TOWN trader Stacy Faulkner wants to set up a business association in Wellington just for women.

Stacy, who owns Nurtured By Nature in South Street, says many of the town’s shopkeepers are women and they would like an independent voice.

“Women in business want a forum where they feel comfortable,” said Stacy, who has been trading in the town for six years and at her current premises for three of them.

She said she had spoken to the female owners of three town stores who were also keen on the idea of a female business association.

She said it would allow business women to communicate with the council and the media, and perhaps could have well-known speakers to inspire members such as Wellington’s MP Rebecca Pow and high-powered businesswoman Deborah Meaden, from television’s Dragon’s Den, who lives in Somerset. Stacy said the existing county-wide business association for women met in the day-time but she would like a new town association to meet in the evening to allow traders to attend when their businesses were shut.

Stacy, who lives in Priory and offers complementary therapies and ‘eco’ products at her shop, as well as providing treatments, added: “An association may also inspire younger women to go into business.”

Meanwhile, looking ahead towards Christmas, Stacy said shopkeepers wanted to arrange an event for Small Business Saturday on November 26.

She said a market was being mooted and if that did not come about, individual events in shops.

“It’s a fallacy that independent traders are more expensive than national High Street retailers and the internet, and we want to stress that fact,” she added.