THE Abbey Pride scheme which encourages businesses in Waltham Abbey to develop good window displays to encourage tourism and trade should be expanded across Essex, a business group has said.

The FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) has praised the scheme, run by Waltham Abbey Town Partnership.

David Miles, chairman of the South West Essex branch, said: “This is a very effective and low cost way of encouraging a general improvement in the appearance of a retail area and we congratulate Waltham Abbey Town Partnership on initiating the scheme which we hope will be taken up by other shopping centres across the county to help independent retailers compete effectively with the major superstores.”