Website  supports local firms

Shops across the area are being encouraged to join  DownYourHighStreet.com by Portsmouth North MP, Penny Mordaunt.

The web page is free to register and is being touted as a way to help halt the decline of trade across the nation's struggling high streets.

Set up in 2013, the website's creators said the page was a way to '˜level the playing field' offering local retailers a chance to show-off their trade on a national platform.

International development secretary Ms Mordaunt said: '˜It is a free to register, no fuss solution for independent retailers to evolve on the high street. The only criteria is that independent retailers must have a physical presence to sell with them.'