The latest Chamber meeting was a celebration of awards and a discussion of new ideas to promote Bridport.

Firstly, the attendees all took the opportunity to introduce themselves and their businesses. The range of expertise available is amazing - everything from funerals to flowers, bathrooms to bookkeeping, washing machines to websites.

Following a brief report from the town clerk, the chamber asked him to pass on their congratulations to Sarah Williams. Her hard work and commitment was recently recognised by the National Association of Local Councils, who awarded her their Councillor of the Year 2019.

The new Bridport Business Awards, which launched recently, were then discussed at some length. There are 11 categories, these are best community window display, best internal layout/displays, most helpful member of staff, best community involvement, most welcoming business, most welcoming telephone manner, best customer service, new business of the year, retail business of the year, service provider of the year and catering/restaurant/pub of the year.

Entry is free and entry forms are available from Footeprints, Bridport Tourist Information Centre, Porter Dodson and the Taj Mahal Restaurant, or online at marketingwest.co.uk.

The categories will be judged by independent secret shoppers, who will produce a report on each business and also on the town as a whole. Chamber members felt these reports could be very valuable, as an unbiased outside view of the business offer would be helpful with planning the future of the town and its business community. We would encourage all local businesses to enter as many categories as possible.

There are also some sponsorship opportunities available, starting at £250 - if you are interested please contact Nigel at marketingwest.co.uk

We then said goodbye to our secretary Meg, who was recently runner-up in the SW Virtual Assistant of the Year. President Rob Muhl presented her with a Bridport mug from Lilliput Textiles and a bouquet from Lavender Blue florists and thanked her for all her hard work. We wish her every success as she moves her business forward.

A short discussion about the upcoming branding workshop, which is likely to take place before or after the next meeting, followed. A few members felt that, although Bridport is a traditional town, we need to highlight our commitment to the future, placing the emphasis on providing a leading edge service and using our established knowledge, combined with technology, to provide a superior product for customers, current and future. The workshop will clarify and consolidate our thoughts and hopefully produce a recognisable and user-friendly brand to take us forward into the 2020s. Please do come along if you have any ideas or opinions - we'd love to hear from you.

Finally, Rob referred to the column written by Sir Oliver Letwin as he leaves his position as our local constituency MP.

'..there are essentially just two things a constituency MP can achieve: he or she can obtain access to people with real power; and he or she can bring together people who would not otherwise engage with each other. It may not sound like much - but access to the right people and getting the right people together with one another, can very often lead to the resolution of problems which would otherwise remain unresolved'.

This sounds like a useful guiding statement for our Chamber of Trade too.

There is no meeting in December so our next meeting - and hopefully the Bridport brand workshop - is on Tuesday, January 14 from 6pm at Mountfield. Look forward to seeing you there, but in the meantime if you have any comments or questions, our email is info@bridportbusiness.org.uk and we have a Facebook page.