The Piece Hall column: Preserve the past with your present choices - how shopping small at The Piece Hall makes a big difference!

Then there are all the brilliant things that happen here, amazing shows from global superstars, exhibitions from world class artists, and fantastic community events like our super successful inaugural Scarecrow Festival, and up-and-coming Halloween programme. There’s also the mentoring and training for future creatives and last but absolutely not least, our ever loyal, hardworking tenant community!

One of the ways we help preserve The Piece Hall is by renting units to a wonderful selection of independent businesses. I still find it hard to believe there were 315 separate traders rooms when the building first opened. Those tiny units have now been converted to suit modern requirements but most of the doors remain. It’s why we still get comments about “empty units” as people see closed doors. They’re closed because every shop has multiple doors and it’s not practical to use them all! The record for one unit is 13 doors held by Al’s Emporium.

I want to dedicate most of this column to our fantastic team of modern-day traders after one of our tenants bravely spoke up in a social media post earlier this month about the realities of running a small business in the current climate. House of 925 is a gorgeous boutique of upfront fashion pieces that has been here since The Piece Hall reopened, but every business has its off days and Kate went online to share that one day, her takings were just £20.

Hundreds of people read Kate’s post admitting she’d only had a single sale and her plea to people to consider shopping small and local, sharing how much every purchase means to the owners.

We all know retail is struggling, for so many reasons, the cost of living, crazy fuel prices, changing customer behaviour and the dominance of online shopping. Add the ongoing roadworks into the mix and it’s not difficult to see why things are so hard for local business.

So I really just want to echo and amplify Kate’s voice and make a plea for all the independents all over town and across Calderdale. As shopping small and local doesn’t just help them, it benefits us all.

Economists estimate that for every £1 spent with a local independent business, up to 70p stays in the local economy. If you shop at a major national chain or online giant, it’s estimated that drops to between 5p and 40p with the rest immediately "leaking" out to distant corporate headquarters, offshore accounts, or international supply chains.

I sometimes hear that our shops are expensive, often from people who haven’t visited for years. In Kate’s store prices range from as little as £1.00 up to £45.00. And as we head towards the busiest shopping period of the year, I’m going to give the final words to Kate, who I know speaks for all our traders: “Please, where you can try to support small businesses, they really are the backbone of a town or community and without them it would be a very dull world.”