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profile Sally celebrates 20-year Chamber anniversary

This year marks a special milestone for Sally Smith. It’s the twentieth year since she joined Hounslow Chamber of Commerce and is the pinnacle of an eclectic career that has seen her drop out of university, run bars and breweries, raise three children, return to university to get a degree and offer practical help and advice to hundreds of grateful local businesses.

Her current job title is chief operating officer of the Chamber but it doesn’t really tell the whole story of what she does. Her role involves everything from hosting events for local companies to building contacts and networks, improving the Chamber’s membership offer and in the past certifying export documentation for organisations that trade internationally.

More recently, she has also been doing her utmost to help businesses get through the worst health pandemic in living memory.

Sally says: “I’m so proud of what we’ve done for businesses in this pandemic. Many of them are suffering and are coming to us for help. We’re here to support our members but we also provide assistance to non-members as it’s vital to have thriving business communities in Hounslow, Ealing, Hammersmith and other areas of London.

“We have currently have around 450 members, from sole traders to GSK [GlaxoSmithKline] and we treat every one of them with the same importance. We lay on events and provide sponsorship opportunities but we also offer little extras – such as goodie bags and vouchers for companies at our business awards. We’re a highly active organisation that wants to help businesses make connections and feel part of their local community.”

Sally has been instrumental in pioneering several Chamber-led initiatives including Safer Business Hounslow, which aims to drive down crime and make the borough a safer place to work, shop, live and invest. She’s also encouraging businesses to apply to take on a young person for six months under the government’s Kickstart Scheme, a £2 billion initiative to create high-quality work placements for 16-24-year-olds so they don’t have to rely on Universal Credit in the long term.

“We’re always on the look-out for different ways in which we can support businesses and individuals,” says Sally. “We’re agile and can turn on a sixpence.”

Born in Knutsford, she studied French and Italian at university but didn’t complete the course.

“I was booted out,” she recalls. “At that age, perhaps I didn’t have the rigor that I do now.”

After a stint at a PR firm, she found a fun job as “an executive gofer” working for David Bruce of Bruce’s Brewery, who ran a number of Firkin pub/breweries in London and Bristol. She stayed with the company for eight years, before leaving to have her first child.

Two more children followed before the lure of education and self-improvement persuaded her to study part-time for a degree in English literature at Brunel University London.

“My husband was a solicitor and worked long hours,” she says. “Although raising a family is a full-time job in itself, I needed something extra to stimulate my mind.”

In this COVID-19 pandemic I’ve become more comfortable using technology – I’m a bit of a Zoom expert now – and I’ve done interviews with London news outlets. I’m the friendly face of the Chamber and I’d like to think I’m approachable, while being honest, straight-talking and trustworthy. I always endeavour to deliver what I promise and I’m always at the end of the phone to help local businesses.

Sally graduated with a first and then jumped at the chance to take a managerial post at Hounslow Chamber in 2001. With her drive and determination, she soon set about growing the organisation’s membership base and raising its profile more widely in the business community.

She recalls: “I remember recruiting my first member and I ran around the room shrieking and thinking, what do I do now? Eventually, businesses began to take the Chamber more seriously.

“I’ve always preferred to be a big fish in a small pond – that way, I feel I can make a difference. The more I understood what the Chamber stood for and how it could have a positive impact on businesses, the better I became at my job.

“In this COVID-19 pandemic I’ve become more comfortable using technology – I’m a bit of a Zoom expert now – and I’ve done interviews with London news outlets. I’m the friendly face of the Chamber and I’d like to think I’m approachable, while being honest, straight-talking and trustworthy. I always endeavour to deliver what I promise and I’m always at the end of the phone to help local businesses.

“My message to the business community in these difficult times is: use us! We are here to assist you and if we can’t help you directly, we’ll be able to put you in touch with someone who can.”

Over the last two decades, Sally has worked with many Chamber staff and colleagues who have been struck by her warmth, friendliness, tenacity and ability to get things done! Many of them have gone on record to say that it has been a pleasure and honour to work with her.

