South Hams councillors met yesterday to decide whether to support Dartmouth's Business Improvement District hopes of pumping £750,000 into regenerating the town over the next five years.

If the BID project goes ahead, the district council would have to find £3,000 a year as its share of the business rates-funded regeneration bill.

And the council even has the power to veto the entire BID proposal if councillors reckon it places an unfair financial burden on people.

Dartmouth Town Council, which would have to find £1,000 a year as its share, has still to meet to decide which way it wants to vote in the postal poll next month which will involve all businesses in the town.

A team of local businessmen have spent the last year working with consultants to produce a business plan which would form the main platform for the improvement district bid.

The proposal is that every business in the town will pay an extra 1.5 per cent of their business rates into a pot which will give the town £750,000 over the next five years to spend on marketing, promotion, car parking improvements and business support.

If enough businesses vote for the proposals then every business within the BID area will have to shell out whether they want to or not.

South Hams Council has various business-rated operations in the town from its car parks to its council depots.

Similarly the town council has business-rated properties including its Guildhall, market and market car park and the Butterwalk complex.

Both will have a vote in the postal poll which has to be completed by November 28.

South Hams Council executive committee was advised yesterday to give its chief executive the power to vote yes in the BID ballot when it gets under way.

The executive was told that the council could veto the ballot but only if it 'materially conflicts with a policy of the authority' or it 'places a significantly disproportionate financial burden on any person or classes of person through manipulation of the geographic boundary or being inequitable'.

A report to the executive also suggests the district council gives the BID team the start-up costs to get the regeneration movement rolling rather than having to wait for the new business levy cash to come in.

Town council finance committee chairman Francis Hawke said it had agreed to support the BID in principal but has still to decide which way to vote.

'Now that the business plan summary is out we can see the detail of the BID,' he said. 'I would think that the town council will now have to sit down and decide just how it is going to vote.'