NEWS Shopper is proud to launch a new scheme which will reward people for doing good deeds.

The Kindness Club will offer an incentive for people to be nice to others.

To join the club people must show they have done something good for somebody else.

It does not have to be a huge, heroic effort. It can be something little yet significant which brightens someone’s day or makes their life better in a small way.

The privilege of joining the club will be exclusive deals from local businesses that are being encouraged to sign up to the Kindness Charter, committing themselves to rewarding members of the public for carrying out kind acts.

It’s a win-win idea.

Members of the Kindness Club will not only get a warm feeling from helping others but will be rewarded for their actions, which may come in useful in these difficult financial times.

For their part, companies which join the scheme will get positive publicity and some extra trade. We realise business cannot be run on goodwill alone.

Life is full of doom and gloom. There is too much negative news. So people say.

It’s certainly true that News Shopper reports on crime, death and destruction every day.

There is not much we can do to make the bad news go away and being a news service we have to report it.

But this is a way of highlighting the more positive side of life, giving thanks for those hundreds or possibly thousands of happy little events each day that do not make the news, when someone does something kind for a stranger.

Many people do not need prompting to be considerate or generous to others. For them this scheme says well done for their good deeds.

For other people kindness does not come so easily. After all, we live in a cynical world. We hope this scheme encourages you to release your inner nice.

We will reveal more about how you can join the Kindness Club soon.

To begin with we are looking to recruit local businesses to the scheme.

If you join your company will be added to the Kindness Club roll of honour which will sit permanently on our website. This may be printed from time to time in our newspapers.

To be eligible you must put forward an offer or discount which will be available to club members.

If you run a shop it could be a money-off voucher. If you provide a service it could be a discount on the price. If you run a restaurant it could be a special meal deal.

We are looking for businesses willing to reward the public’s good deeds with small yet meaningful good deeds of their own.

For more details about getting your business involved in the scheme email web editor Simon Bull or call 01689 885713.