posted May 24, 2011 6:28 PM by The Editor
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updated Feb 6, 2012 9:40 PM
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In the last six weeks the most important issue of course has been our Post Office. The Chamber and myself have been active in different areas. We wrote letters to our Federal member, Tania Plibersek, our Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, Senator Convoy, State member Verity Firth and last to Mr Fahoud, the CEO of Australia Post.
We spoke at the rally about the importance of this anchor, both as a service for the businesses and the community, but also how it brings customers up the road from all different parts of life, how it helps the wider economy in the area. And when it closes how the people will have to go to Broadway Shopping Centre to get their services like cashing cheques and to pay bills. By doing so the retail section of the street will lose passing traffic.
We will continue to fight with the different groups and communities in Glebe and hopefully we will make Australia Post understand the importance their complete services, (not only the sending of letters and packages, but also the banking aspect which has been lost), are to the whole area.
As I started my year as President I was straight away worried about the large amount of rangers walking up and down the street, fining almost everybody from customers to business owners, Straight away I started a petition to get 15 minutes free parking in the area. We have had a little success with the City changing the position of one meter, so we now have 15 minutes free parking in front of the “Australia Post Office”corner of St Johns Road and Glebe Point Road.
I, together with a some members, am about to contact the head of Rangers to discuss the importance of maintaining customers in the area, where the revenue incentive for the City by fining everybody is very contra-productive. I will continue to fight for the 15 free parking through out the street as we move on this coming year.
I am very happy about the Glebe Street Fair, it was successful. This coming year we are seeking a different format for our fair .Hopefully it will make it more successful for both the shop owners, coffee shops and restaurants on Glebe Point Road, as well as on the stands.
The costs of maintainence, blocking off the road, garbage, changing bus routes etc, seems to go up by the nano second, which has made it increasingly harder for us to put it on..
The Website is in its last lap of work and should soon be finished. I am very grateful to Paul Angel for the work he is putting into our Glebe visiting website. It will be amazing once it is out.
Sofi Lidgren |
posted Oct 5, 2010 8:18 PM by The Editor
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updated Feb 6, 2012 9:41 PM
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President’s Report
As the new President of the Chamber, I feel very humble and I thank the community for having faith in me. I do find it exciting and very interesting to be involved in the Glebe Chamber of Commerce and see it all as a challenge.
First of all, I want to thank the former President Paul Angell. He has been a great asset to our community, with all the many issues that have been dealt with in these last three years. Here to mention a few:
The relentless fight for better parking to benefit both businesses and those having to park on Glebe Point Road and surrounding streets.
The participation and help to businesses:
during the long and harsh upgrade of Glebe Point Road;
in communicating between the City of Sydney and all of us;
showing what was needed to be brought forward.
The outstanding Glebe Brand that has come through.
The 150 Locals Grand Tour, where he, together with Eulalie Moore, Chris Belshaw, Gay Kalnins, North Sullivan and Tom Psomotragos and many others, made this a new, exciting event for Glebe where the beautiful, artistically taken photographs to celebrate 150 years in Glebe with the many locals and characters, were displayed throughout the community. We would love to continue this event in the years to come.
The great achievement of the beautiful, quirky and intelligent Glebe Visiting Website, which is in it final stages.
The understanding for unity with other Glebe groups under the conglomeration COGG , which is strong voice for our Community.
How he was active together with other Chambers in different parts of the City to bring common problems forward.
The continuation of the Glebe Fair.
Thank you for everything Paul (by the way he is not leaving us just yet, he is on our Executive as Vice President). I am wanting to work on many of the same issues that have been dealt with in the past, as well bringing new ones forward.
I have been involved in one way or another with Tourism for years, so I am very excited how the City of Sydney has participated and continues to be a strong driver and committed to Glebe, as a Village (within the campaign “City of Villages“) to keep its personality and to promote us to the rest of the world.
I see it as being a great tourist destination both for the internal and external market. Glebe is definitely different from any other place in Sydney and should be able to benefit fully from that. It is lovely that it has it’s unique character and it is brought forward. Of course we are all working to maintain it.
In this coming year we are seeking to put Glebe on the map. We are awaiting a strong marketing campaign in various medias. It has been put forward by Tourism NSW and The City of Sydney.
A strong point will be our website, where local businesses will be promoted, the community will be shown with its attractions and much more. As well as, through ongoing marketing campaigns in newspapers, magazines, NSW Tourism Website and others.
It will all bring more visitors to Glebe.
Of course, we have our yearly Glebe Street Fair to be put together, a retail development plan for our prominent streets in Glebe and The Grand Tour as well as joining with the community in the many topics that are so relevant for all of us, such as the Harold Park development and still better parking conditions.
I hope together with the help of all our members, to bring forward new ideas to make this a better community as a whole, both for the businesses and for those who live here.
At your service
Sofi Lidgren, President
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posted Apr 29, 2010 8:22 PM by The Editor
President’s Report
Happy New Year to all! 2010 is shaping up to be a big year for all the businesses in Glebe. Over the last few years we’ve all spent a great deal of energy building up commerce infra- structure in an effort to revitalise Glebe. We’ve helped address many social issues that affect us, with our crime rates dropping substantially. Big thanks to Veritiy Firth for helping get our case management system under way and to the police for their truly commendable efforts. In partnership with City of Sydney, we’ve finally completed our upgrade. Our brand is complete and implemented. We’ve had the best year for the Fair in memory and introduced a new event called the Grand Tour Gallery – the highly successful 150 Locals exhibition. All very positive. Consequently, word on the street is that trade is at long last picking up. While we will miss a few of the traders who are no longer with us, we’ve seen the introduction of some fantastic new businesses that will help continue our march to an increasingly vibrant trade.
Over the next year the Chamber intends to continue driving forward with our economic development strategy. Aside from maintaining last years work, we will introduce two main innovations. First, we will deploy a visitation web site, glebe.com.au that will prove a terrific way for our commerce community to communicate with those wishing to come into Glebe. After two years of research we believe we have a winning formula that will set a new benchmark for precincts. The plan is to release it around June. Secondly, we are making an important shift in the way we intend to coordinate the retail trade of Glebe. We want to finally get organised enough to compete with shopping malls properly. In order to get informed on how to do this, we will engage a consultant this year to do a strategic planning document that will map out how to go about it. It will include discussion around things like tenancy mix, arrival points and parking, precinct zoning and all the other things the malls do to compete with us. Ideally this will allow us to offer a option of choice and a unique value proposition and bring us all together into one forward moving community.
Also, just a quick to reminder to all of you that we are a non-profit organisation reliant on volunteers. Your contribution of membership and time are welcome and highly valued. Truly, the more of us that stand together the stronger we all are! Please remember to join and meet a few of your mates at our next network meeting!
Happy Trading!
Paul Angell
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