A SOMERSET Day is to be held for the first time next year to celebrate our wonderful county – and you can help choose when it takes place.

The annual day to let the rest of the world know how lucky we are living and working here is the idea of A Passion for Somerset, a new organisation which aims to help the county develop into a leading location for business enterprise and innovation.

Communities will be encouraged to join in a day of celebration, while a Somerset dinner dance will be staged to bring people together.

Four possible dates have been chosen – and you can vote on your favourite at www.passionforsomerset.co.uk.

*May 11, to mark Alfred the Great’s gathering of ‘all the people of Somerset’.

*May 19, St Dunstan’s Day.

*July 6, the Battle of Sedgemoor.

*October 21, Apple Day.

John Turner, chairman of A Passion for Somerset, said the event would help celebrate the identity of Somerset, with businesses and individuals creating “something special”.

A breakfast meeting at Taunton’s Castle Hotel today (Wednesday, November 19) heard that Somerset needs to “think like a county” to make the most of everything it has.

As the third largest county in England, a population of 900,000 and a £9billion economy, efforts need to be made to attract visitors, rather than seeing them carry on down the motorway “corridor” to Devon and Cornwall.

Mr Turner said businesses, including tourism, need to work together to ensure everyone knows what Somerset has to offer.

He added: “That means working with educational establishments, to encourage the future workforce to raise its aspirations.

“And we want to ensure all of our businesses have an opportunity to be represented to reflect and communicate their concerns and the opportunities they have to the political elite.”

To that end, a political debate featuring front bench MPs from both sides of the Commons is being set up in the county in March, ahead of the General Election two months later.

A website, which will contain a directory of 1,000 companies, is being built with the aim of luring businesses and individuals to the county.

A Passion for Somerset director Nigel Muers-Raby said: “It’s a real opportunity for us – the time is right.”