City businesses to unite - again

MOVES are afoot to establish Warrnambool's largest-ever chamber of commerce group to represent businesses and consumers.An informal cross-section of business community representatives has been discussing the proposal for about six months and hopes to hold a public meeting to elect a committee to run the new organisation.It would give traders across the municipality a united voice and fill a void left by the demise of several previous representative groups.About 1500 businesses are based in Warrnambool and there about about 6000 registered business names, yet there is no umbrella organisation as in other regional centres.Interim chairman of the Warrnambool steering group, Darren Harris, said it was hoped to have the new organisation running by mid-year."The steering group feels a city the size of Warrnambool needs a voice for the business community," Mr Harris said."We want it to be open to all businesses regardless of what part of the city they are in or how big or small they are."It would also be able to help other sections of the community."We want to tread carefully so the new organisation has every chance of success."There will be no self-appointments. It won't be a snobby club."Mr Harris said it was important for Warrnambool to have a strong representative group to be a positive conduit between the business community and the city council.He said in big issues such as jumps racing and the May carnival the business community could have had a strong say ."It's about creating opportunity for a network and to give Warrnambool a good collective group," he said."We hope a wide cross section of the community will want to get involved."A lot of time and planning has been going into this."It's for all businesses from the handyman service, butcher, window cleaner through to the multi-nationals for the greater Warrnambool - north, east, west and central."