News

LATEST NEWS 3rd. February 2012

DIARY DATES & MEETINGS IN 2011. Please check here for latest meetings dates.

NEXT MEETING.

Think Tank Tuesday 6th. March.

AGM. Thursday 19th. April. Please make a SPECIAL effort to attend this year.

Provisional dates for 2012:

Think tanks. 8th. May, 7th. August, 6th. Nov., 8th. Jan.

Full meetings. 14th. June, 13th. Sept., 6th. Dec., 7th. Feb.

Editorial. An appeal. The Forum has now reached a crossroads.

Our chairman. Andrew Hawkins and our secretary Alan Wrotchford are both due to give up their offices soon. Andrew at the next AGM , expected to be on 12th April. Both have given freely of their time and provided sterling service for several years. At present there are no candidates for these offices and other "committee" members have not indicated that they wish to stand. Indeed the few other members who play a fully active role are also finding it hard to generate new ideas and can't be expected to carry the burden of the Forum on their own.

We need "new blood" urgently or we are in danger of either folding or reducing activity to the very minimum.

We are grateful for the subscriptions of our members but if the businesses of the area want to have someone to fight their corner some of you now need to step up to the mark and take a more active part. It is unreasonable and unhealthy to have the same few people do all the work all of the time. It is your forum.

United, the businesses of Holbeach have some chance of being heard by the powers that be. As individuals their influence is very greatly reduced. Please don't fall into the trap of apathy or assume "someone else will do it". Business need to look outside themselves and seek to influence trading conditions to increase chances of success.

Please join the committee NOW and help our town and district to prosper.

Olympic Torch.

Will be comming to Holbeach on Thursday 4th. July. A special event is being planned, don't miss this once in a lifetime chance to take part in the British olympics. More details here nearer the time.

Mary Portass has recently completed a report for the government into decline in high street shopping. It echoes much of what the forum has been trying to get over to our local authority for some years. All local councillors and officials should read this report.

Royal Mail will now close the Holbeach sorting office this year. No further news from the post office on how they will provide services to the town once the sorting office has closed.(This could cause real inconvenience to the businesses and people of the town. For example, if you miss a parcel delivery because you are out, you may have to go to Spalding to collect it.( We note that there is little or no parking at the Spalding, Wardentree Lane Estate office and no convenient bus stop.) It seems that closure is now a done deal, since rumor has it that the site is sold.

Staff parking in Holbeach. Free all day parking is available at the Boxing Club to people who work in town centre. Please use it to free up spaces for paying customers of our shops and businesses. Contact Patrick Limming for details.

DIRECTORY. Please print out and use the paper form or contact Paul by email, phone or snail mail to submit new or amended directory entries.

PUBLIC SERVICE NEWS.

Space here is reserved for public information headlines. For more on the following stories, click on the link to the minutes page at the end of this one.

Items for publication, at the discretion of the Forum, may be sent to Paul or any Forum committee member.

ROTARY CLUB. For full details visit their website: www.rotary-holbeach.org.uk.

A Valentine Concert. Sat. 11th Feb. 7.30 All Saints Church. City of Peterborough Concert Band. Tickets £7 on door. Presidents Charity Ball. Sat. 31st. March.

HOLBEACH CIVIC SOCIETY. Open meetings.

HOLBEACH CEMETERY CHAPELS.

A small victory. The Boston Road car park will now be open from 6.30 am to 7pm 7 days a week.

Members of the public, remember that you can get from the Forum, a paper clock to enable you to park free for two hours, the machines will also issue a ticket for 2 hours free parking.

We are grateful to Mossop and Bowser for the use of their offices for our think tank meetings.

Brief notes on the last meeting. Available by clicking on link at end of this page.

ONLINE VOTING. Requires a password and is available to Forum members only. Contact Paul for details.

Free internet presence Forum members have a free mini page in our own business directory on this site. check out the directory now and see for yourself.

NEW MEMBERS.

To Join the Forum. Please print out the Directory entry form at the end of the Directory page and send it with your cheque for £10 annual membership fee, payable to Holbeach Business Forum, to the Treasurer, Mr Roger Larner, at 22, Kings Road, Holbeach, Spalding, Lincs. PE12 7RJ, contact any of the officers or just turn up at a meeting. (For the time being, please restrict business information section of the form to 500 characters plus headings).

Many thanks to Trish Bryant and to the Publishers of the Free Press and Spalding Guardian for some of the photographs used on the site.

MINUTES PAGE, including additional news items: FOLLOW LINK UNDER

To see a summary of the minutes from the last meeting, click here.