The president of Wellingborough and East Northants Chamber of Commerce celebrated the area’s history, heritage and innovation and ushered in a new era of success after being re-elected as President.
Pritesh Ganatra, who runs British Technology Solutions (UK), entered his second year as leader of the Chamber at the AGM staged on April 27 at Wellingborough Golf Club.
After the traditional president’s speech, the committee was re-elected, see below, before a discussion about High Street regeneration and the role of the town centre.
Committee members
|
Secretary
|
Past President/Deputy
|
President’s speech by Pritesh Ganatra
“Opening – I have been told that our records show we, as an independent Chamber of Commerce has had a continuous committee that has represented the interests of its members since 1932. That makes us 90 years old this year! However, upon doing some further research, it seems that the Chamber was set up as far back as 1914, and was originally known the Wellingborough and Rushden Chambers of Trade, then from around 1951 to 2019, just as Wellingborough Chamber of Commerce so, going back full circle, we also represent Rushden, Raunds Irthlingborough businesses and become the Wellingborough and East Northants Chamber of Commerce.
Recent Challenges (the past)
“As we are all aware, if the economy wasn’t on a knife edge in certain sectors already, that 2022 and 2021 brought about the unforeseen added pressure of Covid-19 and the global pandemic and lockdowns that ensued thereafter.
“As if High Street retailing and the leisure sectors were not already under increasing pressures, the forced closures meant that we had new challenges on top of the old ones.
Any Town Centre development plans, some of which have been in the pipeline as far back as 2006, were definitely off the agenda, especially with the restructuring of our county and borough councils being apportioned into two unitary bodies and having the original town council structure as I remember it from by days in Wellingborough in the 1970s.
This has meant no clear plan of regeneration into this beautiful part of the county now known as North Northants.
Recent success
“Our successes of the past five years have been developments like that of Rushden Lakes. This has brought in money from outside of the county and that SHOULD have been the opportunity for Town Centre retailers to showcase Wellingborough and surrounding areas to attract those who have ventured from Peterborough, Huntingdon and as far as Cambridge to come and see our historic town. Where else can boast that Cromwell stayed at their hotel!
“However, we can talk about failures all day long and for those of who know me, I live by my mother’s words…“If you have nothing positive to say, then shut up and sit down. And if you have positive words in your head, just get on and show the actions and not have meetings all day long and only to do nothing about it!”
“Some sectors have flourished during this same period. We had a marked increase in on-line shopping so the warehousing has risen significantly. The demand for PPE and materials being ordered as barriers at reception desks meant that the plastics industry has also been a winner. All of this increase has resulted in a booming logistics sector and demand had led to increase in van sales.
“With ever increasing energy prices, Wellingborough is doing its part in producing sustainable and renewable sources of power. On our door step, we also have the Chelveston Renewable Energy Park. The 750-acre (304 hectares) site is already one of the largest combined renewables parks in the UK.
“The former RAF base, acquired as a green energy innovation base 15 years ago, currently has the capacity to produce 30MW of wind energy and 60MW of solar energy, enough to power 15,000 homes and the new solar power project will eventually create enough hydrogen to power 100 lorries every day.
New forward thinking
“So, what’s next… a look forward to what we collectively need to do to grow our businesses in our towns and villages to become a thriving and vibrant community and to continue growing, what we call the circular economy.
“If our town councils and local retailers all used local trades people to spruce up our shop fronts, those trades would use local merchants and those merchants would shop in our newly refurbished specialist retailers!
“We all know how important first impressions are and to make our towns more inviting, it all starts a can-do attitude. The council can continue to planning and strategy meetings, in the meantime, we, as private businesses can use our own muscle and paint and tidy our own shop fronts, clean the windows, invest in some Point of Sale, make the best window displays in Northamptonshire to attract shoppers from all the surrounding areas to visit us. The Chamber are here support our Town Centre retailers to work with them.
“Did you know, Rushden Lakes has allocated FREE space to any business in Wellingborough, Rushden, Raunds and Irthlingborough to promote their products and services. We are fortunate to have Donna French, the Centre Manager for Savills and the Crown Estate, owners of Rushden Lakes, on our committee.
“On the manufacturing side of the economy, we have companies such as Hampton Steel, one of the UK’s premier manufacturers of wire fencing and metal posts, based right here, in Wellingborough.
“We Crosby Composites, Britain’s leading carbon fibre engineering company, manufacturing parts for the likes of the McLaren super cars, as well as Aston Martin and crucial parts for the medical industry for use in building MRI Scanners and high-tech prostheses.
Our invitation needs to be to workers, not just commuters and we can show them that we have high end manufacturing and technology-based business as well as logistics-based industry in our part of the county.
“By giving a warm welcome into the Rose of the Shires, showing off that we have the most number of stately homes and ancient attractions such as the recently refurbished ancient Roman and Saxon site at Chester House, that we are also a valid tourist attraction to rival the likes like of Edinburgh in our history. We are a county that was once the second home of the parliament and now is the time to show off our polish and silverware once more!
“I can say no more at this point and to close, nothing would delight me more than to see to an army of the business communities from our towns come together, roll up sleeves and to lift the collective weight of doubt that has set in our minds for decades that we are a poor relation to Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire and that we are ‘just somewhere’ to stop on the motorway between Leicester and Milton Keynes.
“Let me tell you, as a Wellingborough lad through and through, that we have more history, heritage and more importantly innovation and drive than any of our neighbours, yet throughout history, we have been bullied into a negative mindset in that we are not worthy of success – but no more.”