The post you are reporting:
The Town of Dover gets no advantage as a Trust Port, Ed, that is why we need the People's Port to come to fruition.
Howard - the Dover District Chamber of Commerce has one President, our MP. the Thanet Chamber has two MPs for their area so therefore they have both as Presidents. The fact that they are all Conservative simply reflects the Party that was successful in the elections locally. A major part of the Chamber's role is to influence public bodies on behalf of business so it is important to have such people on-side.
Mark - you know damn well that I explained to you what the Chamber does, so come off it.
I will give you a flavour of Chamber activities during the 'quiet' month of August, as far as I can avoiding commercial sensitivities that is.
1/ A meeting was held with the market manager to discuss the future of the market.
2/ A meeting with the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. The Chamber is one of their regular consultees (not all Chambers are)
3/ Planning issues were taken up on behalf of members with local authoratives
4/ Made representations regarding the cruise terminal
5/ Had meetings regarding the National War Memorial for Dover and helped obtain some further support for the project
6/ Meetings over Manston and night flights. This is important for Dover including the cruise terminal, adding our weight to representations in favour of allowing night flights.
7/ Another free Business Advice clinic was held. These are proving a great success averaging 6 businesses being helped each month
8/ Additional free expert help obtained for the clinic by recruiting another specialist adviser who is offering his services free
9/ Meetings over the Enterprise Zone, including one with Willets when our Chief Exec raised concerns over the 'displacement effect' that can devalue the impact of such zones
10/ Considerable activity was undertaken in respect of media relations with the BBC/ITV and R.Kent among others - representing the needs and views of business
That is on top of the other routine activities and pursuing a number of Chamber initiatives.
We have networking and information events too, a business lunch on the People's Port being the most recent (one was held a while back with DHB so there has been balance).
As I said this was August - the quiet month, but it does give you a flavour of what is done by our part-time Chief Exec (1 1/2 days a week) and office manager/secretary plus input on a voluntary basis by board members.
We also have a part-time self-employed marketing consultant who, among other things, organises golf days (valuable networking at which business is done) and sells advertising in our diary.