THIS weekend marks the culmination of our hugely successful Buy Local campaign. Saturday is the fourth of July – and we are marking it with Worcestershire’s very own Independents’ Day.

It is the day on which we want to see our readers giving the supermarket a miss for once (we think they’ll survive) and spending some of their hard-earned cash in the county’s hundreds of independent shops, restaurants, markets and pubs.

These are the very businesses – most of them family-owned – our campaign has been supporting. You’ll find these small traders in every part of the county. Many of them have been around for centuries. And most of them are having a tough time during the recession.

In the 10 weeks since Buy Local launched we have given away 5,000 eco shopping bags to readers and hundreds of independent businesses are displaying our Buy Local, Buy Here posters.

We’ve also been inundated with your suggestions for the best places to Buy Local.

Our readers’ recommendations will be published on Saturday in a special 16-page Independents’ Day pull-out in your Worcester News.

Packed with information about the campaign, our special publication will feature all your suggestions plus some very special offers from some of the businesses taking part in the campaign.

Buy Local will not be a campaign that disappears after Saturday. The need to support our local businesses will not go away after Independents’ Day.

Our readers have done a fantastic job so far in supporting our campaign. So today we say thank you – and remember to Buy Local.