Penzance Chamber of Commerce

If ever you wanted proof of the vagaries of prediction, watch a science fiction film from the 1920s or 1930s that is set in the early part of the 21st century. Some take an optimistic view, with families in their personal air transports heading for somewhere to spend their oodles of leisure time; others were convinced that the future would offer increasingly impersonal drudgery for the urban poor, delivered to and from long working days at the factory on whizzing monorails between gleaming skyscrapers like products on conveyor belts.

Where all these prophets went so wrong was the assumption that "progress" meant speed. The fact of our modern world is that getting around is becoming increasingly frustrating. Investment in new transport infrastructure has suffered from the new orthodoxy of the low tax economy to the extent that we are fast approaching the nightmare scenario where almost everyone can afford a decent car but there are no decent roads on which to drive it. Congestion, road-rage, rail privatisation, fuel prices: there's always reason to stay at home.

With all the cyclic fuss about these - steeply rising fuel prices the most current - it's easy to forget the bigger issue. The world's oil reserves are being converted into atmospheric pollution and greenhouse gases at such a rate that no-one can be sure whether we'll all suffocate or drown before the wells run dry. We're dependent on oil for everything from power to plastics to pills yet no-one seems to have considered what we do when it all runs out (although the loonies on the fringe of the environmental lobby doubtless hope that the few survivors will all run off to live in tree-communes.)

With a local economy so heavily dependent on visitor numbers and in an area so remote from the main urban centres the communications links that serve our part of the world are vital to all our livelihoods. Issues like fuel price hikes may put off some visitors while deteriorating road surfaces and increased congestion do nothing to improve the visitor experience. We've had a boom time in tourism for the past few years but unless action is taken to address the fundamentals this will go the way of other short-lived Cornish economic successes.

Improvements to the electronic communications backbone have made it possible to do business from our part of the world while reducing the need to travel up-country for face-to-face meetings. Unfortunately the prospect of selling virtual West Cornwall holidays lies firmly in the realm of science fiction.

The County Council's latest transport plan consultation document is designed to feed in to the next stage of integrated transport planning for the county. It's all pretty uncontroversial stuff; motherhood and apple pie inasmuch that things need to be "better". The problem arises (and this is not the County Council's fault) from the fact that all the plans are based on improvements to existing infrastructure and that the plan is restricted to county-wide solutions for the period to 2011. The challenges to Cornwall's transport future are as likely to lie on the M3 in Hampshire, in Brussels or in Saudi Arabia as across Goss Moor. The idea that we can only plan for the next seven years is the same short-term thinking that has led to carbon that took more than 100 million years to be fixed by plants being released into the atmosphere in the last 70 years.

This is not intended as an appeal for fuel conservation. Nagging people to stop using their cars is like trying to put a genie back into the bottle. We'd like to see some more radical thinking. Real alternatives need to be found. If some of the scientific expertise and resources currently employed trying to increase the yields of near-exhausted oil fields were diverted into finding new and more sustainable ways to do the things we currently do with oil we could see our world evolve rather than convulse into revolution. Anybody under the age of forty today is likely to see a world without oil.

Anybody born this year is likely to spend most of their life in such a world. Addressing this problem is not a matter of mere academic interest for the distant future. It's a real and pressing matter that should concern all of us. Short term self-interest has got us into this mess. Rather than protest high fuel prices, why don't we see protests that so little seems to be done in this area, I wonder?

New Asbestos Regulations

The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 (CAWR) come into force on 21st May 2004 and place a number of new duties on those who control buildings and also introduce a requirement for surveying and testing.

The duty applies to all non-domestic premises. This includes all commercial, public and industrial premises. It will also apply to common parts of domestic premises, for example stairwells, lift shafts and corridors in a block of flats.

Much has been done to control the risk from asbestos. The use, supply and importation of asbestos and asbestos products are controlled by strict regulations. The control of any work with, on or around asbestos should be well controlled, with many types of work requiring a licence. However these regulations only protect workers from exposure to asbestos when the presence of asbestos is known.

