Every pound spent in our local shops is worth twice as much to the Penarth economy than one spent in the supermarket, writes National Assembly candidate for Cardiff South and Penarth, Dafydd Trystan Davies...
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| Dr Dafydd Trystan Davies |
My first
experience of Penarth was a rather painful one. Rather foolishly a
few years ago I signed up to run the Snowdonia mountain marathon and,
living across the Bay, the hills of Penarth seemed very inviting
(from afar!). Many hours of slowly trudging up and down the hill from
the Bay to the centre of Penarth and, once I’d got a little more
adventurous, down to the Pier too, I was ready for Snowdonia! But
I’d also come to appreciate the wide range of independent shops in
the town centre.
More recently,
my Dad moved to Penarth, so the rather breathless window shopping
when out running has turned into actual shopping and quite a few
coffees and cakes at Foxy’s Deli! Foxy’s is a particular treat
as a group of us - weather and light permitting - go for a short bike
ride on Wednesday mornings, with a coffee and cake afterwards at
Foxy’s most definitely the highlight of the ride!
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| Power is in your pocket |
Shopping locally
in Penarth is a pleasure but also really important to the wider
economic success of the area. Though the economy of Penarth is
certainly more robust than some other towns, the more that can be
done to encourage people to do more shopping locally to help maintain
vibrant high streets the better.
There’s a
splendid book shop, Windsor Books, with a good range of books and
greetings cards in English and Welsh. Pencerdd has a great variety of
musical instruments for sale, though, thankfully for the musically
inclined, my violin playing days are long over! Foxy’s Deli has an
enviable display of ‘goodies’ and you don’t have to cycle up
the hill from the barrage to earn a coffee and cake there! These
local businesses deserve our support.
I am, as you’ve
probably gathered by now, a keen cyclist and chair the social
enterprise, Cycle Training Wales, which offers a wide range of cycle
training bike maintenance courses and bike recycling. So I am
naturally pleased that Penarth has the Bike Shop selling and
repairing bikes in the centre of town. If you’re after a new bike
then the Bike Shop is the place to go, while Cycle Training Wales’
Cardiff Cycle Workshop at Ely Bridge offers recycled bikes in monthly
sales.
There are of
course many more local traders in and around Penarth and I’m
pleased that they have got together to produce a loyalty card to
support local, independent traders and give offers and discounts to
customers. The card is an initiative of Gwyrddio Penarth Greening
and, as a keen environmentalist, I think this is just the sort of
scheme needed to help our town centres.
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| Shop in Penarth, an initiative of Gwyrddio Penarth Greening |
I wonder how
many Penarth residents have this card and, while it may not have been
a New Year’s resolution, how about making a St David’s Day
resolution to shop more locally?
Money spent in independent shops on
the high street is money that stays locally, and it has been
estimated that every £1 spent locally puts twice as much money back
into the local economy as £1 spent in a supermarket. Local shops
employ local people, are supplied by local businesses and create more
jobs with their profits kept in the local community.
Wales has a strong
tradition of food producers and craft businesses, and buying locally
is the perfect opportunity to support them.
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| Just some of the mouth-watering Welsh produce available at Foxy's (Image: Penarth View) |
But there is
only so much individuals can do. There is also, in my view a
responsibility on public bodies to choose local suppliers wherever
possible. In Plaid Cymru, for whom I have been selected to stand in
the next Assembly elections, we have been campaigning for some time
on public procurement.
Currently, about
50 per cent of goods and services purchased by the Welsh public
sector come from Welsh-based suppliers and I’d very much like to
see this increased to 75 per cent to provide even more support for
local businesses and local jobs. It’s been estimated that
current public sector purchases account for nearly 100,000 jobs in
Wales and an increase to 75 per cent would mean more than 45,000
extra jobs.
We have the
opportunity to support our local traders in Penarth, to boost the
economy and to encourage our councils and public bodies to do more to
source their goods locally. We all have a part to play in this and,
while you may not want to join me in running up and down the hills of
Penarth (why not – it’s great fun!), I hope you will join me in
continuing to support our local traders.
Top 10 Facts about shopping locally
