Business

Business The Withdrawal Agreement needs to

By Adrian Fisher MBE

When something is utterly, absolutely wrong, how much time should a government let pass before taking action? The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement with its customs border down the Irish Sea is proving to be a brutal, vindictive and terrible mistake. DFDS traffic into Northern Ireland is down 70% and imports to Northern Ireland are down 33% since the beginning of January 2021. This is not a covid-like crisis that will be overcome within a couple of years, and then something we can learn to live with, as we do with flu, AIDS, MERS and SARS. There is nothing that can “bed down” and go away. It is fundamentally flawed. It is an urgent crisis. It is tinder-dry lethal. Within weeks of January 1, the Northern Ireland economy has gone into systemic shock. A business I know paid out £240,000 by credit card for 20 construction deliveries all essential to a project, but only 17 arrived. The outstanding three items were credited, and the fresh orders placed. Except that now no hauliers will transport anything. The company has thus £200,000 tied up in stock, but cannot start work, nor pay its staff. The company may be able to hold out for perhaps 180 days. The staff are only two pay cheques away from ruin, just 60 days. These are our fellow UK citizens. No one can hang out for six months, let alone four years when there will be a vote. In the absence of registered hauliers, a black market is already springing up at swingeing prices yet failing to collect taxes, prompting unattractive comparisons with non-tax collecting parts of southern Europe. A business colleague based in Scotland wrote: “We have a lot of NI customers and to a man they are pissed off big time and say the atmosphere is very bad. “A border has been created in the Irish sea without the consent of those living in Northern Ireland completely against the letter and the spirit of the Good Friday agreement. Adrian, you and others warned against it when it was first proposed and you were 100% right. What is so ridiculous is that all the inspections are being done for inspection’s sake. In reality, virtually nothing is going to leak into the EU single market via Ireland, since the cost of reexporting from Ireland to the Continent will preclude it. There is going to be a serious bust-up over it and it is better it is between the Government and the EU rather than between Unionists who feel abandoned and Nationalists. UK ministers need to stop weaseling and start facing reality.” What’s this got to do with the rural economy of the Blackmore Vale of Dorset and Somerset? In our own business, we have a prospect for a hedge maze in Northern Ireland. We intended to use a Hampshire-based grower, as we did for the hedge maze at Leeds Castle. But since January 2021, we cannot use them unless we wash the soil off all the roots before we send them, which is totally impractical, costly and will kill the bushes. This is like the Merchant of Venice, where the merchant could “have his pound of flesh” provided no human blood was spilt. So we will be forced to import bushes from the Netherlands, which must pass through England as a sealed consignment, because from the new year English soil is now ‘potentially contaminated’. The bushes may not be such great quality, will cost more, and we are forced to import when we would prefer to buy British. This is all to move things within our own country, from one part of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland to another. In our own business, mirror mazes have a steel structure. Despite “free access to a single market” there are steel quotas in place. Any steel that crosses the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland, where they make railway carriages and ships, is considered part of the UK’s steel export quota into the EU. So we face a steel import duty of 25% to export a mirror maze to the EU, through lack of remaining UK steel quota. And therefore potentially lose the sale to a EU competitor on price. A relative of mine has a business in southern England making chutneys. If he wishes to export to Northern Ireland, he must label every jar with the name and address of the intended retailer, or else the goods will be refused entry. In England, I don’t see every jar in our local Tesco inflexibly labelled with their Blandford address, to be sold there and no other Tesco branch. Another colleague wrote: “The EU’s behaviour over the vaccines was an immense slipping of the veil. Behind that veil we saw, for a while, with perfect clarity, what a totally savage set-up the EU really is. If we hadn’t twigged before, when Greece and Italy were being mauled, this was unmissable. We always vaguely knew that the NI border was being ‘weaponised’ for the purposes of bringing the UK as a whole to heel during the Brexit negotiations, now we could see it in High Definition. I am sure I am not alone in feeling a burning outrage that seed potatoes cannot go from GB to NI if there is soil on them.” This is the amputation of a sovereign nation, and completely unacceptable. It was driven by vindictiveness and punishment. On Sky News, 9 December 2018, former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said: “You would hear swirling around in Brussels, particularly around the European Commission’s SecretaryGeneral Martin Selmayr …. that losing Northern Ireland would be the price the UK would pay for Brexit. This was reported to me through the diplomatic

