The Business Improvement Districts (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Business Improvement Districts (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014 and shall come into operation on the 1^st July 2014.

(2) In these Regulations—

“the 2013 Act” means the Business Improvement Districts Act (Northern Ireland) 2013;

“the 2014 (Miscellaneous) Regulations” means the Business Improvement Districts (Miscellaneous) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014;

“alteration ballot” has the meaning given in regulation 19;

“alteration proposals” means proposals in relation to the alteration of BID arrangements pursuant to regulation 16;

“ballot holder” has the meaning given in regulation 6;

“barcode” means marks—

(a)

appearing on the ballot paper and containing in an encoded form information relating to a voter and a ballot;

(b)

capable of being scanned electronically in a manner that permits the encoded information contained in the marks to be decoded; and

(c)

in which the information encoded in the marks cannot be decoded when read only by the human eye;

“BID” means business improvement district under Section 1 of the 2013 Act;

“BID ballot” means a ballot under section 5(1) of the 2013 Act;

“BID body” means the body (whether corporate or not corporate) responsible for the implementation of the works or services to be provided within the BID arrangements, where a BID body is included in the BID proposals in terms of paragraph (1)(a) of Schedule 1 to these Regulations;

“BID levy” means a levy that is imposed on those persons who are, in respect of particular BID proposals, entitled to vote in accordance with section 6(2) of the 2013 Act;

“BID proposer” means a person who draws up BID proposals;

“billing body” means the person that is appointed by the district council in respect of the geographical area of the business improvement district for the purposes of the administration, collection and recovery of the BID levy (and which may be a district council or some other person);

“commencement date”, subject to regulation 9(12), means the day, pursuant to section 11(3) of the 2013 Act, the BID arrangements are to come into force;

“the day of the ballot” means the day determined by the ballot holder, in accordance with Schedule 2, as the day by which ballot papers must be returned to the ballot holder;

“demand notice” means the notice required to be served under paragraph 2(1) of Schedule 4;

“electronic communication” means a communication transmitted (whether from one person to another, from one device to another or from a person to a device or vice versa)—

(a)

by means of an electronic communications network (within the meaning of the Electronic Communications Act (Northern Ireland) 2001)(1); or

(b)

by other means but while in an electronic form;

“eligible ratepayer” means a person a person as described in section 6(3) of the 2013 Act;

“NAV list” has the same meaning as in the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977(2);

“re-ballot” means a BID ballot, renewal ballot, or alteration ballot, as the case may be, which is required to be arranged pursuant to regulation 9(10);

“relevant property” has the same meaning as provided for in section 6(4) of the 2013 Act for the purposes of that section;

“renewal ballot” means a ballot under section 16(2) of the 2013 Act;

“renewal proposals” means proposals in relation to the renewal of the BID arrangements under section 16(2) of the 2013 Act;

“veto” means a veto by the district council pursuant to section 9 of the 2013 Act; and

“working day” means any day which is not a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday.

(1)

2001, c.9 (NI). (as amended by 2003, c.21)

(2)

1977 No. 2157 (N.I. 28)