Once again, Marlow Chamber of Trade and Commerce are organising the hugely successful Late Night Shopping event on the 3rd December.

 

This event dates back nearly 20 years when The Chamber decided that they should increase the attractiveness of Marlow to both locals and visitors, the President at the time was John Chapman and together with help from Martin Spittle and Reg Markham, produced a ‘What’s on in Marlow’ notice and looked for concrete events to bring shoppers into the town.

 

Negotiating free parking on the 3 Thursdays leading up to Christmas led to support from local traders for a late night shopping event and the first evening took place in 1990, with the Town Mayor, Michael Bowater switching on the Christmas lights.

 

One of Michael’s fond memories of that evening was that when he and John Chapman visited the shops, banks and offices on the High Street they were all offering wine which certainly warmed them up on a chilly December evening!

 

The Late Night Shopping event commences at 6.00pm on Thursday the 3^rd December with the Christmas tree lights being turned on, accompanied by a short carol service.

 

The High Street is closed off from 4.00pm to enable an array of stalls, both charitable and commercial, to set up ready for the opening when they will then display and sell their goods.

 

A number of shops in the High Street, West Street and Spittal Street will be open until 9.00pm – the event is an excellent opportunity for Christmas shopping. 

 

This is a hugely popular event for families and really kicks off the Christmas celebrations in Marlow with an atmosphere of fun and music – fingers crossed for good weather!

 

Useful business information

Postal Scam

As Xmas is fast approaching - it has been confirmed by Royal Mail and The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

A card is posted through your door From a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a Premium rate number). DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize. If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15 for the phone call. If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 02072396655 or ICSTIS (the Premium rate service regulator) at www.icstis.org.uk

Pitfalls of Residential Service Charges

 

Service charge demands are never welcome but it makes sense to check such demands and before challenging them, understand your rights and obligations. 

 

The first thing to understand is that your landlord can only make demands that are within the terms of your lease.  If the demand is unreasonable then it is unlikely that you will have to pay it but what you consider to be unreasonable may not be what the law considers to be unreasonable. 

 

A service charge demand must show the landlord’s name and address and be accompanied by a summary of your rights and obligations under the lease. 

 

You can not be charged for any item not referred to within the body of your residential lease.  In particular if improvements are being proposed to the building then make sure that the lease allows the landlord to carry out charge for such works.  An obligation on the landlord to maintain or repair the main structure and common parts of the building does not necessarily mean for example that they can build an extension, fence, porch or anything else where one did not previously exist.

 

Similarly, the landlord can not charge you a management fee for providing the service charge demand unless of course the lease allows them to. 

 

When requested, your landlord must provide a written summary of costs incurred from the previous accounting year or if there is not one, the 12 months up to the date of your request.  They must send it to you within 6 months of the end of the last accounting period or within 1 month of the request, whichever is later.  You can then even ask the landlord to inspect the accounts, receipts and other documents supporting the summary within 6 months of receiving it.

 

If you have checked all of the service charges and still believe they are unreasonable, then you will need to see whether they have been reasonably incurred and need only be paid for if those services or works are of a reasonable standard.  If you still believe that the service charges are unreasonable, then if all else fails you can  apply to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal asking it to determine the level of charge or whether the charge is payable at all.

 

Information from a HMRC press release 4^th November 2009

 

The 15% VAT rate is extended for pubs, clubs, restaurants and other retail businesses, which remain open past midnight on New Year’s Eve, to the time they close, or 6.00am on 1^st January 2010, whichever is the earlier. The same arrangement will apply to telecommunications companies in respect of calls and texts made up to 6.00am on 1^st January 2010. The Financial Secretary to the Treasury thought it might be difficult for such traders to change the VAT rate to 17.5% at midnight on 31^st December and hopes that businesses affected will find this arrangement helpful.

 

Further information about dealing with the change in the standard rate of VAT from 1^st January 2010 can be found at www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms-rates/rates/rate-changes.htm.

