A WOMAN who moved to Nelson from London last year is launching a campaign to encourage people to love the town.
“I Love Nelson, Lancashire,” is the brainchild of Walker, of Chapel Street, to get more people to shop in Nelson instead of going to out-of-town retail parks and big supermarkets.
She is in the process of setting up an online directory full of Nelson businesses, events and services as a reference point.
Walker said she came up with the idea after seeing negative comments about the town on Facebook.
“I moved up to Nelson in October. I was made redundant in London and for various reasons it looked unlikely that I would get another job.
“I sold my flat and bought two properties up here. I went on the Nelson Lancashire Facebook group and all I could see was people posting a lot of pictures of Nelson and saying how great it was.
“I asked people what’s good about it now but people were struggling to tell me anything good.”
Walker has visited a number of businesses in the town so that she can add their details to the online directory but is urging as many as possible to contact her to speed up the process.
The I Love Nelson slogan is “helping yourself to a brighter future” and Walker, who has got the backing of Pendle Council and Nelson Town Council, hopes it will help people take more pride in the town. She is also asking shops to reward loyal customers with discounts as an incentive to shop locally.
“I hate shopping and if I can’t buy it in Asda I order it online so I’m going to have to change my habits as well,” she said.
“People go to the big supermarkets because they can get everything there. If shops in Nelson offer a discount of 10% it’s an incentive for people to shop here.”
Any businesses which want to register for the directory can do so via the website ilovenelson.co.uk or by emailing ilovenelson@talktalk.net.