Lorraine Harrison

July 2007

Thu 19th Jul

Wow! What a few months this has been. Firstly, as has become the norm, an apology, this time for the lack of Newsletter for the past three months. You may also have noticed that the website has not been updated for quite some time or, indeed, the Business Directory.

You may, or may not, be aware that we have not, for quite some time, had an administrator and that most of the administration work has fallen to me with Andy Weir, our Vice Chairman, being in charge of the website and various peripherals in that regard. However, Andy is not only the proud father of a new bouncing baby boy, but is also the proprietor of a hostel and the owner of Ocean Internet Services (details of whom you can find on the Business Directory). Needless to say that he has been extremely busy and the website has, quite understandably, been somewhat neglected.

We have now engaged the services of Sara Cross of Twenty Twenty Marketing who has kindly agreed to carry out various administrative duties on our behalf, including updating the website, the Business Directory and sending out the Newsletter. I am hopeful, therefore, that this kind of delay will not happen again.

I feel I owe the membership an explanation of the reasoning behind the recent letter sent to Newquay Town Council for which I had my knuckles soundly rapped, although, I believe, unfairly.

Councillors Norman Thompson and Tony Leverton expressed their interest in representing the Town Council at the Newquay Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Executive Meetings and, whilst both of these esteemed gentlemen have worked tirelessly and for many years in the interests of Newquay, neither are businessmen of the present day. Although Councillor Leverton runs his own taxi, it can hardly be compared to the running of a modern tourism or commercial orientated business. It could be argued that Councillor Leverton is a businessman in his own right and has, in the past, been the proprietor of a medium sized hotel and a shop in the town. However, this was many years ago and, it should be said, that he is not a member of the NCCT in any event.

Quite apart from all of that, we now have a new influx of young Councillors on the Town Council, most of whom are in business for themselves. Jill Bunt of Newquay Photographic is already an Executive member and cannot, therefore, represent the Council, but it felt a bit as though the NCCT was lacking sufficient credibility to warrant more “business aware” Councillors. Hopefully, this will change in the future. In the meantime, we welcome Councillors Thompson and Leverton an look forward to seeing them both at our monthly meetings.

I also took exception to the reporting by Bob the Hat that the Town Council and the NCCT were no longer aware of what a traditional seaside resort should look like. Obviously, I can’t speak for the Town Council but who, on earth, would know better than the business community of the town what a traditional seaside resort should look like and what it should offer. Sensationalism is bad enough and something that, in this day and age, we must tolerate but downright unfairness from town residents who should know better is just going too far. Perhaps Bob the Hat, who is, at best, extremely opinionated (and sometimes absolutely right) should be putting himself forward for the Council and stop sitting on the fence and hurling views and opinions at others that are working hard for the good of the town (voluntarily I hasten to add).

In the interim period, we have supported the Newquay in Bloom Partnership in their Bid for a Gold Award for the appearance of the town this year. This is just the kind of thing that the Chamber of Commerce and Tourism should be seen to be doing and I’m absolutely thrilled to have had the opportunity to be instrumental in helping to make the town look so attractive.

Hopefully, many of you will have seen our signs on the roundabout at the top of the Gannel Link Road (affectionately now referred to as “our roundabout”) which is where the majority of the sponsorship money was spent. The rest was used for a membership drive that enabled shops and businesses in the town centre wishing to join the NCCT to benefit from the cost of a hanging basket being incorporated in the cost of membership for the year.

All we need to do now is to wait until September to see whether our efforts in the support of NIBP was sufficient to help them towards the Gold Award and I wish them all the very best in their endeavours. I am hoping to be at the presentations and, of course, will make sure that you are aware of the outcome at that time.

As we approach the end of my tenure of the Chair of the NCCT, I would like to bring your attention to the date of the AGM, which is to be held on Thursday the 29 November. The venue has yet to be arranged and you will be informed as soon as the final arrangements have been made. I am hopeful that the AGM will, once again, be in the format of a short meeting to take care of the official bits and then three or four short presentations relevant to tourism and commerce.

Please also note that the Newquay Chamber of Commerce Dinner and Dance is to be held on the 09 November and I sincerely hope that many more members will be able to attend than in previous years. Once again, the venue has yet to be arranged but this will be done over the next few weeks and I am hopeful that I will be able to let you know the details in my next Chairman’s Newsletter Report.

I would like to run a competition again this year with the prize being two tickets for the dinner and dance. You will remember last year the one and only member that completed our questionnaire about what the membership required from a trade association website was Mr Brian Biscard of Cheviot Apartments. Let’s hope that we receive more participants this year. Yet another thing about which you will be informed over the next couple of months. Good luck again this year Brian!

Just to end with, thank you very much for your patience with regard to the website. I’m just hopeful that this is not because nobody bothers to look at it but has more to do with the knowledge of how very hard we work on your behalf.

Lorraine Harrison
Chairman
Newquay Chamber of Commerce & Tourism