Cartoon by Lyndon Wall justsocaricatures.co.uk

FINDING INVESTMENTS Are you used to trying to find stuff on the internet? If so, and you are interested in investing, and maybe familiar with Trustnet and MarketWatch, you are on. Good hourly rate + bonuses (and for enthusiasm). peterrouth456@gmail.com 01258 863682. Shroton

Business be scrapped – immediately: Opinion

channels.” This is as malicious and destabilising of Europewide peace and prosperity as the Treaty of Versailles was towards the defeated nation of Germany. I can imagine such provocative behaviour across the Taiwan Straits, but that is where hostile tensions are running high. But Britain has not lost a war. We simply chose to leave the EU. These actions by the EU are not in the name of any European friends and business counterparts that I know. Anything vindictive like this in the context of Ireland is recklessly throwing fuel onto glowing embers. If the EU understood this, it should never have insisted. If it was unaware of such sensitivities, it should have been. It never needed to be this way. Before the Withdrawal Agreement was finalised, preparations had reached an advanced stage for a frictionless arrangement across the Republic / NI border. It was workable. Referring to the Good Friday Agreement, it was a ‘GFAcompliant peace option’. Yet this was withdrawn by the EU, as part of its “punishment” strategy. I understand that the mood at cabinet level is described as incandescent with the EU for triggering article 16, which is said to be driving a coach and horses through the agreement. It is clear that the EU does not care a jot about Ireland. We would not allow such ruin to be brought upon the businesses and families in the Blackmore Vale for 10 days, let alone 10 weeks. It must stop for our fellow UK citizens in Northern Ireland right now! Adrian Fisher is an award-winning maze designer in Durweston.

Pulling out all the stops for MoD deal

By Miranda Robertson

A Stalbridge company took a major role in an international support mission after Royal Navy equipment was held up by covid and Brexit. The equipment – two helicopter underwater escape training systems – had been held up by diverted ships and in ports and customs on their way to RNAS Yeovilton. The systems are vital for anyone who has to fly over water in a helicopter and the Navy constantly trains its personnel in how to escape should their aircraft come down into water, using the systems in a ‘dunker’ to simulate a real-life emergency. Tim Otter is chief executive of Stalbridge-based Lutra, which has been helping a Canadian company, SSL, sell the systems for seven years. The training can see people lowered in a helicopter simulator by a crane, turned upside down into the water in the darkness and try to escape. Former Army Major Tim said: “It’s frightening for some and unpleasant for everyone.” The order of two systems from Canada was always going to be complicated, as the Canadians had leased two systems to the Navy while the new ones were ordered and built. So Tim had to organise shipping the lease systems back to Canada and the shipping of the new ones to the UK simultaneously. But when covid and Brexit reared their heads things got an awful lot more complicated. The new systems got stuck in customs. It took some heavy negotiations to get them on their way. Tim said: “I explained to HMRC these personnel were helping ensure the success of the vaccine rollout across the UK and we didn’t want them being held up by endless paperwork, did we?” The return journey for the leased equipment was as frustrating – the night before the changeover the shipping agent phoned to say the return shipments had been ‘bumped’ off the ship upsetting the coordinated swapping of the units at Yeovilton. Again, Tim phoned and negotiated and had them put back on the ship. Just as Tim managed to uncork the genie on those two shipments, a courier managed to lose a further two shipments containing extra equipment for use with the systems. “The company customer care system was useless, absolutely hopeless,” said Tim. “So I tracked down the senior management of the courier company at home on a Sunday evening,” “One thing the Army teaches you is that no defence is impregnable. I found a way in and left him in no doubt what could happen if he didn’t sort this out straight away.” He added: “You fight the corner for your company.” Tim also had to find a marine surveyor because the one booked had been cancelled, and covid testing facilities for foreigners so his Canadian colleagues could get on a plane to go home. “You try finding those on the Dorset Somerset border at short notice,” said Tim. Paul Douglas, president and CEO of SSL, thanked Lutra, adding: “For all of us, working under different covid regimes, time zones, often from unfamiliar locations, and with different working patterns, has been a challenge. Everyone has risen to it with understanding and flexibility.”