Our featured business this month is Glade End Guest House

 

Glade End is a boutique Hotel, is a 5 minute walk for the High Street restaurants and pubs ensuring a good evening meal! Glade End is stylish haven for travellers on business or pleasure with 10 luxury ensuite bedrooms, and private parking. Many distinctive touches mark Glade End out from the ordinary.

 

We have named the bedrooms after people who have lived or connected to Marlow. Each room has a brief history of that person, stating the contribution that they have made to Marlow, European culture and history. Where they are authors, we have put some of their books in the rooms. While you may not be surprised to find a room named Redgrave, you may be surprised to hear a room named Hobart, after Sir Miles Hobart? He was MP for Marlow in 1628. The history we have recorded in his room says:

 

In 1628 in the reign of Charles I, Sir Miles Hobart, whose father had purchased Harleyford in 1599, was MP for Marlow. In the Commons on March 2nd, a set of resolutions, to which the King objected, were being debated. It became clear that King Charles was about to dissolve Parliament before the resolutions could be passed. This would have been fatal to the cause of reform. So, Sir Miles locked the door of the House, either to keep the King's messenger out or to keep the more timid members in, and the resolutions were passed. As soon as the House was dissolved, Sir Miles was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower, but eventually released. In 1632 Sir Miles was killed when his coach ran away going down Holborn Hill in London. Parliament voted £500 to erect the monument to Sir Miles, which today can be on the west wall of the vestibule of All Saints Parish Church Marlow.

 

All rooms are individually furnished to the highest quality with fine antique furniture and beautiful fabrics. The rooms have facilities for hanging suits and shirts. All rooms have television, and tea and coffee making facilities and free Wifi internet access.  Bathrooms are tiled throughout and have a clean modern feel. A Large bath and quality power shower offers both perfect relaxation and quick easy use for the early starter and include sockets for electric razor and in-built hair dryers. The breakfast room has wonderful bay windows providing natural light and comfortable individually chosen pieces of antique furniture.

 

Glade End has 7 doubles ensuite, 2 twins ensuite and a single. Our prices range for £85 to £120 for luxury doubles or twins. We also have a self catering, three bedroom ensuite, luxury house, which is let on a short term basis (days, weeks, months etc).

 

Some of our nice touches:

  

• Free new 8MB Wifi broadband Internet access
• Free bottled water, tea and coffee in all rooms
• Free on site and road parking
• Free Chef "Cooked to order" English Breakfast

 

Welcome to the November edition of our newsletter. The Chamber have been active in the last month promoting fund raising for the Christmas lights for which we have received excellent press coverage from both the Marlow Free Press and Maidenhead Advertiser – thank you to both for highlighting the need for support. We are also all systems go for the Late Night Shopping event held on the 3^rd December which starts at 6.00pm with carols on The Causeway – it is now a case of fingers crossed for the weather.

 

I was honored to represent the Chamber at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony on November the 8^th at the war memorial in Marlow. I was particularly heartened by the number of people who made the effort to attend and believe that this may have been due to the heightened awareness of supporting our troops with the recent events, particularly in Afghanistan. I hope that the poppy appeal this year has been a success despite the current economic climate.

 

The November business meeting was held at Harleyford Golf Club – many thanks for your hospitality and updating us on the golf club together with the business and social facilities available. It was also very generous of you to offer preferential rates to Chamber members.

 

The meeting attracted over 35 members and guests and not only did we have the presentation from Trevor Collingwood from Harleyford Golf Club but also an update on the Marlow Experience from Vice President, Annie Mulady. Jo Braybrooke asked for marshals for the late night shopping event and also reported that the recent article in the Bucks Free Press had generated more sponsorship for the Christmas Lights. Martin Spittle gave the audience an informative presentation on the taxing subject of tax returns, VAT returning to 17.5% in January and rate evaluations. The latter resulted in members requesting a specific meeting about how to challenge rate evaluations which will be arranged for the New Year. Finally, we asked for venues and speakers for the meetings in 2010 – full minutes of the meeting are available on the website.

 

This month, our featured business is Glade End Guest House and we have articles about the Christmas lights, the Late Night Shopping event as well as some general business information.

 

We will not be producing a newsletter in December and so I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our members a Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year.