SO a scheme to encourage local people to stick to shopping in Accrington is to be launched in December (Citizen, October 10).

Hyndburn Council and traders hope the programme will stop people going out of town to shop. I am sure there has been tremendous support for the scheme in Accrington but what about the rest of the borough?

Do residents in Clayton-le-Moors, Great Harwood, Oswaldtwistle and Rishton qualify for the scheme if they shop in Accrington? Once again, probably not. I sincerely hope we don't unless the scheme is extended to include the businesses in other towns across the borough.

Surely there is a justifiable case for supporting local shops and developing business initiatives in these towns where shops lie empty for months because of out-of-town retail parks in Hyndburn and Blackburn and competition from retail outlets in Accrington centre.

Barbara Sharples,

Allsprings Drive,

Great Harwood.

Previous news story

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.