The Gloucester Business Improvement District has appointed a full-time manager and two new members to its board of directors.

Emily Gibbon, who has lived in the city since 2011, worked for Marketing Gloucester and helped set up the BID in 2017 when she was involved in the organisation of events across the city and the creation of the GL Card.

She also served as a director of the UK Digital Retail Innovation Centre (UK: DRIC) and has been interim manager of the BID in Exeter during the coronavirus pandemic.

She said: "I'm delighted to be joining Gloucester BID and to be working closely with so many brilliant and passionate business people.

"Businesses face challenges like they have never seen before presently and it's crucial we all pull together to support them back to full strength. Collaboration is key.

"The BID will play a vital role in helping to do that, and too in celebrating the wonderful, vibrant city of Gloucester and all it has to offer."

BID chairman Kieron Bates said the manager vacancy had attracted applications from several strong candidates.

He said: "Emily's working knowledge of other BIDs across the country, combined with her passion for, and experience of, Gloucester won through.

"The current BID has just under two years to run, and we feel Emily will be able to hit the ground running and represent and champion the help and support our member businesses need through these challenging times for everyone."

The Gloucester Business Improvement District has appointed two new members to its board of directors.

Angela Lovell, who runs a medical facial aesthetics clinic in Eastgate Street, and Toby Wooldridge have been appointed to the board of the member-run organisation.

Mr Wooldridge runs Peppers Coffee Shop in Bull Lane with his wife Ann.

Gloucester BID chairman Kieron Bates, who manages The Fountain Inn in Westgate Street, said: "There's obviously some very special people in Gloucester's business community.

"We are all now working together, alongside the city council and other partner organisations, to help our members and colleagues recover from Covid-19, promote Gloucester and reboot the local economy."

Mr Bates called for closer co-operation between the BID and Gloucester City Council after Councillor Richard Cook, leader of the authority, said the member's organisation needed to "reinvent itself".

Mr Cook, who had previously passed a report into the financial links between the BID and the collapsed Marketing Gloucester to the police, passed on his congratulations to the new BID manager.

He said: "I have known Emily for a number of years and worked with her from time to time while she worked for Marketing Gloucester and in our volunteering activities in the Civic Trust.

"It will be very important to recognise the complementary roles the city council and the BID will play in helping the economic regeneration of the city."