ALISON Steere is the new manager of Dartmouth Busin­ess Improvement District.

She replaces former BID director Francesca Johnson, who has been covering the role temporarily since former Chronicle reporter Phil Scoble resigned last year.

Ms Steere, who lives in Kingsbridge, took up the full-time role on Monday as the project is about to enter its second year.

She is the third person to be appointed BID manager since the project was set up a year ago and said she was excited to be joining the team.

'I know that their first 12 months have been challenging but it looks like there are some exciting initiatives planned for 2015/16 and I will work hard to deliver these successfully in partnership with the BID board and associate team members,' she said.

Ms Steere has a marketing background and was formerly employed by the Salcombe-based Bang Wallop photography, run by Lorna Yabsley.

The BID board came under fire from town photographers when Bang Wallop was awarded a marketing photo shoot last year.

Ms Steere has also worked for Archant Life publishing and in advertising sales at South Hams Newspapers – owner of the Chronicle ­– and is already known to some of the town's business owners.

One of her first roles will be to take on the management of the BID's Trade Local campaign. Ms Johnson said: 'This is the ideal task to introduce Alison to all of the BID stakeholders as she will be able to visit each business, making sure they are correctly detailed on what will be the first complete database for all registered Dartmouth businesses.

'She will also be able to establish how they would like to participate in the Trade Local campaign and/or benefit from the marketing campaign and trade show promoting its launch on April 17 and 18.'

Ms Steere will be at the next free BID workshop at the Clifton Rooms on Tuesday at 5pm, hosted by Cloudberry Digital and Depledge Media of Dartmouth. The session will cover how to get the best out of using Facebook.

During her first few months, Ms Steere also hopes to visit other BIDs to see how they operate.

As manager, Ms Steere is the one paid for employee on the BID team, which is mainly made up of volunteers.

She is believed to be on a salary of £25,000, which is paid for by levy members.

Ms Johnson said she would intially retain a supportive role to help ensure that the change over of responsibilities went as smoothly and efficiently as possible.