KEEP IT LOCAL: Think local first in the build-up to Christmas

Alnwick traders Moira Ging, Carlo Biagioni and Stephen Bell promote Small Business Saturday.

Today, the Gazette relaunches its Keep It Local campaign, to support the businesses in our towns and villages and promote the benefits of shopping locally.

With Small Business Saturday taking place this weekend and just over three weeks until Christmas, we thought it was the ideal time to kick-start the initiative, which we first launched a few years ago.

Local businesses are the heartbeat of our communities and it is crucial that we keep them alive. Research has shown that if every adult in the UK spent £5 per week in their local shops and businesses, it would be worth £13.5billion.

While it might not be possible to shop locally all of the time, we want to encourage readers to think local first.

Amble Business Club chairman Ann Burke welcomed the Keep It Local campaign. She said: “The Gazette it a community paper and anything that raises awareness of local business is a good thing.”

As part of the campaign, we want readers to tell us their local good-news stories. Contact [email protected]