The chamber of commerce campaigns to make Helensburgh a better place to live, work and play, and members believe the town’s retailers can help improve the town by working together.

Membership of the chamber enables business owners to share information and resources and to speak to people who understand the challenges they face and who may be able to offer some useful advice and support.

The chamber has a number of ideas for different events that could be held in the town in the new event space on the Esplanade and Colquhoun Square – including music events, and tradition childrens’ activities like hook and duck; sports club events such as the mini tennis and netball that was on offer during the Summer Festival.

Kathleen Owen, Helensburgh Pet Shop owner, believes the more people involved the better the experience will be for everyone.

She told the Advertiser: “We want to encourage new members to the chamber because we want to have as many voices and ideas as possible on how to improve and how we move forward from the CHORD works – we feel everyone has to move forward all under the one umberella.

“Membership of the chamber is growing because we have been very active through the Winter and Summer Festivals, but we want to engage with as many businesses and people as possible.” The chamber holds members meeting at 5.30pm on the first Tuesday of every month, usually in the Commodore Hotel Coffee Shop, but occasionaly at other venues.

There are also monthly opportunities for networking at informal events with a programme of guest speakers each sharing their own individual specialism or knowledge with the members as well as a number of purely social events.

A meeting for new members will take place on Wednesday, October 22 in the Commodore Hotel at 5.30pm for anyone wishing to join.