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QUESTION TIME WITH TOM KERR & SELECT PANEL OF GUESTS
The next members' meeting will take the form of a "Question Time" session when members, guests and friends will be able to quiz representatives of Local Government, voluntary organisations and professional advisors. Questions on any topic relevant to Linlithgow and its future should be forwarded in advance to anne@gogreenbags.co.uk. Anyone unable to attend on the evening can still submit a question and all submissions will be treated equally. |
Next LBA Meeting
Special guest Provost Tom Kerr.
Monday 24th November at 7.30pm at Taste Deli, High St. Linlithgow.
Next Office Bearers Meeting
Wednesday 26th November at EK:JN office. |
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Linlithgow Climate Challenge have worked in partnership with the Energy Savings Trust to bring a 'Renewable Energy' Showcase
to Linlithgow. Sun Microsystems have kindly agreed to host this event within their brand new Executive Briefing Centre.
The event is taking place on Tuesday 25th November from 4-6pm and is open to the general public.
Please come along and see the technology and meet the people who are actively involved in providing advice, offering grants and installing such equipment.
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Recession!!! Now is not the time to take cover.
A common, and natural, reaction when times are tough is to cut back on advertising and marketing. But, when we come out the other side, who will customers turn to first? The name they remember. There are lots of examples of this over the years, but my favourite is Kelloggs. Before the great depression, the leading cereal brand was Post and Kelloggs was a small emerging company. Post cut right back on their advertising, but Kelloggs stepped their's up, most notably with Tony the Tiger. Kelloggs emerged the dominant player and has never looked back.
So make sure it's you the customer thinks of, when times get better.
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LINLITHGOW CIVIC TRUST
invites you to the book launch of
Walks around Linlithgow
by local walker John Davidson
at Linlithgow Library
on Saturday 22nd November at 11am
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Welcome to the November Newsletter.
With tough trading conditions forecast for the next 12 months at least the need to focus on squeezing out unnecessary costs will be high on the list of priorities for most businesses. Last issue we highlighted a simple means of reducing utility bills whilst also keeping business in the community. One of our main articles this month offers the opportunity to reduce costs on another essential overhead item for most businesses - annual insurance premiums.
 Member John Bartlett of the Star & Garter, ex-City of London insurance expert, outlines below a "bulk purchase" scheme which offers the potential of savings for participating members.
And on a positive note for the High Street, Jon Newey of EK:JN Architects reveals long overdue plans for the redevelopment of the Victoria Halls and confirms that a planning application has been submitted. While looking to the future, the design is sensitive to Linlithgow's past and has been commented on favourably by all who have inspected the proposal to date.
Comments and queries on any of the articles should be submitted in the first instance to: contact@linlithgowbusiness.org.uk |
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REDEVELOPMENT OF VICTORIA HALLS | |
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The big news at the East end of the High Street this week is that a planning application has been submitted for the 'Victoria Walk' project, the redevelopment of the Victoria Hall site.
The old hall was originally commissioned by the Community Council 150 years ago, and was built using funds raised by public donations. However the building has been in a sorry state for many years and the main body of the hall was demolished earlier this year.
Design of Victoria Walk The current owners, Gioco Leisure, commissioned LBA members EKJN Architects to design a new building for the site with enough shop fronts and floor space to make the scheme financially viable; it needed to meet the requirements of the Planners, Historic Scotland, the Civic Trust, and the Conservation Officers as well as addressing the issues of noise, car parking and deliveries; it also needed to meet (as far as possible) the architectural challenges of climate-change. After much discussion and negotiation the 'Victoria Walk' project was born.
Main Features of proposal
- A series of lettable units on the ground floor with shop fronts facing out to High Street.
- A short walk down to a new courtyard, with more shopfronts facing onto the walk.
- The original entrance arch reconstructed as the entrance to the walk.
- The upper floor is a series of mezzanine levels, which will be used in conjunction with each of the ground floor units.
- The largest of the units extends through into the rear part of the site (where it might include a small bowling alley) and extends up into the whole of the top storey facing High Street (where it might include function rooms).
- Gioco Leisure anticipate that the lettable units will be cafes, restaurants and bars, but nothing is yet ruled in (or out) because it will depend on what tenants can be found to occupy the space.
For the full article about Victoria Walk, please click here. |
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 John Bartlett, owner of the Star and Garter Hotel, has been discussing his insurance renewal with his broker, Towergate Risk Solutions, and has taken the opportunity to discuss the benefits of an insurance package for the members of the Association. Towergate Risk Solutions are the largest independent insurance broker in the world.
This could lead to savings in premium as well as an improvement in our coverage and a potential profit share based on our bulk purchasing power. In other words we could benefit from a return of premium at the end of the year should we offer a profitable package to insurers.
We have not yet had the opportunity to review the risk profile of all the businesses and potential businesses within the Association but it appears that we are primarily a service based organisation which should assist both in risk assessment and management of our exposures.
In order to assess how beneficial this package could be to members of the Association we would need to offer to insurance brokers the following information:
1) Categories of business;
2) Number of staff/employees;
3) Turnover;
4) Total wages.
Andrew Adam of Towergate Risk Solutions has offered to attend one of our meetings to describe the potential benefits. Of course some members will have their own insurance policies with companies/brokers with whom they are very happy but this offer would not depend on all members joining the package.Prior to becoming a hotelier John had spent 25 years within the insurance industry and is a qualified Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute, a Chartered Insurance Practitioner and a member of the Society of Fellows. Please look out for an e-mail in the near future which will be sent to all LBA members about this proposal.
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NEW MEMBER ARTICLE: DOUBLE SCOTCH |
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Double Scotch - policy and communications support.
If your business - or an association, charity, pressure group or public-sector concern with which you are involved outside your main business activity - needs help with policy or communications work, or with analysing some subject in more depth and then producing a report in plain English rather than double Dutch, a new local company specialises in providing this type of support on a flexible or occasional basis.
 The company, created by Ian Shearer, is called Double Scotch reflecting the owner's years of experience of policy, lobbying and other initiatives at the heart of one of Scotland's largest and most successful industries - Scotch whisky - but the services are targeted at any other organisation which might require the same skills.
Maybe you need short-term extra assistance with a specific project or campaign, or with a one-off submission or proposal to an official body? Or maybe your organisation would like someone to do more regular work of this kind, or to support a committee or working group, but without taking on an extra employee? Perhaps you are unsure of the best approach in trying to influence Brussels, Whitehall, Holyrood or a regulatory agency?
Call 0845-8905230 for an informal discussion, or take a look at the website for more information ( click here). | |
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AND FINALLY .............. |
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We hope you've found the newsletter interesting and informative. If you would like to make a contribution to the next newsletter we would very much like to hear from you on any issues affecting your business particularly in the current difficult trading circumstances.
There are three ways to make a contribution to the newsletter:
1. By way of an article (e.g. Double Scotch article above);
2. Special discount offer to LBA members
3. A short article (around 100 words) on any issue affecting your business.
The closing date for articles is 12th December for the Christmas issue of the newsletter. Please send e-mail contributions to sarah@sabre-it.com or contact@linlithgowbusiness.org.uk. We would also welcome longer articles about issues affecting your business to publish on our website (www.linlithgowbusiness.org.uk).
Any business wanting to host a future LBA meeting should contact Elodie at the Language Room (e:enquiry@thelanguageroom.com; tel: 670009).
We are aware of a problem with image labels and have contacted our newsletter provider for further advice - apologies for any confusion this may cause.
Linlithgow Business Association
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