A PAIR of entrepreneurs have launched a scheme to encourage people in Kendal to shop locally and save money at the same time.

Tom Staff and Simon Neary, both 21, have created a card to rewards residents for shopping in the town.

The KendalPlus card, which costs £5 from selected retailers, and the pluscardspromotions.com website, offers holders discounts at more than 30 shops and restaurants – including The Beauty Rooms at Eden and Daniel Gray hairdressers.

Mr Staff, who piloted a similar scheme for students while at university in Nottingham, said: “We asked businesses in Kendal whether they would be prepared to offer discounts to residents to stimulate spending in local businesses.

“We sell the cards for £5 for the year and hopefully the savings will far outweigh the cost of the card for the year.”

Mr Staff, citing The Westmorland Gazette’s Love Local campaign as inspiration, believes Kendal is ideally suited for the scheme.

“A lot of things in Kendal are aimed at tourists but this is some-thing is aimed at residents,” he said.

“We think it will work in Kendal because it is a town residents are proud of and people would prefer to support local businesses.

“We wanted to encourage people to come down and spend money in local businesses by offering discounts – our catch-line is: ‘You go local your money goes further’.”

The pair, who say they will make money from the scheme through the sale of cards and selling advertising on the cards, intend to expand the scheme to other towns in the region.

“We want to expand it, but expand it to places where the residents of the previous location also go,” said Mr Staff.

“Maybe Windermere so that the KendalPlus card could be used there as well so we could create a network and increase the value of the existing cards.”

Derek Armstrong, business development manager for the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, said: “What a great idea. I have seen these things work elsewhere.

“It is a win-win thing that is good for locals and local businesses.”