The chairman of Budleigh Salterton Chamber of Commerce has called on residents to support local shops, following the Leave vote in the EU referendum.

Christine Bentley said that this would help traders to deal with uncertainty that could follow the vote – while highlighting that changes to EU imports may not have such a major impact locally.

She said: “Most of the goods available in Budleigh town centre are not European imports - so there would not seem to be too much difference in availability, prices etc in the short term, following the country’s vote to withdraw from the European market.

“However, there is going to be a long period of uncertainty, about wider matters - after all the experts could not agree on how the changes would affect everyday life.

“As always in these situations the High Street can expect to be hit hard as people will be less inclined to spend - so I urge people to please use your local shops and businesses. Talk to the owners and staff, use them, order from them and help keep the area alive.”