Monmouth Chamber has been instrumental in promoting our business and helping us find new contacts even though we only joined this summer. For £40 for the first year, it’s an absolute bargain and more businesses should consider joining. Andrew and Jacky. The Best of Monmouth
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Good News....

PRESS RELEASE - GOOD NEWS - 13.04.09

David Cummings, Chairman of Monmouth and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce commented "We are very pleased to announce that tenders have now been issued by Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) to the hotel developers who have pre- qualified to make bids, following the accreditation process. We believe that the identity of the successful bidder for the Portal Road site, behind the Total garage, will be known by the end of August. MCC have carried out a great deal of preparatory work on the sale of the site, so we are hopeful that work on the building of a hotel can commence early in 2010 , as well as a coach park on land retained on the site by MCC.

Summer 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the death, in a flying accident, of the motoring pioneer Charles Rolls.  Monmouth will be commemorating his life with a series of exciting events, including exhibitions in Monmouth Museum and a spectacular cavalcade of up to 200 classic Rolls-Royce cars.  The full programme is still being developed and details will be published in due course.

Most readers will be aware that the Ryder Cup will be taking place at the Celtic Manor in September 2010. Although the rooms that have been pre-booked are all along M4 corridor, we are hopeful that Monmouth businesses will be able to achieve spin off benefits from the event. Potential ticket holders in the Ryder Cup draw should know if they have been successful in their bid to be able to attend the event in August of this year.

Entry Forms for the Shire Hall banners competition are now available in a number of shops throughout the town; just look for the window poster. There will be big prizes for the winners and the results will run until January 2010. We will have a completely restored Shire Hall building as one of the key historic landmarks and symbols of the heritage of the town in; yes, you have guessed it, in 2010!

The Chamber feels that the importance of 2010 for the economy of the town cannot be understated. We will continue our efforts to lobby and to work closely with the Town and County Councils to ensure Monmouth takes its due benefit from the events of next year. In particular, we will be setting up a task group in the Chamber charged with overseeing and co-coordinating the events timetable for 2010. If we all plan now for next year, there is tremendous scope to maximise on the publicity associated with the events that are already planned in the area and town, to take place in 2010".
 

Portal Road Site....

Monmouth and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce (MDCTC) very much welcome the exciting news that the Monmouthshire County Council owned Portal Road site, behind the Total garage, has been put on the market with the primary use suggested as a hotel.

Readers will be aware that MDCTC has actively lobbied over the last three years for this strategic site for the town to be used for a hotel development with a section of the site devoted to much needed coach parking.

According to the latest available data from Monmouthshire County Council (MCC), Monmouth has 93 serviced accommodation (hotel or B+B) beds short of the Chepstow area and 383 short of the Abergavenny area. Information from several accommodation providers indicate that bookings are up this year 50% on 2007 and bookings through the Tourist Information Centre are up 100%. Each serviced accommodation bed in Monmouthshire produces a massive £17,605 benefit per year for the local economy and MDCTC cannot envisage a more important way to boost the economy of the town.

MCC has also deemed that the site might also be suitable for office development. MDCTC does not support the use of this vitally important site for the town as offices as a Chamber survey suggests that 16,000 sq ft of office space already exists in and around the town, a doubling of this capacity planned on existing sites over the next few years. We feel that the location of office space is not as vital as the location of a hotel close to the town centre and that , if required , new sites are available elsewhere on the outskirts of the town for office development.

We hope that matters can be moved forward quickly on the sale of the site, so that we have in place the facilities that are essential if local business is able to take full advantage of the events of 2010. Readers will be aware of the Ryder Cup in September of that year, but may not be aware of the celebrations planned for the Centenary of Charles Rolls, the potential to increase visitor numbers as a result of work completed on the Overlooking the Wye project and the Festival of Air . It is also evident from a local resident perspective that currently we have several locations in town where weddings can be conducted, but insufficient bed capacity to accommodate all the guests.

A contemporary hotel of 60 or 80 bedrooms, hopefully of 3 star plus standard, can be built in 36 weeks. We have around 58 weeks left to the beginning of 2010 leaving 22 weeks for the tendering and planning process. The opportunity is there to inject £1million, every year, into the economy of the town, let us all embrace it!
 
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