On behalf of our sponsors, the Burley in Wharfedale Community Trust, we’ve built a directory of local businesses in and around our village, with two major objectives:

• to make villagers, and visitors, aware of the shopping opportunities and resources that are available within the village, and to help in encouraging people to shop locally where possible; should that not be either practical or desirable then to offer alternative options within just a few miles of Burley.
• to provide an opportunity for Burley business owners/operators a means of displaying their presence on-screen in a structured manner, any and all businesses within the parish boundary, as a priority, along with their contact details and active links to their own media pages (facebook, Twitter etc) and/or their own website.

Over the next few months we, as a village, are going to start to experience quite a large influx of new homesteaders, many of whom will be seeking information on the facilities that Burley has to offer; that is when the Business Directory earns its keep. And if their particular need cannot be fulfilled from within the village then as a caring community we should perhaps be prepared to point them in the right direction, and this can be achieved quite comprehensively now that we have the ability to do so.

There are, of course, two potential users for our Business Directory – the general public, and business owners. The business owners have their own pages, explaining the requirements and the ‘how-to’ of the system – take a look if you want to know how it’s set up, but please don’t try to make any entries just out of curiosity.

The instructions on how to use the directory by the general public are quite straightforward, but the numbers shown in brackets need some explanation:

the Directory is split into Main categories with more definitive sub-categories, so that each business entry is easier to find. An example would be the sub-category of Ladies Hairdressers, which sits under the main category of HAIR & BEAUTY. Some of those ladies hairdressers also provide a hairdressing service for men (Barbers, Gents Hairdressers) which are separate categories, so add one item for each of the sub categories whilst keeping the actual number of listed businesses in the Main Category just one count per business, irrespective of the number of sub-categories; took quite a while for that to sink in for us.

Actually, here’s a spoiler for you. I keep referring to ‘us’ and ‘we’ in various dialogues while the truth is it should be ‘me’ or ‘I’, ‘cos I’m the only one at this sharp end. The name’s Malcolm, and when things settle down a bit and there are a hundred or so business entries I might entertain the idea of seeking some unpaid assistance.

So, if things in this complicated but brilliant system don’t always work properly first time, it’s down to me – not the Community Trust, although it’s they who have financed and supported the website so generously. It’s part of what they do – supported by their ever growing membership (a blatant plug).

Before you start asking, no, we don’t display star ratings in the Directory – that’s something you can find in the social media outlets and/or websites that many businesses use as their more reactive advertising platform, and it’s one of the reasons we always link to them for each and every business.

Generally, as well as Burley we’re looking to cover the Ilkley to Otley area, and neighbouring suburbs/villages such as Guiseley, Menston and the like.

Finally, we make no apologies for promoting businesses within the parish of Burley in Wharfedale (which includes Woodhead and Stead) over everywhere else – you’ll soon become aware that Burley businesses are displayed first in every category they represent, but we also welcome local outside interests to contribute where we don’t have coverage.

Go to the Directory page and have a look around – don’t worry, you won’t break anything (it says here). And we’re taking business registrations NOW.