Minutes of the Eastbourne & District Chamber of Commerce Ltd
T/A Eastbourne UnLtd Chamber of Commerce
Annual General Meeting
Wednesday 21st May 2014
6.00pm Cavendish Hotel, Grand Parade, Eastbourne
PRESENT
Mark McFadden – President
Christina Ewbank – Chief Executive
Neville Beckhurst - Treasurer
Mike Neilan (Price & Co) – Auditor
and 43 Members and Guests
1 Welcome The President opened the meeting with a welcome to all present
2 Notice of Meeting The formal notice convening the meeting was taken as read.
3 Apologies The Chief Executive read the list of apologies.
4 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 11th June 2013 had been emailed to the membership and posted on line in
accordance with the Constitution and were taken as read. Approval of the Minutes was carried unanimously in a proposal by
Alison Rainer Jones, seconded by Ron Naylor.
5 Annual Accounts and Auditor’s Report to 31st December 2013 The President said abbreviated copies of the Accounts had
been distributed via an e-shot. Members were advised that full copies were available on request.
Mike Neilan of Price & Co confirmed that a full audit had been carried out and was found to be satisfactory, he outlined some of
the major points which included a drop in membership income and a drop in property rental income. The drop in rental income
is as a result of the tenants at 7a Hyde Gardens moving out and the offices remaining vacant. The offices have now been
refurbished at a cost of £13K, this includes a £4K contribution from the outgoing tenants. New tenants will be occupying the
offices in June 2014.
There has been a sizeable increase in advertising costs due to the rebranding and the new EDCC website. Overall the balance
sheet is looking healthy and there were no questions from the floor. The adoption of the accounts was carried unanimously on a
proposal by Mike Thompson seconded by Martin Lulham.
6 President’s Report for 2013/14
As a result of the changes made in 2012/13 EDCC has continued to actively work on behalf of the membership in a number of
areas and turned many ideas into reality
The weekly market has been reintroduced and is held every Wednesday known as Eastbourne Borough Market, a Sunday
market will be introduced from the 1st June. Footfall is increasing on market day and it is becoming an established part of the
shopping week. Luke Johnson who has been working at the chamber on work experience since Nov 2013 will be taken on in June
as the Town Centre Manager Assistant and he will look after the market and other town centre projects.
Shop occupancy levels are monitored each month and the vacancy rates are continuing to fall and remain 33% below the
national average.
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EDCC are working with the Town Team and the Uni of Brighton to raise funds for the Eastbourne Christmas lights. EBC have
offered £20K in match funding. The overall spend is £50K. The lights will make a real difference to the Christmas shopping
experience in the town. The display will total over 50,000 LED lights.
EDCC are playing a leading role in ACES (Alliance of Chambers in East Sussex) and to date have met with The Minister of State for
Business and Skills Matthew Hancock, MP’s Amber Rudd, Charles Hendry, Greg Barker and Stephen Lloyd. Becky Shaw CEO of
ESCC, Rupert Clubb the Director of Economic Development and Transport at ESCC, Roy Galley the Head of Economic
Development and Nigel Hannam the Corporate Director at Wealden District Council. Meetings have also been held with the
leader of the SELEP Peter Jones and its Director David Godfrey. During these discussions ESCC committed to rolling out high
speed broadband across 96% of the county by Spring 2016. The SELEP has also started working on a programme to close the
“not spots” – where mobile cover fades on major East Sussex roads.
Spencer Dale the Chief Economist of the Bank of England and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee was a keynote
speaker at an ACES meeting in Sept 2013 and shared his views on the economy.
EDCC met with the roads minister Rob Goodwill and more recently the Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin to
press for the upgrading of the A27 – this was covered in more detail later in the agenda under the Presidents report.
EDCC continue to publicise East Sussex as a business location with articles appearing in the ETC magazine and Southern Business
Times. EDCC is working with ESCC and Southern Business Times to hold a half day business conference in East Sussex in October
2014.