At least a quarter of those dying from asbestos-related diseases have worked in the maintenance or building trades. It is those people who may be unknowingly exposed to asbestos fibres during their day to day work, those such as plumbers, electricians, cable layers, gas fitters, painters and decorators, that the duty to manage has been introduced to protect. The new duty seeks to ensure that asbestos in premises will be located, recorded and managed. Then those who may disturb it are informed of its location so they can take suitable precautions.

It is important for duty-holders to act now in particular by taking a precautionary approach to maintenance. Asbestos is a real risk and people may die as a result of unknowingly exposing themselves to asbestos.

Safety UK Ltd undertakes asbestos surveys in compliance with the Regulations and offers a 20% discount to Chamber members. For further information or to request a copy of Safety UK's free guide contact their offices on 01736-361007.

Facing Responsibilites Under the Disability Discrimination Act

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) requires businesses to take positive action, and where necessary make reasonable changes to their premises, to encourage and accommodate disabled persons using their premises from October 2004.

Service providers already have a duty to make changes to the way they provide their services to disabled people, from October 2004 these duties will become much more wide ranging. Businesses and service providers need to be ready for these changes and to ensure that they not only meet their legal duties but also don't ignore all those disabled people who are potential customers.

The law requires businesses to make 'reasonable adjustments' to these physical features but there is no definitive answer as to what is reasonable. The law uses this phrase to give some flexibility and allow different solutions in different situations. However, the Code of Practice advises that 'reasonable' may vary according to these criteria:

Whether taking particular steps would be effective in overcoming the difficulty that disabled people face in getting access
The extent to which it is practicable for the service provider to take the steps
Financial and other costs of making the adjustment
The amount of disruption caused by taking the steps
Money already spent on making adjustments
The availability of financial or other assistance

All businesses should conduct an independent disability access audit, these can be undertaken by Penzance-based Safety UK Ltd in compliance with the regulations. The company offers a 20% discount to Chamber members. For further information or to request a copy of Safety UK's free guide contact their offices on 01736-361007.

Chamber Plans Update

The preparation of the Penzance Chamber of Commerce business and marketing plans is now well advanced with the new proposals due to be presented to the meeting of the Chamber council in early July.

Among the proposals to be considered are a simplification and modernisation of Chamber procedures and the allocation of specific areas of concern to individual members of the council. It will be mooted that the Chamber needs a more professional approach to member communications and a higher quality of new member pack.

The issue of the Chamber newsletter is once again to be considered as is a clean-up of the current membership list. This will mean that every member can expect a telephone call in the next few weeks to confirm that their details, as held by the Chamber, are correct and up-to-date.

The format of these pages is up for discussion, too. There is likely to be much more formalisation of content with a regular series of features - although the precise nature of these is yet to be agreed. It is hoped that the membership will be encouraged to take a much more active role in the production of material for this monthly resource.

By the time the full Chamber meets in September, it's hoped that the plans will have begun to take an effect and that members will be able to see the changes to the way your Chamber operates beginning to take shape. The two guiding principles for this process are to provide tangible benefits for Chamber membership and to make the Chamber more effective in its work as a voice for local business.

Jim McKenna to Brief on Traffic Plans

Penwith District Council chief executive Jim McKenna is expected to attend the July meeting of the Chamber of Commerce Council to discuss the latest counter-proposals for the circulation of traffic in the town centre - specifically the Market Jew Street one way system.

From discussions with members, it's become clear that the position the Chamber has adopted on this critical issue has widespread support. We'll be looking forward to hearing Mr McKenna's presentation and reporting back to the membership via these pages next month.

Twenty Years in Fashion for Anella

In the two decades that Sally Bodinar's Anella has been trading in Chapel Street clothing tastes and styles have changed but the appeal of quality remains a constant. It is this guiding principle that has kept the shop in the business so long and extended its appeal across continents.

