The North Laine fairtrade/sustainable bag will be launched at our autumn meeting on October 16th at the Regent Street bar of Komedia. We believe we are the first independent traders association to produce a verifiable fairtrade cotton bag!

Free samples have been distributed and many members have ordered bags to sell. The recommended retail price is £2.50 although some traders will be giving the bags away to higher spending customers. The NLTA will be organising local media coverage of the launch and local competitions and events where 100% North Laine bags will be the prizes.

We think that the bags will not only be a great way to help promote North Laine but also to help us and our customers to become less reliant on receiving plastic carriers each time they shop.

Each year British shoppers use 20 million plastic bags – please help us to help reduce this large amount ending up in landfill or blowing into our doorways!

• Many traders in North Laine will have been sorry to here that Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop died on the 12th of September. Anita opened the first ever Body Shop in Kensington Gardens in 1976 and went on to create a world wide brand. She always said that she used the now famous green colour to cover the damp and mold patches in the shop! The Argus has started a campaign to have a blue plaque erected outside the original shop.
• Congratulations to NLTA member Velvet of Bond Street who won “best independent retailer” at the recent Brighton and Hove Business Awards.
• Southern Water have used a new type of “chlorinated” pipe in Sydney Street and saved six days installation time. If there are no unforeseen problems they should be finished ahead of schedule.
• Chairperson Sharon Thomas has been contacted by the De Vere Grand Hotel to see if any North Laine members would like to be included in there discount shopping scheme. Contact Sharon on 604206 for more details.
• City College at the north end of North Laine now has a new principle. Phil Frier started at the end of August and has already met many local employers and business people in the city. The college is one of the ten biggest employers in the city with more than 1200 staff and 12,000 students.
• Don’t forget that all 2007 members of the NLTA are entitled to an expanded web page on the North Laine Traders website. Look here for details.
• The next North Laine Community Association meeting will be on Monday the 8th of October at Brighthelm. The meeting will focus on Licensing and the issues that arise from it. Tim Nichols from Brighton and Hove council will lead the discussion.
• The NLTA need Street reps for Kensington Gardens, North Road and Gloucester Road – If you are a member and have a small amount of time each month to give out newsletters and attend 6-8 meetings a year please contact either Sharon Thomas on 604206 or Peter Stocker on 601641. It really does not take up much time and allows you to meet far more of your neighbours than you normally might.
• Please be aware of a new phone scam. A couple of members have arrived at work to find messages on their answer phones asking to be called back urgently. The number is a premium rate number!

As part of the Brighton Digital festival S.C.I.P. are once again organising the Brighton Website awards. The North Laine website had only just been launched last October so was not able to be nominated. This year www.northlaine.co.uk has been nominated in the best business site category for the 2007 award.

The committee of the NLTA are very proud of our site and we believe that it is one of the best informative business sites in the south east. If you think the same please vote for us online at www.brightonwebawards.co.uk during October.

Brian Pedley, our web designer has produced an easily accessible site and many of us think it is good enough to win this year’s business award. Vote today!

Fireco Ltd is a firm of fire consultants who will be speaking at the next North Laine Traders Association meeting on the 16th October at Komedia. This presentation will be an un-biased/ factual presentation on the new fire regulations, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order. It will concentrate particularly on the impact this has to the office and shops sector and what position this places you in.

The RRFSO replaces 118 pieces of legislation including the Fire Precautions Act 1971 and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 as amended 1999.

The RRFSO places the responsibility of fire safety on the ‘Responsible Person’; at the same time it allows the Enforcing Authority, the Local Fire & Rescue Service, to make sure it is enacted. It requires that the ‘Responsible Person’ (employers, owners and occupiers) carries out or appoints a competent person, who must have sufficient training and experience to carry out a suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessment. If the competent person appointed is a sub contractor the consultant should be suitably qualified and insured. It will be for the Responsible Person to ensure that any contractors or other persons he or she employs to carry out this work is competent to do so.

The Fire Risk Assessment is vital to your Fire Precautions on site, if the Risk Assessment is deemed not suitable by the Fire & Rescue Service, the ‘Responsible Person’ is liable for prosecution under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Come along to the meeting and find out more!