Melksham Chamber of Commerce - Report for AGM, 21st May 2013
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2013-05-21 08:57:04 - Graham Ellis
What an eventful year! On the development of Melksham for the future, progress has been substantial on the Campus project, and the canal has moved forward. Big new businesses such as Herman Miller and Castle Combe International are moving to town, and smaller businesses are setting up and / or moving to town too, such as a South West Coffee and Melksham Chiropractors. And although our town has some empty units, that's rather more a healthy set of opportunities which are being taken up by businesses that a town needs and uses in the second decade of the 21st Century rather than a sign of shrinkage and cutbacks.
The town's growing too - with new housing being built - and occupied - to the east of the town, and with further proposals both adjoining that, and on the old George Ward school site too. Melksham's a great place to live, and it's good to see others sharing that view. With average household side reduced by 10% over the last decade, there's been (and continues to be) a need for newbuild as well as replacement housing to counter any decline.
The Town Team and the Melksham Independent Traders, have been working hard to encourage people to use town centre retail businesses - special mention for Hayley Spencer. I attended the recent MITA networking evening - a useful catchup with some of the movers and shakers, and I welcome the election of one of the traders onto the town council.
There is - as ever - a shortage of volunteers to help with projects within the community, and for the future of that community, and that's especially the case for business operators and employees. Who are the very groups of people for whom the Chambers of Commerce exist. That's been an issue for many, many years and lead to the formation of the Wessex Association of Chambers of Commerce some twenty plus years ago, providing centralised services from an office in Trowbridge. The Wessex Association has stood us in good stead for many years, but changing technologies and the resultant change in work patterns have given us the opportunity and motivation to move forward to a new model that's going to see us through the next 20 years.
Part of these changes are the removal of the needed for fixed landline, fax machine, photocopier and typewriter for a secretary, and we've taken the opportunity of the rearrangement to appoint a local secretary for the Chamber who is reachable by email, and who acts in a similar way for the local rail partnership, Community Area Partnership and others. Now only is there a greater synergy between the various groups in the town than between the chambers of different towns, but it also means that our secretary has his finger on the pulse of the town as a whole, to the mutual practical benefit of the organisations involved and their members. Many thanks to Phil McMullen for his initiation of this role, and taking it through its initial year. Thanks also to Colin Harrison for his continued work in the roles of Chair and on the accounts through these changing times.
The Wessex Association is now offering an enhanced membership package to businesses, including HR and legal helplines, tax investigation insurance, electronic marketing to members throughout the whole area of 18 chambers to which it's expanded, and much more. The last year has seen this offering move from a seed of an idea through to an implemented plant, and the package offered is an excellent one for many businesses; I comment it to you. However, there are certain businesses (Well House Consultants happens to be one of them) for whom the new association member package doesn't offer the gains that it needs for the higher price. And for such members, and for other businesses wishing to join the Chamber but with the same issues, the Melksham Chamber has introduced a local membership. This is in common with many other Chambers with whom we're in touch, though it's not universal across the Wessex area, highlighting the independence and difference of our towns.
We welcome new businesses - as association or local members as appropriate to them, and look forward to the chamber flourishing under these new structures. We're already seeing something of a renaissance, with the March meeting (focus on town centre and opportunities offered by the campus) and April meeting (focus on tourism, looking at Visit Wiltshire in particular) both very well attended and lively. More "specials" are planned for the future - in fact we want to make every meeting special, so that people go away having networked, learned, and been motivated.
Earlier this month, local election in Wiltshire changed the largest party on the Town Council from Conservative to Liberal Democrat, and removed the Conservative's overall majority on the Area Board. Across Wiltshire as a whole, there is still an overall Conservative majority in council, but even there portfolios have changed hands - in some cases to newcomers, and in other cases back to previous incumbent. And already we're seeing the effects of new brooms, ranging from changes (mid-project!) to the Campus team, questions over the future of the Community Area Partnership, and an option for spending public transport improvement monies from the Department for Transport on existing heavily used stations, even though the funding was awarded on the basis of the TransWilts line and Melksham in particular.
We've invited all three newcomers to the Melksham Area Board to our meeting tonight. As I write, we have one acceptance, one apology, and one member from whom we've yet to hear. We need to all inform one another and keep our activities joined up for the greater common good - after all, there's so much to do, and so much we agree on that transcends party politics and so much we can achieve.
An honourable mention for other things on the agenda, but not making the full report, such as
Hall and Woodhouse
Blue Plaque
Transport - LSTF and GW Franchises
Wilts and Berks Canal / Membership
Core strategy and neighbourhood plans
Business Services
Christmas Lights support