we do not secure enough ‘Yes’ votes everything stops:

• No more business support via our digital channels
• No more promotion of Cupar to our audiences at home and further afield
• No more e-shots to share support for customers, businesses or community partners
  
• No more Blog with its much-used business listings and profiles
• No more promotion of available jobs, community events or activities
• No more Community Directory or support for 90+ associations, charities, clubs, groups or societies
• No more Podcasts or videos sharing community projects and initiatives
• No more Community Fund to support local charities and causes

We have done all we can to help support the town’s business community through the last five years – including through the very tough lockdowns and restrictions.

As stated, we did not index link the levy and have kept it at the same level since 2019 – already delivering savings for businesses and organisations with no cut in service provision.

We have worked on a Business Plan that aims to reduce the levy for 95% of the businesses and organisations in town – halving it for 89%.

We have been very proud to have worked hand in hand with so many local partners and community stakeholders.

We hope businesses and organisations who have a vote in the planned ballot come February 2025 will recognise the value we bring and continue to support CuparNow for another five years.

And if you are member of the public – a resident or visitor to the town and you enjoy all that we share through CuparNow – please let businesses know that you value their support for us and ask them to maintain that support so we can continue to deliver in support of all across our community.

 

Thank you for reading.