The Castlebar Chamber was very busy in 2009 with many ongoing projects to improve the town and increase business activity, without the support of the businesses in the town certain projects would not have been a success. Such projects that the Chamber is involved in is listed below.

 
Enterprise Development – promoting a spirit of enterprise and job creation in the town.

Lobbying with the Council to reduce Business rates- a successful reduction of 2.5% was granted. We have established contacts with state agencies such as Enterprise and Western Development Commission and used these contacts to lobby for improved broadband, supports for new businesses and provision of additional business information e.g. online events calendar for all business events.

 
Destination Castlebar – promoting Castlebar as a major Dining, Shopping and Entertainment destination.

The brand “Castlebar Everyone’s Invited” was developed and launched with very positive feedback received from all sides. The key challenge for this year is to convert our plans into actions which will attract more people to the town for shopping, Dining, leisure and entertainment.

 
Membership Services – delivering services to members.

During the year, we recruited a full time person to our Office and this enabled us to increase our level of services to members. Amongst the initiatives undertaken were- the launch of Chamber Gift Voucher scheme; Christmas Festive Day; Employment Law Seminar; regular Ezine with information of interest to members. Our plans this year are to expand the range of services to members, including more networking events and seminars.

 
Town Centre Enhancement – promoting the redevelopment of the traditional town centre.

We are delighted to see that work will commence in the next few weeks  and we can expect to see the traditional town centre transformed into a modern consumer friendly shopping area by the end of the year. The Chamber will continue to work with the Town Council to ensure that the needs of the business community are foremost in this development.

 
Membership can be paid in one installment or in monthly installments. From this month it would be €20.00 a month for a business with less than 10 employees.

If you would like to become a Chamber member or to find out more information you can contact Stephanie or Margaret in the office on 094 9024845 or email chamber@castlebar.ie