TODAY the Gazette launches a campaign to support local businesses to help them recover from the impact of the coronavirus lockdown.

Supported by Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie, our Love Local Business campaign encourages our readers to back our traders by spending their money with them.

Many of these businesses are re-opening this Monday, June 15, after more than two months of being closed, while others such as hairdressers and pubs won’t be able to trade again until July. For those businesses that have been able to remain open during the lockdown, many have seen a significant loss in income.

Gazette editor Michael Purton said: “This is a crucial time for local businesses as they try to recover from the impact of the lockdown which, for many, has seen them without any income for more than two months. We are fortunate to have so many great local, independent businesses and we need our community to support them now to make sure we don’t lose them.

“In the coming months we will be promoting these businesses in our newspaper, on our website and our social media channels, to help spread the message that they are open and highlight why they are so valuable to this community. I urge all of our readers to show that they love local business by supporting them.”

MP Ms Baillie said: “I hope everyone gets behind the Gazette’s Love Local Business campaign.

“Small independent retailers have suffered during lockdown and need local support when they reopen firstly, to make sure it is safe to do so, and that customers have confidence in social distancing measures.

“The Government has recognised this and Stroud District Council recently received £106,000 from The Reopening High Streets Safely Fund to help the authority to introduce measures to get retail back to work and customers back into shops.

“This will include introducing a range of safety measures to kick-start local economies and campaigns to explain the changes to the public and reassure them their high streets and other commercial areas are safe.

“However, it will be local people who will make the difference here in Stroud and I urge them to embrace this campaign and use as many independent shops as they can to ensure we continue to have a thriving local retail sector as the lockdown measures start to ease.”

The area is full of independent businesses who have had to deal with new challenges. Among them is Freelance Windows in Dursley, which found the phone stopped ringing as soon as lockdown was announced.

“It’s been very quiet. I kept thinking ‘is the phone ever going to ring?’” said Carol Smith. “I suppose people were thinking that if they were in lockdown, we were too.

"We work from home, our office is an extension at the side of the house, so we didn’t close and were available if people needed us.

“Luckily things are starting to pick up again now. It is important to support local businesses because if anything goes wrong, we’re just around the corner and we can pop straight round and sort it out.”

Another business owner to experience new challenges is Philip Tannenbaum of Wotton Auction Rooms.

Philip said the auction rooms had a huge sale about to go ahead when lockdown was announced, and the sale items have been sitting in their warehouses ever since.

But the auction rooms will be reopening their doors for the first time on Tuesday (June 16) with viewing for a 1,400 lot sale to be sold over the following two days.

Philip said: “Although our doors have been closed since the end of March, we have had a catalogue online since then, remarkably over 1,500 intending buyers have registered to bid and we have been dealing with an unprecedented number of enquiries over the past few weeks, we are fortunate to have two large building each with two floors and two staircases, so a one-way viewing system can be implemented.

“All our vendors have been very patient during the lockdown many who are selling gold and silver will have seen a considerable rise in value during that time, equally a lack of goods to the market should drive prices higher in all sections.

“This is one of the first large sales out of the traps anywhere in the country since the lifting of certain restrictions.”

Philip is now looking forward to getting back to what he knows best and said the return of this traditional way of buying and selling was another welcome step on the road to recovery.

“We’ve missed seeing our clients, buyers and sellers, virtually all of whom are local,” he said.

“And I’ve missed standing up on the rostrum selling.

“This is the longest break I’ve had in auctioneering since I was 17, and I’m 63 now.”

Sales manager for the Gazette, Oliver Spencer said: “We reach a huge percentage of the local population across our well-established regional brands and, through a combination of combining our loyal print publications, record online audiences and market leading engagement via our social media channels, we are really confident that we can be the marketing partner of choice for local businesses during this crucial period.

“We are really banging the drum for local businesses from all sectors including retail, hospitality and leisure and encouraging our loyal readership to show their support by shopping local. Any business which wants to be featured in our campaign should get in touch on 01453 769419 or oliver. spencer@localiq.co.uk and we will be happy to provide further details.”