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Business in Cookham
| MAIN REPORT INDEX |
The Cookhams’ business community of 245 enterprises is estimated to produce £15m of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) annually. It employs several hundred local people serving the needs of local residents and businesses as well as many external customers. Whilst the overwhelming number of employers is in the small business category (less than 5 employees), The Chartered Institute of Marketing and John Lewis Partnership account for over 200 and 115 staff respectively. The results of our survey indicate a vibrant business community with most businesses reporting good prosperity now and a similar forecast for the future.
The Cookhams are seen as a positive and desirable place in which to conduct business but there are some key issues which the business community would like to see addressed, notably:
1. A desire for a co-ordinated plan to upgrade the Station Parade, because it is an important central feature of the Village, and to increase its attractiveness to customers.
2. The provision of more car parking capacity especially in the Village and Rise and to reduce traffic congestion. These issues are believed to be affecting business growth. We believe that all new businesses should have adequate off-street parking.
These two issues are addressed elsewhere in this document.
3. The provision of more readily accessible business support facilities – e.g. I.T. (Information Technology), finance and administration through some form of centralised presence in the Station Parade area, along with the creation of a local business networking facility. These would be particularly helpful to the growing home worker population.
The Cookhams still do not have full mobile telephone coverage. We are aware of the controversy associated with the erection of new masts, but we believe that full coverage should be available. Accordingly, we recommend that mast-sharing by providers should be mandatory wherever possible, and that those remaining small areas with poor reception should be served by micro/pico cell units.
Likewise there is only partial coverage of Broadband in the area, and, where it is available, line-speeds are at the lower end of the scale. We believe that this service should be extended and improved throughout the Village as soon as possible, and urge our elected representatives to lobby the providers accordingly.
We believe that there is great potential for www.cookham.com to help in the promotion of local business.