Ben Howlett, the Member of Parliament for Bath, has visited some of the fifty nominees for his Best of Bath Business Awards, which will celebrate local independent businesses across the city.
The awards are being supported by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Bath.
Customers and businesses have been nominating their favourites independent cafes, restaurants, retailers and window displays.
Ben commented: “It’s always great to meet with local independent businesses in Bath and it’s really exciting to see so many of them nominated for my inaugural awards.
“Independent local businesses are the lifeblood of our city and it is important we champion them as much as possible.
“If every local resident in Bath shops locally at least once a week in an independent shop or business we would see even more independent shops stay open and thousands more jobs created every year.
“The businesses I met today were really delighted to hear that their customers are championing their services and think that they should be nominated for an award.
“I urge residents to keep adding to the ever-growing list of nominees so we can really highlight just how great our local businesses are.”
The awards, in their first year, have already attracted around 50 nominations across five categories.
The categories are Best Independent Restaurant, Best Independent Retailer, Best Independent Café, Best Newcomer and Best Window Display.
Nominations are open until the 31st March, so there is still a chance to nominate your favourite Bath independent businesses.
You can nominate by submitting no more than 100 words via email to [email protected], on Twitter using #BBBBA or via Ben’s Facebook page.
A full list of the nominations can be found here: http://ben4bath.co.uk/nominations.