THE FIVER FEST EFFECT – NOW BACKED UP WITH DATA
26/09/2022

The hard-working team in Clay Cross have really taken Totally Locally to heart and run increasingly popular Fiver Fests in their town. The Feedback we get from National Fiver Fest including Clay Cross has always ...

Chris was interviewed by nice people for a nice article
16/08/2022

Here’s a smashing article about the history of Totally Locally to celebrate the launch of our new book and our look to find a sponsor to support everything we do for independent businesses. This goes ...

OUR FIRST BOOK – THE ECONOMICS OF BEING NICE
29/06/2022

The Totally Locally book “The Economics of Being Nice” has launched! It’s been a labour of love, but well worth it to see the reaction it’s getting. The book has lots of stories from towns ...

FIVER FEST MARCH 2022 ROUND-UP
12/04/2022

The first National Fiver Fest in 2022 was a cracker! We are again bowled over by the enthusiasm, creativity and sheer willpower of everyone who took part in Fiver Fest. It’s heart-warming to see so ...

FIVER FEST MAPS
11/04/2022

Amongst the many creative things towns do for Fiver Fest, one of our favourites is a Fiver Fest Map, possibly done by a local artist, it's a brilliant thing to pull the whole thing together. ...

DELIVERING ESSENTIALS BY CARGOBIKE IN HALIFAX
28/10/2021

Here at Totally Locally HQ we’re always helping others to collaborate so we thought we practice what we preach! As part of a project for Calderdale Council to support residents of Halifax who need to ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY SHOP LAUNCH
31/08/2021

We’ve set up a lovely shop on our website as we’ve started to do a bit of merchandise, items in our shop will help you run and spread the word about Totally Locally and the ...

JUNE NATIONAL FIVER FEST HITS OVER 100 TOWNS
08/06/2021

After emerging from lockdowns, there was always going to be uncertainty over running events but we are thrilled to announce that the first National Fiver Fest in 2021 now has over 100 towns taking part! ...

PODCAST WITH EMMA CORFIELD-WALTERS OF BOOK-ISH IN CRICKHOWELL
09/05/2021

Chris talks to Emma Corfield-Walters, owner of Book-ish, The UK’s Independent Bookshop of the Year 2020/21 & the instigator of Totally Locally in Crickhowell & named High Street Hero in the GB High Street Awards. ...

MORE RE-OPENING OF THE HIGH STREET POSTERS FOR YOU!
10/04/2021

A set of posters to help your business when opening after the second lockdown. Download below. ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY JOINS ROUND-TABLE WITH SHADOW CHANCELLOR
12/03/2021

Totally Locally was invited to a round-table discussion hosted by Anneliese Dodds, Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer along with business owners in Hebden Bridge to discuss the challenges that businesses have faced in recent years. ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY ON THE INDEPENDENT 2021 HAPPY LIST
06/03/2021

  You can see the Happy List 2021 –  HERE>>.   Full text: Marketing expert Chris Sands developed Totally Locally, a marketing strategy for local shops and businesses, which has helped thousands of businesses stay ...

BETWEEN THE LINES – A PODCAST WITH TIM HAIDAR
11/02/2021

Chris had a nice chat with Tim Haïdar from GS1 UK (barcode and logistics support company) as part of their “Between The Lines” series of Podcasts… a discussion all about Totally Locally’s work to help ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY NAMED IN BIG ISSUE’S 100 2021 CHANGEMAKERS – COVID HEROES
06/01/2021

We are thrilled that Totally Locally has been named as one of the UK’s Top 100 Changemakers for 2021. Such an honour to be named alongside such amazing people. The Big Issue writes: “With Covid-19, ...

HANG ON IN THERE…..
05/01/2021

We did a poster. Not for anything other than to say we’ll get through this together. We sincerely believe this. It’s here to download, put in your shop window, in your house or give to ...

HIGH STREETS ONLINE FEATURED ON NATIONAL NEWS
31/12/2020

We were featured on BBC Breakfast & BBC News all about our pilot .Shop website for Hebden Bridge and how it is having a positive impact on the independent shops in the town. This also ...

INSTAGRAM LIVE WITH TRIANGLE BAKEHOUSE
08/12/2020

Chris talks to Aaron and Vic of artisan bakery Triangle Bakehouse in Ripponden, West Yorkshire about how they started, their ethos, how traditional breads can help with health, real bread and the importance of community ...

