DOVER Chamber of Commerce is back in business after local firms voted overwhelmingly to pull out of a regional group.

A special meeting at White Cliffs Business Centre, Whitfield, ended in uproar and confusion after a massive 93 per cent of members who voted by post backed the controversial breakaway from Kent Maritime Chamber of Commerce by 42 votes to three.

The Dover branch committee recommended quitting Kent Maritime after warning that the 800-member group that also includes Thanet, Swale and Canterbury was in deep financial trouble.

Ray Haines, branch member and former Kent Maritime head of policy until he was laid off at Christmas, welcomed the decision, saying he did not believe claims that the chamber no longer faced a cash crisis.

"Members have voted overwhelmingly that they wish to de-merge," he said. "We have now re-established the Dover Chamber of Commerce, we have de-merged."

While there was bitter argument at the sparsely-attended meeting, Mr Haines said that despite the breakaway verdict Dover wanted to maintain harmonious relations with Kent Maritime.

But Kent Maritime chiefs denounced the decision, accusing Dover of "turning back the clock".

Chairman Kate Fairweather, clearly angry at the decision, warned that a revived Dover chamber would be downgraded to a "town chamber of trade". Members had acted "over-hastily, almost against reason".

She said: "It's very sad. Dover members won't have nearly as many services available to them in the future. They won't have the resources that Kent Maritime is able to provide.

This is harking back to a golden age of a town chamber but life has changed and the whole emphasis is on East Kent as a bloc."

She admitted that Kent Maritime had lost £60,000, but losses had been stemmed, costs had been cut, and new sources of revenue were coming in.

"As we were able to demonstrate at the meeting, we have a solvent chamber, we have strong and positive plans for the future, we've got the support of everybody in the business support network and we are gaining members," she said.

She claimed that "a few personalities" had "swung it." "We thought we'd left the old days of individual egos behind. That's not how we operate. We don't have this confrontational way of doing business."

Mr Haines denied the revived chamber faced isolation, claiming that it was no longer necessary to be a large chamber to win backing from the British Chambers of Commerce.

Following a procedural wrangle, Dover members will be asked again whether they wish to switch membership to the revived Dover chamber or stay with Kent Maritime.

One Dover chamber member who voted against de-merger said the decision should have been delayed. New information showed that Kent Maritime Chamber was in better shape than members had been led to believe. "I don't give Dover chamber more than a year on its own," he said.