I'm passionate about Melksham - it's a great place to live and a great place to do business, and Lisa and I, although we were newcomers in 1999, feel greatly welcomed here. And I hope that we have given, and will continue to give, something back as part of the community. We bring visitors to the town through our training business - visitors who wouldn't othewise come to Melksham. We provide high quality business accommodation at our hotel for people travelling to work in the town. As a part of this we support local businesses - shop in the local shops, eat in the restaurants and take away from the takeaways too, and we're members of various local groups from Melksham 1st through the Melksham Railway Development Group, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Melksham Chamber of Commerce and Industry.


When we bought our first home and office in Melksham - in The Spa - we really didn't know Melksham very well, but we "lucked out". When we bought "Well House Manor" in 2006, we knew the town and what it had to offer, and it was a careful and conscious decision that we'll be here for the foreseeeable future, if not for a full lifetime. Basically, we really love the place (but having said that, we're not blind to some of the issues that face the town).


I select carefully - very carefully - what I take on in a role beyond just 'member'. And the things I take on are not necessarily the easiest, but they're things that I can commit to in that longer term. Thus, I'm very active with public transport around Melksham, but until now haven't been active as a more general advocate for the town - quite simply, I've not got the time / aptitude to get involved with a lot of the paperwork that would be involved if I were to be an officer of one of the groups, and there would be meetings I would miss when out of town. However - the Chamber of Commerce was looking for a new President - a role which involves the advocacy of the Chamber and the Town and its interests with other key organisations (governmental, business and trader, press, educational, public) and I stood for the role. I'm delighted that I wasn't the only candidate as a contested election gives an extra authority to the selected person, and I'm happy to report that the elected person was ... myself.

Th is new role fits very well with what I do / am doing already - not so much a case of "3 + 3 = 6" but rather "3 x 3 = 9" - I intend to make it good for the town and, yes, in the process it will be good for the TransWilts rail campaign and it will be good for the visibility of our business too. As I get into the role, you'll find more follow up threads here. Times ahead are interesting indeed; subjects at the heart of the business community include:
* County budgets and the squeeze away from the Market Towns
* Out of town stores
* High Pavement and town centre road improvements and closures
* The move to Unitary Wiltshire on 1st April 2009
* Waste Disposal
* A350 Access
* Growth and planning
* Public Transport
* The effect of the recession / depression on the town
* Boosting chamber membership
* Training and other benefits organised by The Chamber
(And these are in no particular order)


To complete this article - if anyone wants to contact me in this role they are very welcome to do so. My phone number is 01225 708225, and my email address is graham@wellho.net. And if you know what I look like (it's not exactly hard to find my picture on line!), you'll see me in the town centre a couple of times in most weeks - feel free to stop me!

Melksham Chamber of Commerce is a member of the Wessex Association of Chambers of Commerce
(written 2008-11-17 07:58:52)

 Z402 - Melksham Chamber of Commerce and Industry

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