How would you like a windsurfing lesson with UK champion, Chris Murray?

Adventure Events are hosting five weeks of activities this summer, including sessions in St Ives with the former UK youth wave sailing champion, to raise money for Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust. Now in its third year, Cornwall Summer Events is offering adventure experiences including fitness bootcamps, sightseeing flights, and falconry experiences, for five weeks only in support of the emergency service, after last year’s events raised almost £13,000 and Adventure Events have pledged a minimum of £15,000 from ticket sales of the five-week event to Cornwall Air Ambulance Trust.

This year, Hillmotts summer fitness bootcamps will be available over the five weeks from July 26 to August 30 in Falmouth; plus there’ll be the chance to take part in sightseeing flights in one of Adventure 001’s jet-powered helicopters from St Ives; and falconry and clay shooting. There will also be plenty of fun events planned around the five weeks, for all the family.

For more information or to make a booking go to www.cornwallsummerevents.co.uk or contact 01753 643 820 or visit http://www.cornwallairambulancetrust.org/

 

 

The new Tremough Innovation Centre adjacent to the University Campus Tremough offers an unrivalled opportunity for Cornish businesses to join a business support and development facility that is second to none. A recent visit by members of the Chamber to the new centre revealed modern, energy efficient and technically advanced office accommodation designed to promote a collaborative, vibrant and synergistic approach to business. The centre is aimed at new and growing businesses in the creative, media, eco and environmental sectors which have a strong potential for productivity and growth. The office accommodation provided is intended to be affordable and flexible by offering a range of units from 12 sq.m to 62 sq.m of benefit to both embryonic and longer term business tenants.

The pioneering TIC project has been led by Cornwall Council, and supported by Cornwall Development Company (CDC). Investment has been provided by the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) Convergence Programme and the South West RDA (Regional Development Agency). It is the second innovation centre to be completed in Cornwall over the past two years, with the highly successful Pool Innovation Centre (PIC), which opened in July 2010, already exceeding all targets. Both centres are operated by Plymouth University.

To learn more about the Centre see here TIC Summary or to make an enquiry visit the website at www.plymouth.ac.uk/enterprisesolutions .

 

 

 

Today Mary Portas has today published her much anticipated report which makes interesting reading for those in the retail sector. More particularly, Ms Portas suggests local government should accept   responsibility for some of the problems currently befalling high streets/ town centres throughout the land. However, the report also suggests that local authorities have to be part of the solution to improving town centres and that they should work alongside members of the community to promote change. All those in business will welcome the reduction of red tape but great care has to be taken to ensure that members of the public are protected from rogue traders.

I welcome the suggestion of a National Market Day. From my childhood days, I remember how many of the towns in Cornwall were a hive of activity on market day.

Free parking schemes also are a welcome suggestion, which can lead to increased footfall in town centres. Unfortunately, our local authority sees parking charges as an extra revenue stream. As a major tourist centre this is to be expected, but during winter I believe greater efforts should be made to reduce parking fees to encourage the local population to visit our town centres.  The report very importantly highlights the cost of local business rates and the burden it places on new businesses.   I for one welcome a review of this area.

Luckily, we in Falmouth have already put in place a successful BID project and our centre is very proactively run by Richard Gates. Let us all take food for thought from this report and in the new year join together to form a consultative body to focus on this report and suggest ways forward for our local community.

For further details of the report follow the link below:

Jeremy Edwards
Chairman
Port of Falmouth Chamber of Commerce.

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/business-sectors/docs/p/11-1434-portas-review-future-of-high-streets.pdf

 

Further to the Port of Falmouth consultation exercise which has been going on for the past few months the Falmouth Masterplan is now complete and and available for inspection together with associated documents at the link below:  www.cornwall.gov.uk/falmouth.

The inaugural Falmouth Business Conference was held on May 19th in the Falmouth Hotel, and attracted over 130 local businesses and prominent members of the Falmouth Community. 

The title of the event was "Falmouth and Penryn - Inspiring business growth in Cornwall", and the chamber is proud to have been one of the groups within the town involved in putting the event together.

Many messages of thanks and support have arrived since the day so we are very grateful to have received those.  Those who were there on the day will understand that an important output for the day was that there will be actions to take forward from this to really establish some additional momentum for business growth in Falmouth and Cornwall as a whole.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many volunteers who gave their time and energies into setting up and making the event a success, and the sponsors who contibuted to the cost and material requirements of making it happen.

There is more information about the event on the Falmouth Business Club web site, including the following: T

• Thanks for the day
• A series of podcasts on different aspects of the event

A Short video of the day will also be available on the same web site soon - please check back for further details.

If you would like to be kept in touch with information about similar events in the future, please sign up on this site and we'll be happy to keep you in the loop with out occasional email updates.

 

As it took George Osborne a couple of hours to get through his budget speech which for most people can be a bit of a trial, Hodsons Accountant have kindly provided a summary report which is intended to make things easier to understand and cover the key points. Follow the link to download a copy Budget Report 2011.

Next Tuesday there will an open meeting for businesses in Cornwall to establish a method of effective representation for the private sector in the new Cornwall Local Enterprise partnership (LEP). The LEP is the Private-Public partnership which will be at the heart of shaping Cornwall’s future economic prosperity.

The meeting will be attended by SMEs and representative business organisations from across Cornwall, including many of the chambers of commerce, the FSB, Local business networking groups and others.  It is anticipated that it will become a focus for business representation  for all businesses and sectors in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly for the LEP.

The meeting will be held at The Victoria Inn, Roche (Just off the A30) – arrive for coffee at 4:30pm – meeting starts at 5pm, on Tuesday the 7th of December. http://www.victoriainnandlodge.co.uk/directions

Further information about the LEP comes from Communities secretary Eric Pickles:
"Over the last decade, the country's economy became skewed by artificial boundaries and top-down prescription that did not work.
We want to create a fairer and more balanced economy driven by private sector strength, and our plan for local growth will create local enterprise partnerships” etc.
The rest of the paper can be found here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/newsroom/1753574

So if you are in business in Cornwall please come along to Roche. These are exciting times and this event is specifically about every business having a voice in how we can provide for Cornwall’s future jobs and prosperity.
Please reply either to this site or to Cornwall FSB Chairman Kevin Oliver at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   If you are able to come along, so the organisers can get an idea of numbers.

All shops are invited and indeed encouraged to enter the  Christmas Shop Window Dressing competion. First prize is a bottle of Champagne and judging will take place on 9th/10th December. Entry forms to download and print off are available here. Chistmas Window Dressing Entry