A FLORIST in Salisbury is offering to pay for shoppers' parking in a bid to boost small businesses and increase the number of visitors coming to the city.

Shirley Snells in Milford Street has launched an initiative to pay for two hours of a customer's parking (up to £2.80) if they spend more than £50 in store and can show a picture of their parking ticket.

The team at the florist hope that by echoing the idea launched by Debenhams earlier this week, they will be able to bring more business to Salisbury and encourage other independent businesses to also take part.

Owner of Shirley Snells, Jill Jolliffe, said to do this initiative was a "no brainer", adding: "We read about the Debenhams advert and we just thought, what a brilliant idea, so we wanted to offer the same."

Shirley Snells has been in the city for 49 years, and over Christmas a selection of festive stock including holly wreaths and Christmas-inspired plants are up for grabs, but trading has been "difficult" and "much slower this Christmas", according to Jill.

She added: "What we'd like to do is encourage other small businesses to do the same as well, Novichok has happened and all of our little businesses have been hit hard so let's move forward and get people to spend more time in the city.

"It can't do any harm, it's a small thing we can do to help get people to shop local and spend the afternoon in Salisbury."

The scheme is now live until December 31.