Guest 666- Registered: 25 Mar 2008
- Posts: 323
I'm saddened to read this and I echo Barry W-S' comments.
It's the towns loss once again, but also a personal blow for a chap who always puts his heart into the place.
Dover.....
Roger.....
Oh Boy!, That'll be the day.........
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
Sorry my last post should have said that Roger didn't kiss enough a**e
beer the food of the gods
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
having had time to give it a bit of thought, how keen are small businesses in dover to move forward?
we all know about the shops and eating and drinking holes that close when big business is around at the winter festival lights, regatta etc.
we have had the excuse that they do enough hours, surely any well run small business will have trusted employees looking for overtime for the special ocasions.?
on regatta day loads of stalls appear knocking out all sorts, most of the staff there are drafted in for the weekend.
maybe roger should just leave them to it?
Guest 658- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 660
At every event in this town Roger is there giving his all, he emails us all regularly keeping us up to date. The man is tireless in the work he does for the town. Come on Barry W if you know the facts then spill them.
beer the food of the gods
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
no chance tom, barry is an active member of the chamber of commerce, he is bound by their rules.
i feel sure that you have signed a similar contract in your profession.
Sue Nicholas- Location: river
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 6,023
Im so sorry to hear this news Roger ,however tomorrow is another day.Just keep your head up and be strong .I have always been my own person .This time last year I went through a very bad patch but I kept strong and now Im buzzing around helping with the election .
I dont need photos in the paper I find people know me for what I believe in .
I will email you .
Guest 667- Registered: 6 Apr 2008
- Posts: 919
Roger so sorry to hear this you have always worked so hard.
On behalf of Crabble Corn Mill thanks for all you have done for us, nothing has ever been too much for you in your support for us.
So as Ian has said "Chin up it's their loss".
Harry
Guest 686- Registered: 5 May 2009
- Posts: 556
What on earth is going on? Roger, I'm really sorry you've lost the job after all the hard work you've put into this town. There are obviously some at the Chamber that want their *rses well and truly kicked.
Phil West
If at first you don't succeed, use a BIGGER hammer!!
Guest 673- Registered: 16 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,388
What a shame. Roger seemed the ideal choice. I wonder if we will get any explanation. Funny sort of job where they don't pay you.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Tit-for-tat, kiss and tell stories etc. do not make good relationships, but just so you all know:
I worked for over 4 months for two reasons: one, because I really loved the job and enjoyed the responsibility of helping the businesses in many ways and devising and developing initiatives and projects that would help move Dover forward.
The second reason and perhaps secondary, was because I was led to believe that there would (eventually) be a salary.
Basically, the concern was that I didn't have enough businesses join up; the job of recruiting would have been so much easier if I had been able to write articles for the Press on the projects and initiatives I had been working on, I could also have promoted those newly recruited business in the papers. It was not Chamber policy to allow this, so I asked for change.
I had written to the Chamber Board of Directors about it and this is what they took umbrage about and was in fact, eventually, the cause of the sacking.
It will I'm sure be said, that I refused to sign the contract because the salary was just £9,500 and that is the reason I am not the DBS Manager anymore, but that is not true; I was sacked on Wednesday evening.
If I knew that I would get the agreed salary (or close to it) sometime in the near future, I would have been happy to carry on without pay for another month or so, but I wasn't given the opportunity.
Roger
Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,304
There is no doubt that the Chamber of Commerce is populated by a board of duffers with their heads in the sand and who are totally resistant to change. Roger, you are to some extent a loose cannon who tried to blow a wind of change through the organisation. You should have been given a free hand in what you were doing and not constrained by cobweb covered practices. You should have had your own column in the DE although I accept that it would need to have been cleared by the CofC. So you didn't sign up enough businesses, I contend that you weren't given enough time and as the economy improves so would the rate of signings.
Times change however and I doubt if we will ever get back to the heady days of Mike Webb's TCM. The TCM failed because of falling numbers. The fact that you were able to pick up the pieces and try to make a fresh start with a different remit does you enormous credit.
Well done Roger, it is my belief that you have been well and truly shit upon by a board of ostriches.
Terry
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Roger, If I know the Town council and Mike Webb they will be thinking can you help them with their plans with events E,T,C. .
Anyway all the best to you and your wife,we will be going down to the sea centre later in the dayif you are going down you can phone me on 07758710889.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
I am copying here the official statement from The Chamber as issued by the Director with specific responsibility for Dover Business Support operations. I make no comment as Chairman other than to add my own best wishes to Roger for the future, someone who I class as a personal friend and hold in high regard.
Barry Williams
----------------
Roger Walkden has been enthusiastically covering the position of Manager of Dover Business Support since November on a voluntary basis.
Alan Shirley, a Director of the Chamber, and myself met with Roger on Wednesday of this week to discuss his contract.
Sadly the level of funding that the Chamber has in solid commitment was in Roger's opinion not sufficient to enable him to sign the contract
offered by the Chamber for continuing in this role.
The Chamber will continue to build the activities of Dover Business Support with the funding that is already in place. This includes introducing a regular Saturday Market in Market Square.
We wish Roger all the very best in the future.
Cameron Macsween.
President.
Director Business Development.