The Foreign Secretary William Hague visited the chamber on the 16 th May and spoke to 3 chamber members who have been
involved in exporting their services.
EDCC are lobbying government for a reduction in VAT rates on hotels to put them on a similar level to those in other EC
countries where they are as low as 5%.
Edeal in association with WDC will hold monthly business clinics and quarterly business start-up workshops in Polegate,
Hailsham, Uckfield and Crowborough. An online business plan review service is also available to Wealden clients. Edeal will
continue to deliver the Barclays Ready for Business Programme in Eastbourne, to date 22 businesses have been started as a
result of this programme.
EDCC continue to be involved in discussions with EBC re plans for Terminus Road and the wider town centre and also the
branding of Eastbourne.
The President thanked our MP Stephen Lloyd, David Tutt the Leader of EBC and the prospective parliamentary candidate
Caroline Ansell for the positive collaborative working relationship we enjoy in our efforts in making this town better.
The President encouraged all members to continue to grow the chamber membership and recommend business colleagues,
friends and neighbours to join the chamber; the more we grow the stronger and louder our voice becomes.
Adoption of President’s Report was confirmed on a unanimous vote proposed by Bill Plumridge, seconded by Alison Rainer
Jones.
7 Election of President 2014/2015 Mark McFadden was formally proposed as President by Tim Cobb. This was seconded by
Derek Godfrey with the unanimous approval of all members present. Mark was reinvested with the chain of office and he
thanked members for his election.
8 Election of Officers and Board of Directors The Chamber seeks to represent the membership in whatever way possible and
similarly, the Board of Directors seeks to be fully representative of the membership as a whole.
Vice President: Tim Cobb, Cobb PR - only nominee - was formally proposed as Vice President by Micheal Ogilvie and seconded
by Derek Godfrey
Hon. Treasurer: Neville Beckhurst, Plummer Parsons – only nominee – was formally proposed by Mike Ogilvie, seconded by
Alison Rainer-Jones.
Directors continuing in office, under the Constitution:
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Alison Rainer Jones, Ian Lucas, Melanie Hunt, Martin Lulham, Michael Gietzen, Michael Ogilvie, Nicky Fisher, Stewart Pierce, Tim
Corke, Mark McFadden, Tim Cobb, Neville Beckhurst and Glen Stone
Directors seeking re-election:
Ron Naylor, Bill Plumridge, Ashley Pugh, Derek Godfrey and Julie Banks
The above Officers and Directors were all unanimously elected by the members present on a proposal by Christine Purkess,
seconded by Mike Thompson.
There were no new nominations received to join the Board and no resignations
Election of Auditors for the financial year 2014/15
Neville Beckhurst thanked Mike Neilan of Price and Co for acting as the EDCC accountants. Price & Co were confirmed as
Auditors under a three year contract agreed in 2012.
The President thanked the board for all the unpaid hours and hard work they put into making the chamber so successful. He also
paid tribute to Christina Ewbank thanking her for her hard work and achievements over the last year. The back office were
thanked for their continued support, Luke Johnson and Lucy Phillips who are currently on work experience were also thanked.
10 President’s Address and Future Plans Many of the items referred to in the report were ongoing from 2013 into 2014 and
will continue to be areas that Eastbourne UnLtd will focus on.
There has been a lot of emphasis on the campaign to upgrade the A27. To date over 850 people have completed online surveys
to express their views on the state of the A27, the results show an overwhelming majority are in favour of improvements being
made. Eastbourne Untd will continue to work closely alongside EBC and ESCC to campaign for these improvements. The
president encouraged all attendees to complete this survey if they haven’t already done so. It is available on the ACES website
home page at www.acesalliance.org
11 Any other Business
There was no other business so the formal meeting was closed at 7pm.
Christina Ewbank gave a presentation on ACES and Stephen Lloyd made a short speech focusing on apprenticeships and
highlighting all the excellent projects that are ongoing in the town to make the town fly!
Members were invited to network and enjoy refreshments.
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