A FORMER secretary of Bolton Chamber of Trade is stepping down from a top national post. Bernard Tennant is retiring from his post as the director of retail at the London-based headquarters of the British Chambers of Commerce, after a total of 37 years serving the business community. Mr Tennant became director general of the National Chamber of Trade in 1987 and when that group merged with the Association of British Chambers of Commerce in 1993 he was appointed the new organisation's director of retail.

During his time in Bolton from 1960 to 1975 Mr Tennant was also secretary of the local Master Bakers' Association, the Butchers' Association, and the Grocers' Association.

He also became secretary to the Lancashire Council of Meat Traders' Associations, the Leigh Market Traders' Association and the North Western area councils of both the National Chamber of Trade and the Retail Fruit Trade Federation.

Highlights in his career include presenting training sessions for 30,000 traders on decimalisation in 1971. He organised similar training courses in 1973 on the introduction of VAT.

Appointed a magistrate in 1968, he is also well known for his charity work. In 1968 he became founder secretary of the Moorside Group of charitable housing associations adding hundreds of properties to the stock of housing for the elderly in the Bolton area.

More recently he organised various campaigns on behalf of chambers including the Keep Sunday Special Campaign and lobbying hard to win compensation for traders whose businesses are hit by roadworks over which they have no control.

Mr Tennant, an old boy of Farnworth Grammar School,is also a member of the NatWest Charity Trust's Special Committee investigating crime prevention methods for small businesses.

His retirement gives him more time to enjoy his hobbies of opera, film, musicals, photography and history.

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