Dover District Chamber of Commerce.
------------------------------------------------------
This has been communicated to our members by email.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Terry - you are totally out of touch and I take personal offense at your comments about the Chamber. Do find out about what you are talking about.
I should add that the Chamber is driving a lot of change for Dover and indeed has totally changed its own practises and processes over the last 12 months. The opposite to what Terry suggests. That is regardless of what you may consider to be the right or wrongs of the Roger matter, something that I will not get involved with.
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
Roger
I'm sickened by this; there can be no justification for actions that defy common decency. I hope you personally can get over this and move on; at the very least the Chamber of Commerce owe you and the businesses they purport to represent a half decent explanation.
I have heard criticisms of the Chamber of Commerce from friends and other business owners alike, and I have always respected those opinions but felt that judgement had to be reserved until such time as I had first hand experience of dealing with them myself. I had promised Roger that my own business - The Fabric Fairy - would be joining DBS from the new financial year, which starts next week. At a stroke those criticisms have been seen to be justified and at least I have the consolation of knowing that my money hasn't been wasted on joining what is evidently nothing to do with representing Dover. One has to respect Barry W's post about not wishing to comment in public - he's caught in the middle of being a member on here as well as being Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce - but, moving forward from this, I hope that he will in time be able to help Dover himself.
I do think that Dover's recent history with commercial representation at senior level leaves a lot to be desired. I know that Mike Webb was a popular Town Centre Manager, but his path crossed with Dover Town Council at the time and he was removed from office; David Somers, his replacement, was unpopular with seemingly everyone, and the answer from those that funded Dover Town Centre Management was to pull the plug on the finances and render the whole operation bankrupt, and now an unpaid but hugely committed Dovorian has been sacked just months into the job after members of the Chamber of Commerce faced the cameras at a packed Maison Dieu House telling us all how wonderful Roger was for the job. Even at a salary of £24,500 the position of Town Centre Manager is cheap; to offer a contract of £9,000 four months into the job is tantamount to constructive dismissal and an industrial tribunal would wipe the floor with the Chamber of Commerce were it ever to come to court.
Sacking Roger in this fashion is the action of a Chamber of Commerce that does not warrant support. I would be interested to know of one tangible effect the new revamped Chamber of Commerce has had on the town - I will declare a public interest here insofar as I have good friends in The London Road Community Forum, but to be perfectly frank the LRCF is working damned hard to improve the area it represents and doing a far better job. Would that the Chamber of Commerce had LRCF's Jeanette Harper at its helm, the town wouldn't be in half the mess it is in at the moment. For what it's worth, my own little business will not be joining the DBS, and I have strong suspicions that the Chamber of Commerce will lose many others over this high handed and utterly unjustified action.
Roger, again, I'm truly sorry about this. It's Dover's loss.
True friends stab you in the front.
Andy, no contract was signed, so there can be no employment tribunal case. Roger was, legally, not employed.
From Barry's posting, and Roger's earlier, it seems a salary figure of £24.5kpa had been mentiond, but only £9.5kpa was on the table, as according to CoC they could only offer what they could afford. They must either be pretty stupid to think anyone worthwhile would accept such an insulting salary offer, or they were playing a political game.
However, assuming they are honourable folks and the aforementiond doesn't apply, there is perhaps a funding shortage. So where do CoC get their funding from? Presumably members subscriptions and grants/donations from DDC/DTC?
So, maybe what we see here, is a repeat of the political shenanigans to remove the illustious AND successful Mike Webb from TCM? CoC is just the stoolpigeon in a bigger game. Our local politicos are not averse to machiavellianism!
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Andy a very good post there and yes you sum up the evening, the occasion, very well. if readers like to go to page 4 in the ALL RECENT FEATURES section..copy 48 shows coverage of the evening itself with a couple of pictures of Roger, one of them chatting to Andy and also a picture of the Chamber guys there.
Copy 49 on the same page in ALL RECENT FEATURES shows Cameron Macsweens entire speech on the night...
during that speech if you look half way down... Cameron says..
"David Foley and Alan Shirley interviewed candidates who responded to our advert for this role, and I am very pleased to announce that a very enthusiastic and able person has been selected - Roger Walkden. "
This does not look and sound like a voluntary position, yet in the statement printed above from the Chamber by BarryW this morning they refer to Roger doing it on a
"voluntary basis"
Guest 684- Registered: 26 Feb 2009
- Posts: 635
For Roger Walkden - sorry to hear about you getting the heave-ho. My crumbling hometown needs more people like you, doing the right thing. All the best, Andy.
Guest 687- Registered: 2 Jun 2009
- Posts: 513
Andy, your paragraph 3 has an innaccuracy by stating ''Mike Webb crossed with Dover Town Council and was removed from office''. Mike left TCM of his own accord to take up the post of Town Clerk with DTC, A fact you were well aware of as your wife had been the acting Town Clerk at the time.
Sid, as you can see there were no shenanigans in Mikes leaving TCM although I will admit it caused bitterness and acrimony within the Council at the time because of his appointment.
The intention of this post is not to cause dissent but correct the facts and in no way should detract from the unsavoury way Roger has been treated.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
good to see you back posting ken, always get a bit of insight into local politics from you.
