Bishop Auckland traders are being urged to support a big marketing drive designed to encourage shoppers back into the town centre.

An advertising strategy will be presented to business people on Monday at a meeting called by the town's MP, Derek Foster.

Outline proposals from Durham marketing company Walker Hall Associates have already been welcomed by the Bishop Auckland Town Centre Forum. Now Mr Foster is hoping that traders will back the campaign and contribute to the cost of advertising and promoting the town centre as an excellent place to visit and shop.

Mr Foster is calling on the whole community to back the campaign. He is hoping that community groups will help with fundraising to pay the costs of the initiative.

He said yesterday: "This is a very exciting opportunity for Bishop Auckland. I hope the traders will give their support and we can embark on a marketing drive that will fire the imagination of the whole town.

"What we are talking about is advertising in newspapers, on local radio and on buses, to bring in shoppers from a wide area. I am hoping businesses large and small, community organisations, churches and other community groups will get behind it and make it possible.

"We want to get over the message that Bishop Auckland is a good place to shop.

"We already have more national chain shop frontage than there is in the MetroCentre. I find that absolutely staggering. It shows the wide range of shops we have to offer.

"To add to that, it is my ambition to extend the number and range of individual shops, because that it how we can re-energise the town centre."

New town centre manager Derek Toon is being introduced to traders at the meeting in the Queens Head at 6pm on Monday. An update on new parking arrangements is also on the agenda.

The Northern Echo has teamed up with Bishop Auckland Chamber of Trade on a Shopping for a Future campaign to encourage more people to use town centre shops.