As is our long-held custom, students attending this years Spanish classes have supported businesses in Ottery St Mary by having their end of term 'Spanish lunch' at a local restaurant.

This time over 40 students, from all over the area, met at the Lamb & Flag to enjoy the great selection of tapas offered as part of their extensive menu.

The students were not short in complementing owners Ali & JP, Chefs Matt & JP, Lucy and staff for the quality of the tapas and for the friendly and efficient service.

A big thank you from all of us for the wonderful time!

The idea of using local venues as part of the activities included in the yearly Spanish program was born thanks to the realisation of the late Phyllis Baxter, when working together in events around 12 years ago, of the tremendous potential the town had to create successful events that would combine all the different facilities the town had to offer.

That was the start of ideas such as the Big Breakfast which attracted the attention of the organisers of the Tour of Britain which brought the event to the town twice.

Without any doubt the most successful pattern created by Phyllis and followed by previous Ottery St Mary Chamber of Commerce Chairman and their teams for many years has

been the Late Night Shopping, which combined efforts from organisations such as Tar

Barrels & Carnival Committee, OSM Panto, St Mary's Church Christmas Tree Festival,

Rotary, shops etc.

I followed this pattern in 2018 and once again it proved Phyllis' ideas will live forever and will always be successful.

It was nice to see that this year the team organising the 2019 event intended to follow this pattern.

It is also nice to see how many enterprises in the town have encouraged and offer a multi-service based on the products they sell.

The students attending Spanish classes will continue to support the town that has welcomed them for over 12 years.

In the past we invited students from Spain to visit Ottery and they certainly enjoyed shopping locally and having a cream tea at the church gardens.

Our local restaurants, pubs and tea rooms have been chosen in the past as venues of many end of term celebrations.

Still there are many ideas growing in the background which I am sure will have had Phyllis's approval, specially our 'Night of Salsa' at the end of the summer term.