Byline: Peter Ross

The Borders town has launched its own currency in a bid to persuade its people to spend locally and help protect its fragile economy

IT IS a little before 11am on a sunny Friday in Hawick and a 54-year-old woman in a top hat is walking down the high street proclaiming revolution. "Ah, bugger it!" she says, rather poshly, as a strap breaks on her home-made sandwich board.

Danielle Grunberg, a local eco-campaigner, is one of the people behind the Hawick Pound, a new currency exclusive to the Borders town. "Hello, can I give you a leaflet?" she says to an orange-haired woman browsing a clothes rail outside Oxfam. "We're about to launch the Hawick Pound at the farmers' market. It's one pound for a Hawick Pound. You can buy them and spend your money locally."

The woman takes a leaflet but doesn't seem too sure. Most of the people approached appear similarly mystified. Maybe it's the top hat. Hawick fashion runs more to the bunnet. In the local bakery, an old man glares up from his Selkirk bannock. "I'm no' votin' for them, onyway," he says, mistaking Grunberg for a Monster Raving Loony.

The new banknotes, known as Hawicks, are the first local currency ever introduced in Scotland. They can be bought, sold and exchanged for goods in Hawick and nowhere else. The idea is to boost the struggling local economy by promoting the use of those small businesses which have agreed to accept the notes and offer them in change. Supermarkets and chain stores have not been invited to participate, as organisers of the scheme claim that 80 per cent of the money spent in such places ends up leaving the town.

So far, around 40 local shops have agreed to take the Hawick Pound. A butcher, a baker, a fishmonger, a keycutter, a purveyor of curiosities, and so on. You can buy everything from a bridie to a brass eagle. No booze, though. The pubs are yet to sign up. A drouth in Hawick can only be slaked with sterling. "Naebdy's approached us," says Martin Christy, 53, manager of the appropriately named Queen's Head. "But I think if they did, we'd probably take part. Hawick's on its knees and something needs to be done to change that."

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