BUSINESS owners in Hexham, who are charged a levy by Hexham BID, have hit out at a new membership scheme which they claim excluded many traders from an AGM held last week.

Members of the company could attend and vote at the AGM, held in the town last Wednesday, but all members have to be approved by the six directors.

Some levy payers who applied were turned down and told that they did not meet the board's criteria and the move has attracted widespread criticism over what has been described by some as a closed shop level of governance.

"This style of governance is excluding business from having a say in how the levy is spent and creates a situation of taxation without representation," said Ian Sotheran, a director at Envision Mapping Ltd, based at Mallan House.

But in a statement, BID manager Helen Grayshan, insisted that every levy payer was emailed twice to invite them to apply for membership and that the vast majority of those who responded had been invited to the AGM.

Read more in this week's Hexham Courant.