With funding still available from Herefordshire Council’s scheme to help local retailers recover from the pandemic, prepaid shop local cards have been topped up with an additional £10.
Nearly 60,000 households in the county applied for their shop local prepaid card. Cardholders were asked to keep their card in case of funding being available for a later top-up. The additional £10 is automatically being added to the cards, but the money still needs to be spent before the 31 March 2022 deadline.
Cllr Ellie Chowns, Cabinet member for environment and economy, said:
“We are delighted to be able to add an extra £10 onto each shop local prepaid card to help boost local recovery from the impact of the covid pandemic.
“We’ve had fantastic feedback from residents and businesses about the shop local scheme. There are a number of studies that show how money spent locally tends to stay local, so this scheme is not only benefitting retailers and producers, but the whole of the Herefordshire economy.
“However, this money will not be available to spend after 31 March 2022 so I urge anyone who has yet to activate their card — or who still has money left on an active card — to take advantage of the scheme now.”