Shop local to support your local economy and environment

Lagan Valley Green Party is pointing out the many benefits of local shopping and are calling on the people of Lisburn and the surrounding area to “Shop local, buy local”.

Using local shops has a huge number of benefits. Supporting local businesses can help create jobs in the area. Local shops often stock local items, for example fruit and veg, meat and fish, unlike the equivalents often seen in the supermarkets, and this helps support local businesses further.

Cutting the number of car journeys can also mean fewer emissions and lower fuel costs.

Conor Quinn, spokesman for Lagan Valley Greens said “What we have witnessed over recent years has been Lisburn City Council supporting large scale businesses. This is evidenced by the unequivocal support for the Westfield development at Sprucefield and the expansion of the Tesco store at Bentrim Road. While a small scale farmers’ market in Castle Gardens has been supported by Council in the past it is disappointing to learn that it has removed further support. Such projects must be significantly larger to replicate the success of St George’s Market in Belfast and to offer shoppers a competitive alternative to the large multiples. We need to shorten the supply
chain and to deliver high quality local produce to the consumer. This cannot be achieved by token projects such as the Castle Gardens experiment. We can build on Lisburn’s Tuesday morning market and look at a weekend time and location, such as the Leisureplex, to develop a larger scale sustainable market model that benefits local businesses”.