The business has been running almost thirty years, in fact, to when Sally's mother started the venture. It has grown to encompass a wide range of stock, with a bias towards lingerie and swimwear but encompassing leisure and daywear for all kinds of women from all kinds of places.

Anella can point to regular customers as widespread as South Africa and the Seychelles as well as the loyal support of local people - many of whom will have shopped there for all the years the business has been in operation. The range and focus of the shop has shifted in response to customer needs in ways that are easy when an independent retailer is in close contact with its customers (and which are the envy of the multiples who spend fortunes on research and yet still manage, on occasion, to get things staggeringly wrong).

Among the recent trends in the clothes-buying habits Sally identifies, one stands out: "much more casual wear," she asserts. People are also much more purposeful about their shopping, she claims, tending to spend less time browsing and choosing but rather going right for the list of items they need - this is particularly true of the visitors who come back to the shop again and again.

These customers also exhibit an interesting social trend among Penzance's part-time residents, those who have begun as visitors but formed a deep emotional bond with the area. "People with second homes here treat Penzance as their main home. While they're here they'll visit the dentist, buy a year's supply of underwear, all that sort of thing," Sally points out. "People would rather get all their shopping done in one place these days than trek around the big cities."

This economic influx from those forced to earn a living elsewhere or tied by family to other parts of the country yet who prefer, for emotional reasons, to spend their money in our district is a powerful positive for our district in the longer term.

Anella is Cornwall's largest stockist of Lejaby lingerie and other suppliers of what are fortunately no longer known as ladies' "unmentionables" include Triumph, Freya and Gossard. The. The Armorlux range of Breton T-shirts reinforces Anella's Celtic connections while separates and daywear by Tulchan and Alice Collins can complete the most demanding customer's look. High quality and well-fitting swimwear from Anella - including Anita and Seaspray - can be seen on beaches from Porthmeor to Bondi to Ipanema.

Male customers are more common than one might imagine - although Sally is keen to point out that this implies no unexpected undercurrents in our society! When buying gifts for a wife or girlfriend, most men are grateful for the helpful one-to-one advice and guidance that a small independent like Anella can offer rather than the impersonal conveyor belt approach of the large chains and department stores.

Future developments for Anella will include upgrading the website to provide an e-commerce option for the loyal customers overseas to place their orders (the current site is much more of a "shopfront" style. Other than this the plan is to keep to the same successful formula while always staying dedicated to the quality end of the market.

Anella is at 63-64 Chapel Street, Penzance TR18 4AD Telephone Penzance 365172. Website: www.anella.co.uk

Join the Chamber

The Chamber of Commerce represents the interests of local business with the County, District and Town Councils, Government agencies and public bodies. It actively campaigns on issues affecting the business community as well as issues affecting the community as a whole. This requires finances and direct involvement by committed people, and deserves the support of every business in the region.

Our Chairman is coordinator of the West Cornwall Group of Chambers and the Cornwall Business Partnership. He is a member of the Priority Management Group 3, which approves Objective One funding in the area of Learning and Skills development He is also a member of the Penzance Regeneration Steering Group that has worked on the submission of an Objective One bid to greatly enhance the prosperity of the town and its inhabitants. Other members represent the Chamber on such bodies as the Police Consultative Committee and Tourism Committee.

All businesses have problems from time to time, and it has been proved that representation from a Chamber Officer on behalf of the member concerned can greatly enhance the prospect of a satisfactory conclusion. With major issues, such as the Penzance Regeneration Project, West Cornwall Hospital, Objective One and so on needing input from the business community there has never been a better reason for all businesses to become Chamber members - the greater our membership, the bigger our voice. JOIN NOW!

We invite membership applications from individuals and businesses large or small. For further information, visit the Membership Enquiry or Membership Application pages on this site.

Forthcoming Meetings

The next monthly Chamber Meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 6th at 7.30pm at the Pirates Rugby Club, Alexandra Road, Penzance.

The Voice of Business in West Cornwall

Chamber Monthly News - June 2004

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