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

 

 

 

A recent report on shop vacancy levels throughout the United Kingdom provides some hopeful signs that Falmouth may be coping with the recession better than many people may have expected. Although local traders have expressed concerns about the level of empty shops in the town it appears we are doing better than many towns in the UK and better than all comparable shopping centres in the South-West!

To find out more read the report here.

LDC mid-year report 2010

 

 

Cornwall Council's final LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) submission document was made available today, and sent to the coalition government for consideration.

The government is now understood to be reading and evaluating all the LEP submissions from around the country, and issuing a white paper over the next few months about the future shape of these successors to the RDA.

The chamber feels that this document is a great improvement on the council's previous effort, but would welcome feedback from members on whether the new document and the LEP it outlines:

1. Is business-led as required by the coalition government.
2. Represents your views as to what would benefit your business.
3. Provides a mechanism for businesses to select and remove accountable representatives.
4. Will make it easier for you to do your bit to boost Cornwall's economy.
5. Demonstrates any significant departure from the attitudes and approaches of the "old" Cornwall Council.
6. Will help Cornwall move away from its grants-dependent culture.

Please find attached the Cornwall Council document.  It may also may be worth reading in tandem with the previous submission of the Falmouth Chamber and Falmouth Business Club on the LEP - to see how far it goes to meet the criteria for the LEP as laid out in that document.

As usual please keep sending us your views and comments so that we can adequately represent the views of our members.

 Cornwall Council Local Enterprise Submission ( 2010-09-07 08:33:54)

 LEP Submission Document - Falmouth Chamber and Business Club ( 2010-08-20 15:20:25)