The Brentford Project: Ballymore’s town centre rejuvenation is putting Brentford back on the map

Over the last year, we’ve experienced a huge shift in the way that we live, work, travel and socialise. The global pandemic has forced us to adapt and revaluate what we classify as essential in our day-to-day lives, with the common threads of community, green space and local amenities. With light at the end of the tunnel, the next big question is whether these new priorities will become long term lifestyle changes.

One concept that aptly captures this more local lifestyle is that of the ’15-minute city’. Originally conceived by Sorbonne Professor, Carlos Moreno – long before Covid-19 became part of our everyday vocabulary – the idea is one where everything you need is within 15 minutes of your home, from shops, schools and healthcare to parks and leisure.

While somewhat of a departure from our pre-Covid-19 priorities, now access to a great high street on the doorstep has never been more important, especially for those looking for a new place to live. With the future of our neighbourhoods set to look a little different, it provides an exciting opportunity for the developers behind major regeneration schemes.

Ballymore’s The Brentford Project is one such example, where its 11.8-acre redevelopment will deliver a major rejuvenation of the town centre. Alongside delivering 876 new homes, the scheme will revitalise the southern stretch of the high street, reconnecting it with the waterfront and bring an exciting mix of dining, entertainment and shopping amenities and new public spaces.

The revitalised high street will incorporate day-to-day amenities, including market-leading retailers and traditional shops like a bakery, greengrocer and butcher. Major supermarket chain, Morrison’s, recently announced it will open a new store as part of the project.

Local business has been placed firmly front of mind too. Characterful yards and lanes will reconnect the high street to the waterfront, with the passageways dedicated to supporting local independent retailers, artisans, craftspeople and budding entrepreneurs - a particularly important element for Ballymore. As John Mulryan, Group Managing Director at Ballymore, explains, “local start-ups and businesses bring excitement, innovative and opportunity to an area, so it’s vital that we provide a space for them to thrive.”

Testament to this communityfocused approach, several brands are already on site and offering a taste of Ballymore’s vision for Brentford, including classic and supercar dealership, Duke of London, and bakery Rye by the Water, which overlooks the canals and waterways.

Most recently, Ballymore partnered with renowned botanical mural artist Hixxy, to create a temporary mural covering the multi-storey car park on the high street. Designed to bring colour and vitality to the high street, the finished product celebrates all things Brentford - from its unique canals and waterways to Brentford F.C.’s famous bee emblem – which Hixxy describes as “a positive, beautiful and uplifting image inspired by the local area, giving a very grey building an injection of colour and life!”.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, access to green spaces has become another must-have over the past year. Adding to what is already a green, leafy pocket of the capital – home to the 300 acres of Kew Gardens and the 200 acres of Syon Park - The Brentford Project will bring new public landscaped spaces for local and resident use, including sensitively transforming the beautiful gardens of the deconsecrated Grade II* Listed St Lawrence’s Church. Recently, Ballymore released a new collection of two-bedroom apartments with views over the gardens, as well as across the river to Syon Park and beyond (prices from £445,000).

While the benefits of green space on wellbeing are well documented, the positive impact of ‘blue space’ is lesser known, with recent research from the University of Exeter highlighting the improvements being close to water can have on mental health. Sitting at the meeting point of the River Thames and River Brent, Ballymore’s plan, as John Mulryan describes, is “to establish a new waterside destination”, while extensions to the Thames Path will open up the water frontage even further.

Workhouse Dock, an existing but neglected mooring on the River Brent, will be rejuvenated with 24-hour moorings, and lined with restaurants, pubs and cafés, while tiered seating terraces and raised podium gardens will provide a space to relax, spend time and enjoy life on the water. There’ll also be Waterfront Square, a dedicated space for outdoor markets, performance and public events.

For more information on The Brentford Project, please visit

www.thebrentfordproject.com

or call 020 3797 4875.