WEST DEVON BUSINESS VOICE

Your Council wants to give West Devon businesses a greater opportunity to influence the Council  at both a strategic and more operational level.

Strategically there are some very significant changes to the landscape with the newly established Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership becoming a key player in local economic development.

At the operational end of things we have engagement on specific issues such as car parking charges, tourism and waste collection but, apart from the annual invitation to discuss the budget, we do not make a regular opportunity to hear the voice of local businesses or develop a dialogue with you on a consistent basis.

Following the election, the new political administration has, as one of its six key priorities, to promote economic regeneration and support local businesses. We will be securing this objective by supporting the Tavistock Business Improvement District proposal and "Opportunity Okehampton" but we want to do more by listening to local businesses to enable you to influence our thinking.

As a first step we would welcome any comments on this letter. You can reply by email 

As a second step we would like to invite you to attend an event at Strawberry Fields, Lifton on Wednesday 27 July from

5 pm – 7 pm (tea/cakes available from 4.30 pm). We will secure a speaker to describe Local Enterprise Partnership progress and its developing strategic agenda as it affects West Devon. We will also try to get an official from BDUK to explain how this area might benefit from the national investment in Super Broadband, following the announcement recently about Devon and Somerset's success. Both have been flagged up by local businesses as critical issues.

If you have any further suggestions for topics for discussion at the meeting, we will try to accommodate them. We will also spend a few minutes to test support for an ongoing dialogue, perhaps on a quarterly basis and there will be time to network with other local businesses.

Please let us know if you wish to attend by close of play on Friday 22nd July using the e-mail address above.

I hope you see this as a positive move to give West Devon businesses more of a voice in promoting economic development in West Devon. If you have any other thoughts that will help us secure our priority then please let us know.

Cllr James McInnes
Leader of the Council

Invitation to  a Business Forum with the Minister for the Department for

Business, Innovation and Skills, Mark Prisk MP

at The Bedford Hotel, Tavistock on Wednesday 3rd August from 10:30am until 12:30pm

As you may be aware, since late 2010 I have been running a campaign to bring greater attention to the interests of businesses in our market towns and rural communities with the aim of highlighting to both government and local authorities the positive changes that could be made to support them. As part of this campaign, I invited the Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, Mark Prisk MP, to visit the constituency, with a view to providing an opportunity for members of the local business community to put their views and ideas directly to the Minister.

I am pleased to inform you that I will be hosting a business forum with the Minister

which I would be delighted if you could attend.

Tea and Coffee will be provided.

You may know that the government recently appointed Mary Portas, one of the UK's leading retail experts, to lead an independent review into the future of the High Street. As part of a drive to identify what government, local authorities and businesses can do to promote the development of a more prosperous and diverse business environment, we hope that forums, such as this one, will enable Ministers to take on board the views and ideas of those running a business.

Please RSVP to Katie Lovering at my Constituency Office via email  or Tel. 01237 459001.

I look forward to hopefully seeing you there.
Yours sincerely
Geoffrey Cox Q.C, M.P