Coventry Best 4 Business

"The BID Company's position has not altered. In our letter to all levy-payers on 6 July 2009, we stated that in order to ensure full transparency and independence relating to the election process, Electoral Reform Services (ERS) will manage this work on our behalf.

"All communications and correspondence, including that letter, were being sent directly to levy payers by ERS.  The distribution of all documents will be based on the latest business rates database provided by Coventry City Council to ERS.

"On the advice of ERS we decided to adopt a procedure of using a single transferable voting (STV) system to ensure that as far as possible the successful candidates match with the categories of board membership, reflecting the size and types of businesses in the BID and their geographical location.

"It would therefore be totally inappropriate for the BID Company to be drawn into any discussion of this independent election process."