OUR FIRST INSTAGRAM LIVE WITH BURNTISLAND
27/10/2020

Our Chris had a nice chat with Yvonne from Totally Locally Burntisland about their local campaign, Fiver Fest etc. Yvonne explains how Burntisland has seen amazing results with Fiver Fest and explains the history of ...

HEBDEN BRIDGE LAUNCHES PILOT HIGH STREETS ONLINE SITE
21/09/2020

Our first site from our High Streets Online initiative launched in Hebden Bridge and has been warmly received by local businesses and residents! We’re quite chuffed with this, digitising high streets is something we have ...

THE FUTURE OF HIGH STREETS & HOW WE CAN ALL PLAY A PART
12/06/2020

Over the last few months I’ve read lot of predictions for the high street. There are many different theories of what will constitute ‘normal’ when it comes to future town centres and high streets, and ...

RE-OPENING OF THE HIGH STREET POSTER SET FOR SHOPS & BUSINESSES
03/06/2020

A set of posters to help your business when opening after the lockdown. Download below. ...

SHOP LIKE YOUR HIGH STREET DEPENDS ON IT – POSTER
15/04/2020

2 POSTERS TO DOWNLOAD & PRINT The green one lets you add your shop name and web address / social media. The Orange one is a general one.   You can download them as print ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY ON BBC NATIONAL NEWS
15/03/2020

Totally Locally, Chris Sands & Leek featured on BBC1 national News. It compares Doncaster Council who spent £50 million on the High Street (they have done a good job) with Totally Locally’s Grassroots, low-budget approach. ...

FIVER FEST FEBRUARY REACHES 100 TOWNS!
09/02/2020

100 TOWNS ARE JOINING IN – POSSIBLY THE BIGGEST GRASS-ROOTS HIGH STREET INITIATIVE EVER RUN! HOW GOOD IS THAT?! Fiver Fest has been running in individual towns as part of the full Totally Locally Town ...

FIRST TOTALLY LOCALLY PODCAST!
29/07/2019

I spent some time chatting with my friend Amy Harbour, who was one of the very first people to take Totally Locally to heart. Back in 2010, Amy ran a Haberdashery(!) in Hebden Bridge. I ...

OUR FIRST NATIONAL FIVER FEST
25/06/2019

Fiver Fest is an integral part of our Town Kit campaign – once a town has been told about the impact of spending just a fiver a week has in their area, the next logical ...

THE BOOKSHOP MANIFESTO
11/03/2019

We are chuffed to announce our Independent Bookshop Manifesto. ...

THE TOTALLY LOCALLY TIMES
07/03/2019

The Totally Locally Time template is part of the Town Kit. It’s been used by a few towns, but Totally Locally Shipston-on-Stour have really taken it to heart! They have printed & released 5 issues. ...

LITTLE THINGS YOU CAN DO
04/03/2019

LITTLE THINGS YOU CAN DO….  AS A BUSINESS  We’ve found that Independent Businesses, on average, use about 8 local suppliers. When a town takes on Totally Locally this usually double to an average of about ...

CRICKHOWELL ON BBC BREAKFAST
04/03/2019

Emma from Totally Locally Crickhowell was interviewed this week on the BBC Breakfast Show about winning High Street of the Year Award & High Street Hero Award 2019. She is a complete star. ...

THIS JUST MADE US LAUGH A LOT! IF HIGH STREET SHOPPING WAS LIKE ONLINE….
01/01/2019

...

SMALL ACTIONS MAKE BIG NUMBERS FOR THE UK ECONOMY
29/06/2016

….. and my maths mistake! Totally Locally is a campaign run in many towns across the UK and around the world (from France to Australia) and all those towns have their own Facebook pages. Tavistock ...

A TOTALLY LOCALLY BUSINESS STORY
26/02/2016

We often get asked ‘What is Totally Locally about, what do you do?” Coincidentally we have had this sent through from a business in Leek, one of our Totally Locally towns and we thought it ...

LETS TALK ABOUT PARKING….. OR NOT!
25/01/2016

Parking, it’s a big thing – we can all agree on that. You can pretty much guarantee that  when we go to a new Totally Locally town to give a talk, a workshop or a masterclass ...

TALE OF A TENNER – SPENDING LOCALLY & HOW THE MONEY GOES ROUND
06/12/2015

The Tale of the Magic Tenner. An amazing little film shot in Hebden Bridge, in Calderdale where Totally Locally HQ lives. Inspired by our magic tenner idea, but we had nothing to do with it! ...

