A FINANCIAL initiative to encourage people to spend their money in Dwyfor and Meirionnydd has just been launched by a local business organisation.

The scheme, introduced by the Bala Business Group, is called ‘The Magic Tenner’ and will be supported by tote bags with a newly designed logo and names of participating shops, welcome packs and stickers for shop windows.

Already under way in the Midlands, the immediate aim of the Bala group’s plans will be to get people to think about what spending £10 means to their local economy.

Liz Davies, of the business group, said: “Bala has a tremendous mix of shops which are all occupied – where you can buy anything from a car to a drawing pin, a plasma TV screen to a pint of milk, a chocolate sheep to a jar of olives. Most of them are independent, while there are also small supermarkets, a chemist and several pubs, cafes and restaurants.

“So you spend a tenner in one of these – for example the craft beer shop – and where does the tenner go?

“First of all a percentage goes to the beer maker who lives and works on the edge of town. He needs the money to pay tradesmen to maintain his brewing equipment; he’ll buy his petrol from the local gas station and his medicines from the chemist. He gets his meat from the butchers and bread from the bakery.

“Even the money he spends in the supermarkets helps the local economy because the better their turnover, the more local people they will employ.

“Equally the shop owner will spend locally, meaning that the tenner you spend on that special beer will have reached far and wide.”

It has been mathematically calculated that any money put into the local economy is trebled, the Bala Business group suggests.

The Bala group is already working hard on the Magic Tenner and hopes to encourage other towns in north Wales to adopt the scheme.

Liz added: “The Bala Business Group works with the Tourism Group to ensure that all visitors are aware of what’s on offer.

“It’s early doors yet, but the town is already unusual in that the high street is full and booming and so the experience of walking along its length is not so depressing as walking the high streets of the ghost towns elsewhere.”

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