TO URGE  people to shop local, AM for Mid and West Wales, Baroness Eluned Morgan visited Newtown and Welshpool; over the weekend.

The first Saturday in December is known as “Small Buisness Saturday.”

Eluned Morgan who is now Welsh Government minister for the Welsh Language and lifelong learning was in Montgomeryshire to help promote the shop local day.

Starting out at the indoor Market in Newtown, Eluned called in at various local businesses, distributing leaflets along with posters urging people to shop locally.

In Newtown she also met with Montgomeryshire Labour members who told her that the Welsh Government’s work had to be explained better to win over voters in Powys.

Her talk covered many topics including Brexit and the last General Election but her main point was the desperate need for a strategy for rural Wales. ‘

She said. ‘I strongly believe that any economic development plan must be developed in rural Wales, by rural Wales, for rural Wales and must not be a plan imposed by Cardiff.’

During the following question and answers, one point surfaced again and again.

Newtown Town councillor, Mike Childs, said: “We need to tell people the difference a Labour government in Wales actually makes.

“For instance, students leaving university in Wales leave with, on average, £15,000 less debt than their English counterparts.”

’After the Newtown meeting, Eluned went on to the Welshpool Winter Festival where she  met with shopkeepers as part of the shop local campaign.