THE best of Bournemouth’s licensed trade was celebrated at the seventh annual Best Bar None awards.

Halo nightclub was named as the overall winner at the glittering ceremony at Boscombe’s O2 Academy.

Jon Shipp, Bournemouth’s nighttime economy co-ordinator hosted the evening and he told the audience of 200: “You should be very proud of what you do and the contribution you make to the town.”

The winner of the best neighbourhood venue category was the Grove Tavern and Yates took the honours in the pubs section.

Halo, in central Bournemouth took the clubs category and the O2 Academy was awarded the title of best entertainment venue.

The Daily Echo award was given to The Lost Garden.

There was plenty of appreciation for Mark Berry from the Winchester who organised the entertainment for the evening, despite being caught up in a hit and run incident on Poole Hill three weeks ago.

Tribute was also paid to the efforts of Nick Dampney from Dorset Fire and Rescue who has been involved with judging the awards from the beginning, but is now stepping down.

The guest speaker at the event was specialist licensing lawyer, Philip Day, from HLF Law.

All eligible venues in town were presented with their accreditation before the main awards.

A handful were awarded pass and merit accreditation but the majority received a distinction.

Entertainment was provided by the drumming group Afric’ Art.