Small businesses in Chichester need our support in the run up to Christmas

That was the message from the Chichester Business Improvement District (BID) ahead of Small Business Saturday.

Small Business Saturday is a campaign to support small business, on the first Saturday in December each year.

The campaign encourages businesses to promote themselves and work with other small businesses, and consumers to ‘shop local’.

Oriana Di Mascio, projects manager at Chichester BID. said: “Small and independent businesses are the lifeblood of our community. Not only do they help keep money in the local economy and provide jobs, they also give our city centre its unique identity, character and charm.

“We champion independents all year round and it is great to get involved with a national project like Small Business Saturday to remind people why it is so important to support and shop local.

“We also recently launched a campaign urging people to take a Christmas pledge to shop local this festive season and support our small businesses. They deserve our support, we will all miss them if they go.”

Chichester District Council said Small Business Saturday ‘is more important this year than any other’.

A spokesperson added: “It’s absolutely vital that we all play our part in supporting businesses — not just on Saturday but every day.

“This is why, in partnership with the Observer series and our other partners, we are really pushing our ‘shop local, visit local, support local’ campaign — and we urge everyone to support their local businesses as much as possible as they are the lifeblood of our communities.

“As part of our Christmas campaign we have also produced a range of materials including a free ‘Shop Local’ business pack, which contains a range of digital assets, such as social media graphics and our special Christmas campaign gift tags.

"We also encourage people to download the gift tags and use them to show their support for their local businesses. These can be found at https://www.chichester.gov.uk/countdowntochristmas."

'To help both shoppers and businesses', the district council is also offering free parking every weekend at the Avenue de Chartres car park in Chichester during December.

"In addition, you can select two hours and get the third hour free when using the MiPermit app during December in the majority of our car parks across the district," the spokesperson said.

The district council is encouraging people to pick up everything they need from festive food and drink to gifts for family and friends at the Chichester Farmers’ Market on Friday, December 4 and 18.

The markets will be held in Cattle Market car park in Chichester from 9am until 2pm with social distancing measures in place to help everyone shop safely.

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