Oxon Town Chambers and Business Groups Join Forces

A powerful new Network to connect and promote the county?s Town Chambers and similar business groups has been launched.

The Oxfordshire Town Chambers Network aims to promote its member groups and help them share ideas and experience of the work each of them is doing in towns across the county.

The Network has contacted groups in: Abingdon, Banbury, Bicester, Burford, Carterton, Chipping Norton, Didcot, Faringdon, Henley, Kidlington, Oxford, THAME, Wallingford, Wantage, Watlington, Witney, Woodstock. Eleven groups, with 705 members between them, have already agreed to join the Network.

It has been launched with a web portal to promote the Network, its member organisations and their websites at www.oxfordshiretownchambersnetwork.co.uk or www.otcn.co.uk.

One of the founder members of the Network, John Naish, says: ?Across Oxfordshire, Chambers and similar business groups, all involving volunteers, are doing excellent work promoting their towns, and the businesses in them. They are also involved in a wealth of valuable work from lobbying decision-makers to supporting activities like CCTV, Shopwatch, Xmas Lights, local schools, and running networking events for their member businesses.

?What?s been lacking in Oxfordshire is an effective way to link these organisations together, to help them share their experiences and learn from the way their colleagues in other towns are tackling key issues. The Oxfordshire Town Chambers Network puts that right.?

The Network aims to help its member organisations:
? To share ideas and best practice
? To share experience of common issues that local Chambers and similar groups are tackling in their towns in Oxfordshire
? To develop a web portal as a focal point for the activities of the Network members, linked to the websites of those Chambers or business groups that have their own
? To promote the principle of Town Chambers and similar business groupings
? To promote within the Network, the activities of each of the member groups
? To engage members of these groups in a more cohesive way in lobbying local authorities and other decision makers.

David Simpson, Chairman of Bicester & District Chamber of Commerce, says: ?I do believe that there are many benefits to be gained by developing such a Network. The most obvious being an exchange of ideas and experiences of what each group does. There is also the wider issue of being able to truly represent our member organisations and their members in Oxfordshire, at a county and regional level.?

A number of Oxfordshire businesses and organisations have also agreed to support or work with the Network. Business Link Partnership Manager, Philip Wootton, says: ?I very much welcome this Network as a positive step to link the Town Chambers and other business groups in Oxfordshire.?