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ANNUAL REPORT 2003/04
Egham Chamber AGM Chairman’s Report April
2004
Egham Chamber has a generally interesting year to report.
The Chamber has been very active this year, helped by the three new members
of the committee, Anne-Marie, Mick and Richard, who have been very much
appreciated, and the extra help they have given to the Chamber has been
invaluable. However we would like to expand the committee to our nominal
strength, which is 12 members.
We have also been on a bit of a learning curve, as we have to report the
retirement last September of our Administrator since 1999, Mervyn Greer.
Mervyn has been invaluable and had taken on far more responsibility than
was in his job description. To show our gratitude the Committee is proposing
to make him an honorary member.
We have been very lucky however in persuading Anna Barry, who has been
the administrator of Chertsey Chamber for some years, to take on our Chamber
as well, and it has great to have someone who knows what she is doing.
Anna has been our administrator since September 2003
As for our activities that have been administrated, we have successfully
launched, just before our last AGM, our Runnymede Chambers Networking
Lunches, which now take place every month, usually but not always on the
last Friday, rotating between Egham, Chertsey and Addlestone. Those of
you who would like to meet the wider business community of the area are
very welcome at all or any of the three. It is an excellent opportunity
to meet other members but not be committed to a regular agenda of dates.
For those wanting a more intimate experience, we have already arranged
one evening meeting, open to all the membership, at the Crown, and would
like to encourage you all to come along for the next social evening on
29th April, for drinks but with no particular agenda.
Another Borough-wide networking opportunity is the Runnymede Business
Partnership Forum Breakfasts, which are open to all businesses in the
borough, are sponsored, therefore free, and which have a variety of interesting
speakers. This year, so far, they have included the Budget Forum at The
Runnymede Hotel, sponsored by Wilkins Kennedy and a meeting in February
at Gartners, on the Causeway, on Managing Staff Performance, given by
Barlows Solicitors in Chertsey. The Partnership organise a large variety
of local events and are very much worth attending.
The Partnership is a very effective organisation for businesses in the
borough, and our Chamber is very strongly represented, with the Chairmanship
of two of the three sub-groups held by our committee members and an active
participation in the third sub-group and in the steering group. This give
us access to the decision-makers and leaders in the Council offices, and
a good forum for communicating with larger local businesses such as P
& G and Gartner, who are local to us, do not belong to our Chamber
but feel these are events that they should attend, giving us opportunities
to influence decisions and to promote initiatives that benefit the town.
One initiative, the Runnymede Business Partnership’s Loyalty card
has expanded greatly both in participating businesses, of which our area
is the best represented and in the number of cardholders, which has risen
to over 2,000 and who now have an incentive to shop locally. RBP have
also arranged seminars on subjects such as Fraud Prevention for Retailers,
Health and Safety, and Leadership Skills, some free of charge and others
at a very low cost. It has produced a guide to Work Experience to try
to ensure that school leavers have usable qualifications. The Partnership
has also provided input into the development of the Council’s Community
Strategy and Economic Strategy.
In the national picture, the Runnymede Yellow School bus scheme, the
UK pilot study for the whole country, was set up by the Partnership. Egham’s
contribution was not enough to get any of us an invitation to the Downing
Street meeting, which the Chief Executive of Runnymede attended but we
were there in spirit. Next time you see those buses, think, Tony Blair
and Gordon Brown know about them too.
Among the Partnership activities we must include the Town Maps, produced
about one and half years ago, which are a great tool to promote the town.
We are now seeking sponsors for the next printing. You company’s
name would be included on the front cover and we would be very pleased
to hear from you.
On the subject of sponsors, we have to report that this year for the first
time in several years, we have made a loss on the organisation of the
Christmas Lights. We still hope to get in some more donations but I think
the membership will agree with us that it cannot be acceptable for membership
subscriptions to subsidise the lights and we intend next year to start
our fund-raising earlier and abort the entire process if contributions
do not materialise. We will not put up any lights at all if the money
is not raised to pay for them but hope to avoid this situation. We would
request volunteers to help in the chasing up of donations.
We continue our efforts to encourage shoppers, by cooperating with the
organisers of a French Market, which hopes to arrange a 2-day visit to
our town in May for local producers mainly from Brittany, but I don’t
think exclusively.
Our Farmer’s market also continues, after a slow spell in the winter,
when both sellers and buyers seem to have decided that potatoes in midwinter
should be bought indoors, not outdoors.
I would like to welcome one of our members, Mr Nick Fox of Tesco’s.
You will agree that Tesco have greatly improved the shopping facilities
of the town by moving into larger premises. We now just need to persuade
them to subsidise the car parking and we will be completely happy with
the move….
The issue of Car Parking is a very serious one. Late last year we heard,
by chance, of the Council’s plans to increase parking charges in
all their car parks in the Borough, with minimal notice. Egham’s
charges being at that time more than double that of the other towns in
Runnymede, we were horrified and we immediately concentrated our efforts
on two fronts: to level the charges across the three main towns, so that
Egham shoppers do not pay more, and to increase the minimum time people
could spend for their initial payment from one to two hours. We do not
think a fifty pence minimum charge to park in Egham is viable, but we
needed to find a position that we had some chance of pushing through.
Charges in Egham now start at fifty pence for two hours. We do not feel
that this is acceptable and suspect that the retailers would agree, and
that it has serious consequences for the viability of the town and we
need further action on this matter. We must consider all possibilities,
including car park refund schemes and others, which keep charges down
in the other towns in the Borough.
We also need to start work again on that other major transport problem,
the Pooley Green Level Crossing. After some stabilisation last year, as
people reduced their time in traffic jams by simply not coming into town,
I believe that the situation is deteriorating again, probably because
of train scheduling changes. We need to re-invigorate our campaign to
have something positive done about this major problem, rather than just
grumbling about the situation or accepting it as unavoidable.
Your Chairman attempted to do this last month, when BBC Southern Counties
asked me in for an interview on the effects of the M25 widening on Businesses
and I high jacked the interview when I explained in detail, and at length,
how the congestion caused by the level crossings totally overshadowed
any effects of the road works. Now, please, we would like a volunteer
to actually push through a campaign to alleviate the problem.
The Chamber is also making representations to the Planning authorities
about the importance of a coherent strategy for development in the town,
with two major projects needing to be settled, at the old Tesco Store
and the parade opposite the Fire Station. Both projects seemed to get
continually pushed back because Runnymede want the perfect scheme but
we believe that these empty and run-down properties should be rebuilt,
in use and viable as soon as possible.
The Chamber is also representing Egham Businesses in other ways, for example
at the Business ratepayers meeting and at Police Consultative Committee
meetings to talk about Police matters.
Finally, we have fun too! Your Chairman is currently helping organise
Magna Carta Day 2004, which takes place on 12th June and would encourage
any volunteers, who would like to help on the day, to come forward.
Last of all, on the subject of volunteers, may I thank my Committee, Mervyn
and Anna, who have been wonderful and great fun? We have had a lovely
and reasonably effective year and hope next year will be as good socially.
To all members, I hope we all have a good year this year and I would like
to thank you all for demonstrating your devotion to the prosperity of
this town by participating in Chamber’s activities and giving us
help when it has been needed.
C/o Strodes College, High Street, Egham, Surrey, TW20 9DR
Phone: 01784-460108 Fax: 01784-479817
Web-site: www.eghamchamber.org.uk
Email: Please use our contact page
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