CHAIRMANS QUARTERLY REPORT

JANUARY 2010

LATE NIGHT SHOPPING

We had another great evening at Christmas thanks to Sasha Gillard-Loft who organized the event for us. The camels were a big hit with the crowds that turned out to enjoy the evening. We even managed to have dry weather this year which made the event even more enjoyable.

Many thanks to all the businesses who opened for the evening – even those who were not planning to sell anything (estate agents, banks etc) will all have hopefully gained from meeting their customers in an informal atmosphere and spreading a little Christmas cheer in the form of mince pies and mulled wine.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

We had a few problems with the town lights this year. The brand of LED colour changing bulbs we used last year are no longer available and we had to replace many with an alternative type. These proved less than reliable and constantly blew fuses. Despite the best efforts of Terry Graves and his crew we lost two strings of lights for most of December. Because of this it is unlikely we will be using the same lights again next year and we are already working on plans for a more reliable and possibly more attractive system for next Christmas.

I would like to thank all those who turned out to help put the lights up and the few who turned out in the snow to take them down.

PRIZE DRAW

Thanks to the efforts of Catherine Sleep we raised a significant sum of money from our prize draw this year. There were some great prizes, and we were fortunate enough to be offered an empty shop window to display them throughout December. Gavin made us some banners and posters and in addition to the shops, a number of volunteers stepped forward to help sell tickets. Particular thanks to Shelley Vanstone from Tesco, Frances Nally, Sasha, Jacki and Sue for their help.

PARKING

This continues to be a major issue in the town, and we are still waiting for work to be carried out to the signs and lines in order that the town’s parking restrictions can be enforced correctly stopping the misuse of parking, disabled and loading bays. This issue remains a high priority for the Town Council and our local county councilors.

MEETINGS & REPRESENTATION

In the last few months I have attended a number of Town Council general and planning meetings, in addition to representing the Chamber on the new Community Networking Group run by Cornwall Council. In addition I have been invited to attend future Market committee meetings.

3D MAPPING OF LAUNCESTON
I have been assured by Depict3d that this project is still moving forward with about 80% of the modeling complete. It is hoped to have the system live by mid February.

Paul Loft, Chairman, Launceston Chamber of Commerce