The time has come for tough love. We need to prevent a local lockdown. At the time of writing we were next in line if we hadn’t dramatically changed our numbers. Our economy cannot afford this. We are already seeing a string of businesses having to close for various measures, we are seeing the same happening in schools and communities. We need to take personal action.
Regardless of your views on this virus, the infection rate is increasing. Thankfully hospital admissions, ICU cases and deaths are less prevalent but every death is a tragedy and we should do anything we can to prevent this.
We decided to lose our money on a trip abroad, rather than go recently. It was an easy decision in the end- it just wasn’t worth it. I have moved all unnecessary face to face meetings back to online and we have cut our circle of contacts right back. We are wearing face masks but still trying to support the economy by shopping local, eating out at quieter times or getting takeaway. No one is perfect, we certainly aren’t, but we all need to try.
I don’t think this is a big ask of any of us. Unless we each take personal action, we are never going to fight our way out of this. We have seen our local NMD Council and organisations like Newry Chamber of Commerce and Newry BID really up the anti in terms of local leadership and advising businesses and citizens about what we need to do to ‘flatten the curve’.
The ultimate act of complacency and arrogance is epitomised in the pantomime we are currently witnessing in America. The politicking goes on, the self-promotion and sheer lack of leadership being shown by the incumbent President is truly shocking. Leadership is something we crave to try to direct us through this most difficult of times.
While this virus is dominating the headlines, Brexit is creeping closer. We learned that inspection centres of some sort will be required at local ports here in Northern Ireland but that DEFRA and locally DAERA could not confirm that they would be ready in time for 1st January 2021. This doesn’t exactly give the transportation industry the clarity it requires to make preparations.
The Trader Support Service opened for businesses to sign up to. I would strongly urge any businesses that imports to sign up to this scheme as soon as possible. This is for anyone who takes goods, however small or inconsequential, from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
The Trader Support Service (TSS) will effectively see the government paying customs agents on behalf of businesses.
The government had said up to £355m is to be spent on the system – it will be interesting to see how this actually plays out in practice for businesses. I get the sense that like everything connected to Brexit, it is not likely to be that straightforward.
It’s not all doom and gloom, there definitely is some good news out there. At the time of writing Newry, through Newry BID and its partners was waiting to hear if it had won the ‘City’ category in the Bank of Ireland ‘Begin Together’ Awards. Newry had a tough category up against Grafton Street in Dublin but; if you head over to Newry BID’s social media to check out all that they have been doing you can see why we felt that Newry would be a worthy winner. Good luck Newry.
We also have seen further investment of £1.5m in plant from a fabulous company Re-Gen Robotics who along with the other strands of the family business are going from strength to strength.
We saw Brian Reid from Deli-Lites named as International Director of the Year 2020 at the IOD Awards (Institute of Directors). Brian, Jackie and the team are doing a phenomenal job growing Deli-Lites on the international market. CRASH Services were described as best on class after an external independent audit and we have seen local business Gray Design Architect’s announce further confidence in their growth potential after a busy year.
It is important for us to celebrate our wins in the midst of the difficulties. One such company quietly working away in the background who I have come to know more about recently is local Freight Forwarder Trans Europe Express- TEE. This fantastic family owned business run by Burren man Vincent McGovern with his son Ryan is going from strength to strength. This week they celebrated their thirtieth anniversary in business. Congratulations guys; this is no mean feat but it is businesses like this that form the backbone of our economy.
It is successes like this that give me the confidence that we will get through these current difficulties, not unscathed but with learnings; and with the ability to get back up and go again.
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