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I'd like to thank Paul W for a couple of really good posts; one can carp and criticise to kingdom come, but at least he's shown to care, and that things are being done. Being constrained by interminable rising costs and diminishing budgets cannot be easy, as we have seen in the national press this week over the forecast of further council cuts and a predicted 100,000 job losses in the public sector in the years to come. I take my hat off to anyone that puts themselves in the firing line of constant criticism over everyday matters that affect us all, I know I wouldn't want to do it, not for all the tea in China.
Sid, please reconsider, and stand. I'd vote for you, and I know that many others would, too. One has to respect caring and commitment - which is actually why Vic Matcham isn't (for me, at least) the laughing stock everyone else seems to take him for.
Roger is treading a difficult line, and has to be admired for it. I am considering moving my own business into Dover and joing the Chamber of Commerce in the process, and he's been all for it - as one might expect. I have canvassed opinions from others and am coming up against the same criticism time and again with regards to the Chamber of Commerce (old and new), that it is a talking shop that does nothing in practical terms for the small business: one business owner actually used Howard's analogy of membership costing a couple of pints of lager, saying 'Why should I pay out for a couple of pints of lager a month and all I got in return was a diary?' The complaint, time and time again, was that the Chamber of Commerce was toothless against a Council that wants the town centre to cease in its current format, against economic forces that were too powerful for local issues to be a part of any counter measures, and against the Chamber of Commerce itself for being conspicuous in its lack of support. One businessman said to me that the closure of Dover Town Management a couple of years back confirmed to him that the Chamber of Commerce was a talking shop and nothing more. (Please understand that the identities of those I've spoken with will remain a matter of confidentiality. If they want to post their feelings themselves, I'm sure that they will.) If this is to change, and the trust of local businesses is to be regained, then some definitive action has to be seen to be on the move, and the DTIZ is the example that springs immediately to mind: at the moment, the whole thing is gigantic mess - this enormous hole in a really conspicuous part of town that is going nowhere, with a derelict concrete tower dominating everywhere, a drab closed multi-storey car park and a grubby hotel that looks completely uninviting. I'm afraid to say that Roger, for all his hard work and undoubted commitment, is fighting a losing battle - he needs support from DDC and KCC to get the town looking anything except the dreary seaside town visitors en route to the ferry port must see it as. That means knocking at doors where serious money lives, not at the doors of small businesses who see no change in our town. With ASDA out of the picture, the need for urgent action is greater than ever.