HALLOWE’EN is over, and Guy Fawkes too. Headlong into Christmas now. Many shops have had Christmas displays for weeks already, and TV adverts already have a ‘festive’ air.

December 3, just before Christmas, is Small Business Saturday. Many local small businesses are retailers, high street shops, and Christmas may be the time of year which makes or breaks them. We will all spend more than perhaps we should in December – the more of it we spend in our local shops the better for the health of our high streets all year round.

This year has seen great work by many local people to keep our towns and villages attractive, vibrant and sustainable. Dunbar traders saw their efforts to energise the high street rewarded with a top-five place in a national competition, while ‘bloomers’ in Haddington and North Berwick also got national awards for unstinting labours to make their towns beautiful.

Retailers are not the only small businesses which matter for our local economy. We can see lots of construction going on throughout the county, and with 10,000 houses to come, this is just the start. We must make sure that local tradesmen (and women) get the chance to share this work, which is why I recently supported one of East Lothian Council’s roadshows for small construction companies to help them do just that. The council’s Trusted Trader scheme is another initiative which is helping small local companies find work.

Premises can be a problem for new businesses too, so it was good to hear that the council’s new business units in Haddington have been snapped up, auguring well for units being built in North Berwick too.

There is plenty more we can do to support local businesses – better broadband for one thing. We have to keep efforts up. We can be optimistic about East Lothian as 2017 approaches.