WORKING groups are being set up by Okehampton Chamber of Trade to focus on two different business sectors — tourism and retail.

The move is in response to feedback from a questionnaire to chamber members to see how they would like the organisation to improve and develop in the future.

Chairman of the chamber of trade Ian Bailey said a lot of the people in tourism felt that over the last couple of years the chamber had focussed predominantly on retail.

'One member is seriously thinking about cancelling her subscription because she feels the chamber is entirely retail-orientated,' he said.

Mr Bailey said although he did not feel this view was entirely fair, because everyone understood how just how important tourism was to the economy of the area, he suggested a separate group was set up to help improve the tourism sector.

'This working group or sub-committee can bring information and ideas back to the main committee and we can discuss them,' he said. 'Similarly, we can have a group looking into the retail side.'

At a later stage the chamber may also look to setting up a working group looking into the industrial sector.

The chamber decided to send a questionnaire to its 90 members because of the low attendance at the monthly meetings. It also wants to increase the membership and is considering doing the same thing with non-members to find out why they have not joined up yet.

More speakers and visits are planned for the future to make the chamber meetings more interesting.

Anyone who wants to join the chamber or be on the tourism or retail sub-committees should call Ian on 01837 52937 or attend the next meeting on March 21.