Totally Locally Town Kit
THIS KIT WON’T FIX YOUR TOWN…. BUT YOU CAN
13/11/2015

What Totally Locally Is – And What It Isn’t! Deeeeeep Breath……. It’s a Toolkit not a magic wand It’s not a magic wand where you just fill in & print out some flyers and banners, ...

Chris receives an Honorary Degree
07/07/2015

In July 2015, Chris was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Staffordshire University. You could have knocked him down with a feather when he heard the news! This was for the work Chris did creating and ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY COMMENDED IN SOUTH AUSTRALIAN STATE PARLIAMENT
14/06/2015

The Launch of Totally Locally in Blackwood, South Australia was a huge success, so much so that their local MP, Sam Duluk, delivered this fantastic speech in State Parliament. I was lucky to meet Jonathan ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY CHRIS IN AUSTRALIA
21/04/2015

As Totally Locally takes off more in Australia, I’m working in South Australia with towns and groups on loads of different projects, including creating an identity for your town, engaging communities, workshops with groups on ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY CRICKHOWELL FIGHTS SUPERMARKET PLANS
29/03/2015

We thought we’d start to keep you up to date with a few of the things going on in some of the Totally Locally Towns. Around 150 people have turned out in Crickhowell High Street ...

LOVE YOUR TOWN
23/01/2015

One of the things we see with towns that go Totally Locally is a noticeable increase in pride in the town. This makes sense, we’re opening peoples eyes to the great things in their town, ...

THE SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT
21/01/2015

The Sunday Supplement – what is it? Is it a market? Yes. Is it an event? Yes. Is it an extra trading day for a town? Yes It is all of the above, done in ...

THE ECONOMICS OF BEING NICE
20/01/2015

(Original article in The Scarborough Comet) It’s always hard to explain the concept of Totally Locally, as there are so many threads. You are probably familiar with the £5 Message, but there is a lot ...

A TOURIST IN MY OWN TOWN
18/01/2015

One of the things we say with Totally Locally is be a tourist in your own town. And I have to say it’s a long time since I did this. Today I had an hour ...

WHAT IF THEY BUILT A SUPERMARKET AND NOBODY CAME?
18/01/2015

There are so many anti supermarket campaigns at the moment and it made me think. If the supermarket isn’t profitable shareholders would shut it down. They would leave, and the town would go back to how ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY AUSTRALIA TRIP – A SUMMARY BY CHRIS
17/01/2015

I’m back in England, after what was a crazy time talking Totally Locally in Australia & visiting in New Zeakand, I now realise it was a bit much to try & write the trip up ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY VERSUS THE SUPERMARKETS
09/01/2015

The Question Totally Locally Chris did a recent radio interview in which he was asked, and I paraphrase, What about the X amount of ASDA jobs in the area. Won’t going Totally Locally mean people ...

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
06/01/2015

So here we are going to discuss the one thing that no one really seems to want to discuss when it comes to keeping our towns and independent shops alive… Opening Hours. It’s a fact ...

DID YOU KNOW….?
07/12/2014

A nice little poster for you to write some great stuff about you or your shop. From what’s produced locally, to what you do that’s unique, to what’s your favourite shop to where you like ...

A WONDERFUL POEM ABOUT TOTALLY LOCALLY
04/03/2014

Whilst in Adelaide Chris went for a drink after a long day at the Place Leaders conference where he was talking. They love Totally Locally and he went through most of the towns and the ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY PRESENTATION IN FINLAND
04/03/2014

Well this is a bit crazy! Students at TAMK University in Finland have been hearing all about Totally Locally in a lecture! Particularly Totally Locally Burslem from Prof Jon Fairburn and Angela Lawrence of Staffordshire ...

VALLEY OF LIGHTS – FLOOD RELIEF PROJECT
21/05/2013

  An Award Winning Project by the Totally Locally team. VALLEY OF LIGHTS – WINNER OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT APSE Award 2013 – Best Community & Neighbourhood Initiative in The UK The Valley of Lights ...

THE TOTALLY LOCALLY AWARDS
30/06/2011

One day we had the idea to host a big award ceremony. Why the heck not – we liked the idea and with Totally Locally you can just do stuff so we did…. an Oscars ...

RELENTLESSLY POSITIVE – OUR BIGGEST EVER COMPLIMENT!
11/05/2011

Chris was interviewed by The Yorkshire Post about reviving the Great British High Street, with all the news of Mary Portas Review in the press, this reporter knew of a campaign a bit closer to ...