Not all Business Links discriminate on size

As a recently retired design adviser at Business Link Dorset, I noted the constraints imposed on Ivan Svetlik’s practice by his local Business Link (Letters, DW 5 February). You will no doubt hear from other advisers, but it was not our policy in Dorset to preclude design practices from our register of approved suppliers because they were too small.

Business Link generally has an ongoing problem with the accreditation of external suppliers. Membership of the Chartered Society of Designers can be a reassuring external mark of professional competence for a link.

Although Business Links nationally were conceived to give a similar overall service, each Link sets its own parameters within the national framework of support and advice to deliver the most effective service to its local business community compatible with its own commercial objectives. Svetlik’s experience with his local Link would not necessarily be replicated with another.

John Armstrong

Broadstone BH18 9JX