I would like to thank my Chamber Executive colleagues for voting to retain me as President of Newry Chamber for another year. It is a great honour and I have lots of plans for how we can work together with the public and private sectors to continue to grow the economy and support our local business community over the next 12 months. With the Halloween decorations hardly taken down thoughts of Christmas are very much on consumers’ minds. Christmas started a long time ago for many retailers in order to be prepared for the season which is hoped will buoy the high street through the next couple of months. We in the Newry business community are gearing up for the biggest Santa Run and Christmas Charity Dinner yet with the aim of breaking the £1m fundraising mark for local causes. The Santa Run will take place in conjunction with the Christmas Lights switch on in the city on Friday 21st November while the Christmas Dinner will take place on Thursday 4th December. Both are open to all and we hope you will come along and support these fantastic events. We held our family business breakfast is association with BDO last week which had a great turnout and really helped focus local businesses are family owned and managed from the biggest to the smallest here in Newry and it is essential that we support these orgainsations to help them grow beyond the first or second generation. Newry Chamber responded last week to the consultation on the Stroke Unit in Daisy Hill. We believe that it is imperative that these services stay in Newry and not move to Craigavon as time is of the essence when it comes to stroke victims. We have an excellent service in Daisy Hill and we have health services which are performing well it is important that we do everything we can to protect them. Newry Chamber was extremely disappointed with the attack from Hill Partnership in the press on our members which is completely unjustified and without merit. The action a number of Chamber and non Chamber businesses in Newry are taking is against the Department of the Environment in response to the Department making a bad planning decision for the future of Newry. It is not against a particular developer or development. The action is to prevent the floodgates opening which would allow large retail developments to be built anywhere on industrial land on the outskirts of the city. It is also to maintain the viability of the city centre which family businesses and high street retailers have worked hard to maintain over the years.
Newry Reporter
12th November 2014
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