As I write this there is a sense of excitement, with our town and village centres about to come back to life! Non-essential shops will re-open from Monday 15
th
June; our churches will also start to re-open for private prayer. While things are likely to look and feel different, with Social Distancing arrangements in place indoors and outdoors, and many of those who bus into Leatherhead at lunchtime still working from home, this is a good first step. It is to be hoped that there will soon be an opportunity for our hairdressing, hospitality and leisure businesses to reopen safely too, and for churches to be used for public worship also.
MVDC has now emailed all retail businesses and others occupying shop fronts about reopening, and are offering a paper restart pack. By the time you read this they will have been in Dorking from 10am to 3pm in St Martin’s Walk, and are also going to be in Leatherhead High Street at those times on Friday. If you have not received an email, please do complete the survey
here
.
Here is a link to the
MVDC website
where they have listed everything you could want or need in one place. The different headings lead to the relevant sections of the advice contained on the Gov.uk website. This link is also on the
Home Page
of our website.
The Council has engaged The Retail Group, retail and consumer management consultants, to run three webinars and provide free 1:1 support sessions for retailers on a first-come-first-served basis. Find out more
here
.
For those looking for signage, screens, etc., Chamber Member
Kall Kwik Leatherhead
has developed a wide range in a number of colourways. Our video of the ‘Risk Assessment and Working Safely During Covid-19’ session featured in last week’s newsletter is still available on our
YouTube channel
.
Discretionary Grant Fund: details of eligibility for this have now been released by MVDC, and for
any
business that was ineligible for either of the £10,000 or £25,000 grants, it is well worth looking at
here
.
Julie and Emma West from
Julie West Solicitors
gave an excellent presentation at our Restart Your Business Virtual Coffee session entitled ‘Digital Signing- Could this be for you?’. And the video from this is now showing on our
YouTube Channel
.
Some of yesterday’s registered attendees had trouble joining the event via the browser link provided. It is often easier to use the Zoom app: go to join meeting, enter the meeting ID and then the password when this is asked for. These instructions are now incorporated in the joining details provided in the Eventbrite Booking Confirmations.
We have a joint event with
JP Leadership Coaching
on Tuesday 16
th
June, 09.45 for 10am, entitled
From Surviving to Thriving: Managing Ourselves So We Can Manage Our Businesses
, and this will be led by Julia Philpot. See event listings below for details.
Our next Virtual Breakfast is on Wednesday 17
th
June. This will mirror our usual format, and we will have a panel discussion and Q&A session on
Re-imagining Your Business Model
.
A couple of reminders too - the list of Members who are
open for business
displayed on our website is still much shorter than the reality - so please email
Kerry-Anne Kitson
with details for this. We have re-launched our page promoting
offers
by our Members, so if you have an offer out there or wish to promote something special please do send details to
Kerry-Anne
. We are also now publicising job opportunities for Chamber Members, a current one is from
The Grange Centre
, so please let us have any other sits vacant too!
Finally, please do promote the benefits of
joining the Chamber
to your business colleagues and customers. If you have a window which needs one of our posters and a Membership sticker do let us know, and we also have flyers for anyone in a position to deliver some.