Lutra chief executive Tim Otter and left, a helicopter underwater escape training system in action

Business Law firm gives £3,000 to local causes after fundraisers

A community farm, men’s health and young people in the arts have benefited from a share of donations totalling £3,000 thanks to the efforts of Blandford-based law firm Blanchards Bailey LLP. Longmead Community Farm, Dorchester Youth Theatre and Movember, which champions men’s health, each received £1,000. Blanchards Bailey finance partner Alan Horne said: “Faced with the impossible decision of choosing to support just one ‘charity of the year’ we decided to break with tradition and raise funds for several. Longmead Community Farm is central to the idea of the integrity of the family and how being close to nature can be a great positive. Equally, Dorchester Youth Theatre is a champion

Legal Assistant Leah-May Mansfield presents £1,000 to Sarah Cooper of Longmead Community Farm of the performing arts in the younger generation and Blanchards Bailey is a keen supporter of the arts through initiatives like Artsreach. “Both charities are local to our offices so it made perfect sense to help two causes with very different but equally noble goals.” Sarah Cooper, general manager at Longmead Community Farm, said: “Everyone involved in Longmead feels so touched by the support they have received from Blanchards Bailey. “This donation will allow us to continue to fund our work providing support to families and young people at the farm. More and more people are seeking our assistance and it is really only with the help of such generous donations that we can carry on our work.” Jo Simons, artistic director of Dorchester Youth Theatre, said: “We are so, so grateful for Blanchards Bailey’s donation. It’s a phenomenal boost in what has been a very tricky year for us. “But we’re surviving and thriving with Zoom sessions for our amazing, resilient young people. “Our hope is to put on a summer production this year – our Summer MT, a musical Play in a Week – and some of the money could be used for venue hire. We’d also love to offer free workshops after this difficult year and the funding would help pay for those.” Staff also continued their annual fundraising drive in aid of prostate cancer awareness, in memory of friend and colleague Mark Bellman, a former partner of the firm who had been one of the founders of Blanchards Bailey who died after a long battle with prostate cancer. Through a combination of the annual Movember moustache-growing drive and pledging to walk or run 60km in a month, the team raised £2,330 which the firm raised to £3,000 for the charity.

Appy days! Towns join online scheme

By Miranda Robertson

Shops and businesses in Gillingham and Sherborne can now access an award-winning online trading tool, thanks to Dorset LEP. Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is committing £30,000 to allow local businesses free access to popular ecommerce platform ShopAppy.com. Gillingham Chamber of Commerce and Sherborne Town Council are among five town organisations to take part – and independent businesses in those areas are being urged to sign up. The scheme offers a free opportunity to secure more local trade, as shoppers using the app are encouraged to use the platform to shop local. ShopAppy.com is a multiaward-winning digital platform founded in 2016 (long before the pandemic) to revive British High Streets by providing a local, town-based online platform where small businesses can create their own online shops and compete with the online retail giants. Wimborne is also taking part in the scheme. Charley Smith is one of the directors of Fair Ground, a fairtrade shop in Wimborne selling clothing, home accessories, gifts and food from around the world. Fair Ground has been trading for over 25 years, more recently selling through ShopAppy.com during the pandemic. Charley said: “We’re finding that ShopAppy is really enhancing our local trade. It’s the best of both worlds really as it gives local people a simple way to support their local shops without leaving their homes. As a business we have found it very easy to use – in displaying our products, communicating with customers and payment. It’s an excellent idea.” Shops and businesses are given their own online shop within their location. It is simple to use for both businesses and shoppers. No membership is required, you just need to be trading in the areas covered. Lorna Carver, director of Dorset LEP, said: “This is another important step for the region’s recovery, especially as it will benefit small businesses in some of the most rural areas of our county. There is no doubt that many small businesses have been severely impacted by the pandemic, and we hope this will help businesses to keep trading during the ongoing restrictions.” Find out more at dorsetlep.co.uk/help-to-tradeonline and register interest at shopappy.com/vendor, selecting ‘Register New account’ and ‘Covid19 Free’.

