Chamber of Commerce Statement.

We’ve had many messages asking when The Cobham Extravaganza is this year?

We have it scheduled in for Friday 30th November BUT it’s with deep regret that we announce that there is a very big possibility that we will not be able to have Christmas lights in the village this year or the event itself.

It costs nearly £25,000 to put on the Extravaganza and pay for the Christmas lights for the Christmas season and it’s all paid for by Cobham Chamber of Commerce from their membership and sponsors not Elmbridge Borough Council as many people think. There is also the common misconception that because of the area we live in and the demographic of some of our residents and businesses that how is it even possible that we find ourself in this situation?

The building work in the High Street and the reduced parking has massively reduced the footfall which means our own High Street is struggling. People just aren’t coming to Cobham.

The reality is that there are bigger shops and businesses in Cobham, like Sainsbury’s, Barclays, Lloyds Bank, who won’t join the Cobham Chamber of Commerce or pay for or even contribute to any events like Christmas Lights, Waitrose is about the only large company that DOES pay.

The only businesses that really join, support and pay for events like Christmas lights are our small local businesses.

Visit The Cobham Village website to see the businesses that support the local community.

From next week you will see up and down the village donation boxes in some of the shops and we have also kindly had a video made highlighting our cause with the help from our local Stagecoach school which we hope you will share to spread our message.

If you could donate any spare change we can try and ensure that Cobham get it’s Christmas lights and we won’t have to cancel Christmas.

But in the meantime we need to make our voice heard and ask for the support from those big nationals to do their bit.

Who agrees? Let’s put the date of November 30th in the diary as we really hope a bit of public pressure to the big companies will help to support our High Street.