The Bristol Pound

Last month the Bristol Pound was successfully launched.

• Bristol businesses queuing up to join local currency scheme

An ambitious venture, as until recently local currencies were small scale, places like Totnes with the Totnes Pound.

It needs somewhere like Totnes, Bristol or Brighton where there is a network of local businesses.

A local currency helps plugs the leakage of money from the local economy, recycles money within the local economy. But it does more than that, it makes people think how they spend their money, the impact of how they spend their money.

Spend money in a High Street chain store, be it tax dodging Top Shop or Costa and it is an anonymous transaction.

Spend local currency in a local business and it becomes more than a monetary transaction, it is a social interaction.

Contrast what is happening in Bristol with Aldershot, where local planners do everything possible to destroy local businesses.

• Redevelopment of The Arcade REJECTED

Almost a thousand people are now signed up to the Bristol Pound and hundreds of local businesses.

Almost a thousand people have signed up for a Bristol Pound account, and hundreds of businesses too! Get involved http://t.co/9Nq37O2M

— Bristol Pound (@BristolPound) October 10, 2012

Tags: Bristol Pound, economics, local currencies, localism