Bradford Chamber of Commerce is looking to its future a year after the organisation celebrated its centenary.

Members of the Chamber discussed the path ahead in a closed session of its council meeting at Bradford's Pennington Midland Hotel.

The discussion was sparked by talks currently taking place on a potential merger between Leeds Chamber of Commerce and Leeds Training & Enterprise Council.

If the Leeds Chamber goes ahead with merger plans, it will withdraw from Chamber Management Services - the organisation behind the Bradford, Leeds and York and North Yorkshire chambers.

This leaves the Bradford Chamber with a number of options which were under discussion at the meeting.

The Chamber could continue to operate a reduced Chamber Management Services at its Phoenix House headquarters in Thornbury with the York and North Yorkshire Chamber. It could also go it alone as an independent Chamber or merge with Bradford & District Training & Enterprise Council.

One of the problems with such a merger has previously been expressed by members. They fear that the Chamber's ability to criticise Government policy would be limited as the TEC is a Government-funded body.

Sandy Needham, the director of the Bradford Chamber, said today that she could not comment on the discussion at the meeting.

"This is the first time the matter has been presented at the Bradford Chamber council meeting and is very much in its early stages. We do not know what the Leeds chamber will do and no early decision is going to be made on the future of the Bradford Chamber," she said.

David Wilkinson, the Chamber's former director, is chief executive of Bradford TEC. He left the meeting before discussion took place on the future of the Chamber.

He said: "I left because I did not think it was appropriate that I take part in a discussion about the Chamber's internal affairs. The TEC is supportive of the Chamber and is happy to talk to them about future arrangements between us."

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