CREDITON Chamber of Commerce, which has been run by a completely new team for the past year, recently held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at Crediton Council Chamber.

During the past year Chamber has made positive steps to modernise the organisation and has successfully created a new logo and website, and now has a good social media presence.

Chamber has interacted with other town groups and been involved in Crediton Food & Drink Festival, putting up flags in the summer for the festivities in the town and erecting Christmas Trees. A large donation was made to Christmas in Crediton 2015.

At the AGM Chairman, Tara Conabeare thanked treasurer Bruce Evans of Grape & Grain for holding the purse strings, David Oliver of Oliver’s Bakery for his support and attending other group meetings and Leigh Arthur of Crediton Pet Shop for his help in setting up Chamber.

Alison Shakspeare of Shakspeare Editorial was thanked for continuing to maintain the website and Katie-Jane Stewart and Dan Willers from Yellow Mouse Studio for their continued support with the internet and social media.

Tara also thanked all the members, especially those who regularly attend meetings and are actively involved in Chamber. New members and businesses join the organisation every month.

Now that Chamber is set up and fully operational with it’s new team they plan to make a difference during the coming year in Crediton.

Bruce presented the treasurer’s report and said that Chamber was ticking along quite nicely.

Window stickers to confirm membership were distributed to the members present.

<7cent> FUTURE PLANS

Future plans for Chamber include targeting Lord’s Meadow Industrial Estate to increase membership and to get more involvement from businesses on the estate.

An ongoing project with the Crediton Tesco store at Wellparks will continue to promote other businesses in the town.

Chamber will look at the possible benefits of the planned new housing at Wellparks and possible new signage at the entrance to the town to encourage people to visit the High Street, as well as looking at the cost of banners similar to those used in Torrington.

Discussions will be held about Christmas and Chamber plans to continue to work together with the Town Team, Arts Centre, Christmas in Crediton group and the Council to try to promote Crediton as a whole and to share information.

The involvement in Crediton Business Channel is ongoing and Chamber plan to assist in resolving any issues traders or businesses face, recruit new members and get involved in what’s on in Crediton.

Discussions with businesses on the estate have revealed that the previous Chamber had too many sub-groups and this made communication difficult - In future the whole group will work together.

<7CENT> NEW OFFICERS

The current officers stood down and new officers were elected: chair - Tara Conabeare of Evans Newsagents, vice chair - David Oliver of Oliver’s Bakery, treasurer - Bruce Evans of Grape & Grain Wine Merchant, secretary - Tabitha Amador-Christie of Paschoe House, Bow and social media secretary - Katie-Jane Stewart of Yellow Mouse Studios.