I Love Mill Road

I really like Mill Road. For the uninitiated, this is a long, shop-lined road a little way from the city centre, which has managed to retain a fabulous mix of independent and small businesses in its journey from Parker's Piece down into deepest Romsey. Whether its a drink in the historic Romsey Labour Club (built by volunteer labour and opened by Ramsay Macdonald, no less), a look around the worker Co-op wholefood shop Arjuna, or a quiet moment in one of the fantastic cafes, you can do a lot worse than spend a pleasant Saturday afternoon on Mill Road.

And your day can be even better if it happens to coincide with the Mill Road Winter Fair, which is taking place this Saturday, from 10.30 to 5. Events will be taking place up and down the road from Parkers Piece all the way down to the Royal Standard. If last year is any guide, it will be brilliant, with live music of all descriptions (samba bands, anyone?), morris dancing, beer tasting, special food put on by pubs and cafes, and lots more.

The local Co-op Group committee have got together with our Mill Road store to ensure that this day will not go unmarked by our Society. We'll be there, outside, until 4.30 showing off our Fairtrade range, giving some tastings of Fairtrade products, and generally promoting Co-operation. Do come down and say hello.

2007 Action Plan

At the December meeting of the Cambridge and East Anglia Area Committee of the Co-op Group, we will be planning our course of action for 2007. This is the point in the year when we choose which events to put on or support. Remember Strawberry Fair, Haverhill Men's Health Day, PINK 2006 and the Climate Challenge (amongst others)? It was at this meeting last year that we decided that these matched our chosen principles and social goals for that year.

This year, our chosen Social Goals fall into five areas:

• Climate Change
• Social Inclusion
• Crime
• Food Integrity
• Modern Co-operation

Our choices of events that we will put on or support will be influenced by to what degree they reflect these areas. I've got some thoughts up my sleeve, but I would be most interested if any local members had any ideas they would like to see their Co-op putting into action. This could be an existing local event that the Co-op could be a part of - or it could be something that the Co-op organises itself from stratch. Let me know by email or in the comments box below before Thursday 7th December.

Co-op Legal Helpline

The Co-operative Group set up Co-operative Legal Services (CLS) in April. This is a Co-operatively-owned legal practice which will provide Co-op members and other customers with conveyancing, will-writing and other legal services. CLS is the first of what is promised to be a series of new ventures providing new areas of business for the Co-op Group to serve its members. I think that moving into legal services is a good idea for the Co-op, as not only is trust (a Co-op strong-point) an important part of the relationship between lawyer and client, but the services provided will fit well with other parts of the Co-op Group, such as Co-op Bank mortgages, and Funeralcare.

As the first step, CLS is to begin operating a legal helpline on Monday. This will provide free legal advice to Co-op members, as one of their membership privileges. This is a fantastic idea, and another way that we can show "the Co-operative difference". I'll publish the phone number on here as soon as I can find out....

Co-op Bank Mortgages

I was interested to read that the Co-op Bank will consider lending 5 times income to some mortgage applicants. This is particularly because I am currently in the process of getting a mortgage with the Co-op of "just" a 3.5 multiple - which seems large enough as it is.

Although this is not a subject I know very much about, I have to say that I am concerned that mortage providers who are permitting these large multiples are giving borrowers more and more rope to hang themselves with - and driving house prices even further out of the reach of first-time buyers at the same time. Although the final responsibility must remain with the borrowers, and we cannot afford to be out-manouvered in the market place by other lenders, I am disappointed that we are one of the first mainstream mortgage providers to be taking this step.

Constitutional Review

The Co-operative Group is currently going through a constitutional review, and is consulting with elected members (and corporate members) about any changes to the rulebook that would result in better governance of the society. There are some interesting proposals put forward by the directors' working party, but members are free to put forward more if desired. The main points of discussion are:

• Group Board - this currently comprises 28 directors, which is a huge number compared to other businesses. However, the Co-op Group needs a reasonably large number of people on the board in order to ensure fair representation of all its components (Regional Boards and corporate members). What is more, many people believe that we need some professional independent, non-executive directors in place along side elected directors to provide additional skills. The presence of these on the main board would further reduce the number of directors coming from the democratic units of the Society. I quite like the proposed solution of having a 20 member main board (all representing Regional Boards or corporate members), with 3 subsidary boards to deal with our Financial businesses (CIS and the bank), our food retail business, and the remaining businesses (such as pharmacy and funerals). These subsidary boards would be the place for any non-elected directors, or management representatives.
• Regional Boards - we have eight Regional Boards, but our food retail business is organised into five regions. All other things being equal, it makes sense for our democratic boundaries to match those of our business units - but this would lead to very large regions, with a possible loss of local accountability and travel implications for elected members.
• How should Area Committees interact with Regional boards? Where should responsibilities start and end between these structures?
• Should Area Committee members have to "toe the party line" when speaking in public, or should they be allowed to speak their mind?
• Should Area Committees concentrate on primarily financial matters, or on membership activities?
• Should we allow active campaigning by prospective Area Committee members, or perhaps even arrange hustings for candidates to speak at?
• How can we increase the numbers of under-represented groups on our elected structures? Are quotas necessary?
• How can we encourage employees to participate in membership? Should we relax some of the limits on employees and ex-employees representation on committees.
• How much training should be compulsory for elected members?
• Is elected members' remuneration at the right level (it is currently £564 for Area committee members, rising to higher levels for Regional Board and Group Board members

I would welcome any comments about these or any other constitutional issues - particularly if you are a member within the Cambridge and East Anglia area. It is important that the Society seeks views from as broad a group of members as possible when conducting this review - after all, we will be stuck with the outcome for many years to come! Please do email me, leave a comment below, or even turn up to the Christmas Fairtrade event to make your point in person.

The Big Answer

The Big Ask campaign organised by Friends of the Earth (and supported by the Co-operative Group), succeeded in securing the presence of a Climate Change Bill in yesterday's Queen's Speech. Congratulations to all concerned - and lets hope that the Bill includes stipulated year-on-year reductions in carbon emissions to ensure that policymakers minds are focused on the job at hand.

Fairtrade at Christmas

The Co-op Group is organising a "Fairtrade at Christmas" event in Cambridge. It takes place at 7pm on Wednesday 6th December at the Gonville Hotel. The purpose is threefold; there'll be a presentation on how Fairtrade is transforming lives of third world producers, there will be a tasting of Co-op Fairtrade wine, and it will provide an excuse for a bit of socialising between members. There's bound to be quite a few committee members present (we do enjoy free wine!), so if you have something to harangue them about, or opinions regarding the Co-op that you would like to pass on, this would be a good opportunity.

The evening is only open to members, but you will be able to join on the night, so get in touch with the Central and Eastern membership team on membership.central&eastern@co-op.co.uk to book your place.

If you haven't received an invitation through the post, but live in postcodes CB1 to CB9, then chances are that you are not on the members network. To be invited to things like this in future, and to fully play your part in the Society, join up by emailing the address above.

Linton Co-op

I took Wednesday afternoon off work, and for some reason decided to walk to Linton along the Cambridge to Haverhill Roman Road. By the time I reached my destination, I was a bit "cream-crackered", and only too pleased to find a shop selling liquids of any description. As a result, my review of Linton Co-op may be over-generous!

Fairtrade bananas were on sale - as they should be in a store of this size. Unfortunately, there was no membership board up, but there were some posters proclaiming the benefits of Co-op membership. The area committee have been told that a new batch of membership boards have been ordered, but production has been held up - hopefully there will be a vast improvemnet in this respect soon. Back to Linton Co-op, there was also a leaflet available that was produced in conjunction with the National Energy Foundation about climate change and how it can be fought, which is an excellent idea.

As a shop, I felt Linton Co-op couldn't be faulted. The place had full shelves, a free cash machine (I didn't spot another one in the village, but perhaps I was mistaken), and the floors and fittings were sparklingly clean. What is more, I gave the music being broadcast on the in-store radio my personal thumbs-up, as it was "Panic" by The Smiths. Top-notch!

November's Area Committee Meeting

The November meeting of the Cambridge and East Anglia Area Committee of the Co-op Group took place last night, and as usual there was a range of topics to discuss and take action on. First up were trading reports, presented to us by a Food Retail operations manager from the local area. I might have made sarcastic comments about Halloween promotions, but apparently they resulted in very healthy sales, so I suppose that I will just have to put-up with Pumpkin-themed snacks everywhere I look.

