Shop Local campaign launched

Richard Van De Velde, managing director of Hunters Estate Agents, has launched a Shop Local campaign to support independent traders.

Hunters Estate Agents has offices in Portishead, Nailsea and Yatton and Richard is keen to boost the local economy by raising awareness of the businesses in North Somerset.

Richard has made videos shared them on his Facebook page.

He said: "The high street is struggling, as everyone knows.

"I've got offices in Nailsea, Portishead and Yatton so I thought, as a local business, what can I do to help and try to give something back and promote the individual areas?

"I went to chat with some local independent businesses to see if they were willing to be filmed.

"I then edited the videos and put them on our social medial site.

"I got people to talk about their business and what they feel is good about the area.

"We all complain about empty shops in the high street, but if people don't support them, we aren't going to have local businesses.

"My slogan is 'shop local, eat local, spend local and enjoy local'.

"If you spend money with a local business, more goes back into the local economy than if it's a national shop.

"If money is going back going back into the economy, it's going to increase employment for local people.

"I'm just trying to get people to support their local shops, even if it's just a couple of pounds a week.

"They often have much better variations than the nationals have.

"Local shops also support local producers.

I'm just trying to do a little bit to get people to spend money and enjoy their local area because it has a lot to offer."

Businesses can get in touch with Richard to find out more about the Shop Local campaign.

Freemans, from Portishead, is one of the businesses being promoted by Hunters.

Sales manager Jason Bamfield, said: "We did a video workshop with them which got more than 2,000 views on Facebook.

"We are all in favour of it as it's great for someone to promote our local shops."