Business Development

Purton Post Office - still alive and kicking! Purton is a village where several long established local businesses have recently ceased to trade, and this loss is changing the face of Purton. Looking back over the years we realise that this is not a new thing, but it now seems to be increasing in pace. With large towns nearby, the availability of out-of-town trading estates and the ease of travel, shopping outside the village is all too easy. Of course, there is nothing wrong with these opportunities, but they all have their effect on our village. This is especially frustrating when we know that local businesses can provide many services to the same price and standard as large town businesses, and with the convenience and environmental benefits of not having to travel. In the future when travel is increasingly expensive, shopping locally might again be seen to be the right thing to do. To have a good range of local businesses, all thriving with the support of the village community, is something we would like to see. From our concern that many local shops and businesses were having to close, and our wish that Purton should have a good range of local businesses which are all thriving with the support of the village community, we have been exploring several areas of opportunity. At a series of meetings with Swindon Chamber of Commerce, Business Link Wiltshire and Swindon, and Cricklade Business Association we have found a lot of information that may help our local businesses. The main route for local businesses is that advice is available from many groups, including those listed below :- Local groups Swindon Chamber of Commerce: info@swindonchamber.co.uk Business Link Wiltshire + Swindon: www.businesslink.co.uk Community First: communityfirst@compuserve.com North Wiltshire + Kennet Local Learning Partnership North Wiltshire District Council Economic Development Cricklade Business Association: www.bizness.co.uk National groups Forum for Private Business: www.fpb.co.uk Federation of Small Businesses: www.fsb.co.uk CBI: www.cbi.co.uk Alliance of Independant Retailers: www.indretailer.co.uk Independant Food Retailers Confederation Trade Association Forum: www.taforum.org.uk National Federation of Enterprise Agencies: www.nfea.com The Enterprise Zone: www.enterprisezone.org.uk British Franchise Association: www.british-franchise.org.uk Agricultural Development and Advisory Services: www.adas.co.uk The Prince’s Trust Business Division: www.wiredup.net Livewire: www.shell-livewire.org Lawyers for Your Business: www.lfyb.lawsociety.org.uk Business and Innovation Centres: www.bbic.co.uk Obviously, many local businesses will already have some contact with some of the organisations above, and there will be other organisations we have not listed. We hope this information is of assistance. As PSA is not a business, we feel that we have taken our exploration as far as we can sensibly go, but this page will stay open as a reference for our local businesses. If you find further information that you think would be helpful, please let us know so that we can add it to the reference list which will appear in the New Year. There are still many local businesses in Purton, and our aim is to promote them and their services as much as possible. The Purton Magazine and the ‘Welcome Pack’ have details of many businesses, but we are aware that there are also some businesses that do not advertise in either. (We hope you will all continue to support the Purton Magazine with your advertisements as we consider this to be another valuable village service that we would like to see continue prosper). Perhaps we can use this page to promote ALL our local businesses.