I asked about how we were tackling leakage - shop-speak for theft; many of our stores now have "greeters" at the door, who serve both to welcome customers and to deter toerags. The operations manager was eager to point out community activities that stores take part in from their own initiative and budget - reminding us that the area committee is not the only route to community engagement. One fabulous example of this happened at our Fordham store - when kids at a local school had their SATS exams, the store brought round hot breakfasts in to provide them with some brain food!

The committee also raised the subject of ethnically oriented food - the Mill Road Co-op now has a section catering for ingredients useful to those cooking authentic South Asian food, but the committee felt that other minorities should be similarly catered for where possible. The example of Eastern European Christmas sweets was mentioned, and I hope that this development will happen in time for Christmas 2007 - its far too late for this year.

Moving on to membership and community matters, we considered the success of the recent environment conference held in Cambridge. Those who had attended agreed that it was an excellent meeting, although attendance was slightly disappointing. I mentioned that the inclusion of Friends of the Earth and the Energy Saving Trust gave the event weight and prestige that we would have struggled to achieve on our own - I also noticed this last year with our Fairtrade event held in concert with Oxfam, and this lesson should be remembered when organising future events.

We approved Community Dividend grants to three bodies - more details of these will be posted here next month after all applicants have been advised of their success or otherwise. There was also considerable debate about how to encourage good quality and imaginative Community Dividend applications. I am afraid to say that after my recent election as Vice-Chair, I was responsible for chairing this - sometimes "interesting" - section of the meeting.

After receiving reports back from our delegates and representatives to other bodies (such as the regional board, and the Group Half-yearly meeting), and noting the receipt of minutes of the Cambridge Woodcraft Folk, it was all over in just over 2 hours 30 minutes. Until December....

Co-op Visits

I visited two out-of-town Co-ops at the weeked. The first, at Great Shelford is a "Welcome" format convienience store, but with noticeably more lines of stock than in many of the Co-ops in Cambridge. It has that slightly cluttered feel unfortunately, common with many other older properties of ours. I was pleased to see that there was both a membership board (which was huge!) and membership leaflets, and there was even a postbox for compleated forms to be deposited. Although the shop did sell fairtrade bananas, these were not in stock when I visited. The store in general seemed tidy and well-presented.

I also paid a visit to the Burwell store - much bigger than Shelford, and one of my favourite Co-ops. The place is reasonably spacious, with plenty of leaflets about membership, community dividend, fairtrade etc.. Fairtrade bananas were on display, as were FT wines and cakes. A free cash machine is positioned at the back of the store. It was reasonably busy, which is good to see, although a malfunctioning alarm siren made a very off-putting noise while I was there - hopefully this will get put right soon.

Mutual Global300

The International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) have instigated what will be an annual look at the world's 300 biggest Co-operative and mutual businesses. Their aim is to draw attention to the huge contribution that these organisations make to the world economy that normally do not get fully recognized, as their ownership cannot be traded for profit.

I am pleased to say that the Co-operative Group comes high in the list at number 8 with a turnover of $16.5 billion, although I was surprised that we were below Migros (a Swiss consumer co-op). Are we no longer the world's largest consumer Co-op? Top of the list comes Zen-Noh, a Japanese agricultural federation, with an annual turnover of over $53 billion.

Amongst the other UK names in the list are United Co-ops (82), the Royal Mutual London Insurance Society (84), and Britainia Building Society (290).

For a full list, go here (pdf file, 53kB)

New Wind Co-op in East Anglia

Following the successful operation of the Baywind community-owned wind-power Co-op up in Cumbria, the Fenland Green Power Co-operative Ltd. is being launched to enable community ownership of two turbines in Deeping St. Nicholas, Lincolnshire. Shareholders can invest from between £250 and £20,000, but voting rights will be spread equally. Priority will be given to local people in the share offer. It is hoped that the Co-op will also become active in wider energy efficiency and environmental issues, but this will be a matter for the new Co-operative, when formed.

A form to register your interest (with no commitment) can be found here.

The Old Crown Again!

Further to my post about the Co-operative Pub in Cumbria, it turns out that the villagers of Newmarket, where the pub and brewery is located, are progressing with plans to buy the village shop and post office. The current shop owners are looking to retire, and the villagers want to be in a position to safeguard the future of this vital village amenity.

And after completing a successful Co-op takeover of a pub and a brewery, they must have useful experiences to ensure that it will work. You heard it here first. The Co-operative Commonwealth starts in Cumbria!