Bathurst Regional Council launched the gift cards in April 2015 to encourage people to support local businesses.

And council has been thrilled with the program’s success and continuing popularity.

A report to councillors by acting environmental, planning and building services director Richard Denyer said 1515 have been “loaded” in the Bathurst program’s 17 months in operation, making it the most successful such scheme in NSW.

“Compared to other regional centres with gift card programs, Bathurst has proven to be the most successful regional centre in terms of card sales and amount loaded over a comparable period,” the report states.

“These results indicate that the marketing campaign conducted by council’s economic development section has been highly successful and the Bathurst community is supporting the initiative.”

The Bathurst Buy Local Gift Card is an EFTPOS based system that works like any other gift card or voucher-based system.

The only difference is that the money can only be spent in Bathurst at participating stores.

Of the $103,381 loaded onto gift cards so far, $72,490 has been redeemed at participating businesses – ensuring that money has remained within the Bathurst economy.

“The gift card encourages residents to shop locally and demonstrates council’s support for local business, economic prosperity and jobs growth,” the to councillors report states.

“Currently there are 126 local businesses participating in the program.”