APPY AND YOU KNOW IT: Shoppers on market day in Gillingham

Business Top green award for Harts of Stur

Harts of Stur has won a Good Retail Award for the second year in a row. The retailer was given the Sustainability Initiative Award at a virtual awards ceremony, held in partnership with Springfair@ Home. The Good Retail Awards shine a light on those in the retail industry who have succeeded in spite of all the challenges faced over the last year. Judges were looking for positive innovations that benefit both retailers and their customers. The sustainability award recognises retailers that have successfully implemented sustainability initiatives over the last year. The judges were impressed with the overall commitment shown by Harts, especially the implementation of replacement LED lighting, air source heat pump and solar panelling on their new store extension which will save over 46.2 tonnes of CO2 per year. They were also praised for substituting non-recyclable packaging to a biodegradable alternative. Managing director Graham Hart said: “Winning this award recognises all the hard work we have done to reduce the impact our business has on our surroundings and shows that lots of little changes can make a big difference, both for the environment and the success of our company. I would also like to thank Low Carbon Dorset, Dorset Energy Solutions and Green Light Packaging, suppliers of our biodegradable loose fill, who have helped us so much along the way.” Although the main store is currently closed, both the DIY & trade and garden departments remain open and their website hartsofstur.com operates as normal.

SUN TRAP: The solar panels on Harts of Stur’s roof

PET MICROCHIPPING services breeders & rescue centres other pet service & sales enquires@busypetz.co.uk 07731712060 busypetz.co.uk

LOCKUP/ GARAGE for bike storage, buy or rent, Shaftesbury centre. Tel. 07771 887352

COMMERCIAL WORKSHOP TO LET, Mid Dorset, 1800 sq ft with HGV inspection pit, office and toilet, Good access, 07973 142254

Great news for Stur firms

By Jacqui Wragg of Sturbiz There’s been great positive activity in Sturminster Newton recently, providing a needed boost to local traders during this uncertain time. Congratulations to two of our SturBiz members – Farmstead Glamping, who has been recognised twice at the 2020 Dorset Tourism Awards. The coveted Gold for Glamping Business of the Year and a Silver Award in the category for Ethical, Responsible & Sustainable Tourism Award. Harts of Stur were recognised for their environmental saving implementations receiving the Sustainability Initiative Award at the Good Retail Awards 2021 and nearby Hammoon Manor deserves mention too for receiving a Bronze award for New Tourism Business at the 2020 Dorset Tourism Awards. The positive news continues. The restrictions placed on nonessential retailers has not stopped one of our popular Market Place businesses from launching a new website. After lots of hard work, Agnes & Vera is now offering online shopping and providing click and collect or postal delivery. Additionally, Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is committing £30,000 in a new initiative to allow local businesses free access to popular ecommerce platform ShopAppy.com to start trading online and we’re delighted to announce that SturBiz has secured access for businesses trading in the DT10 area. With Mother’s Day only weeks away, this is a new opportunity for local producers to reach new customers who wish to support businesses closer to home. Do take a look and thank you for your continued support in shopping local.

REMOVALS & STORAGE

ARMISHAWS SMALL MOVES

Its not the size that matters it’s the way you move it! Armishaws operate a 昀eet of small removal vans throughout Dorset, Somerset and Wilshire catering for those clients who only need a small removal but still want the expertise provided by a larger removal company. With prices ranging from £300 for a local move our services are tailored to meet your needs.