Peterborough's Safe Local Trades celebrates 15th years protecting consumers from rogue traders

​​An enterprising Peterborough woman who created a special organisation to keep consumers safe from rogue traders and scammers is celebrating a milestone.

Eileen Le Voi established Peterborough’s Safe Local Trades (SLT) in order to match customers only to traders who had been tried, tested, vetted and DBS checked traders.

Now Eileen is celebrating the 15th anniversary of Safe Local Trades, an online business set up on October 1, 2008, and which has hundreds of members across dozens of trades.

Many of those members, including some who are celebrating their own 15th anniversary with Safe Local Trades, recently met up to mark the occasion.

Eileen’s work to champion the consumer by stepping up the fight against fraudsters, scammers and rogue traders with relentless testing and checking, has secured Safe Local Trades numerous community awards.

She said: “The success of Safe Local Trades is due in the main to the fantastic members we have on board, all reliable, professional and recommended. We have more than 17,500 genuine member reviews on the website, offering customers peace of mind.”

Safe Local Trades also works with many organisations including Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Neighbourhood Watch and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Against Scams Partnership.

Eileen added: “Much effort is placed on safeguarding the more vulnerable people in our communities, with working with the relevant agencies to offer advice on avoiding rogue traders, reporting doorstep crime and how to get involved with your local neighbourhood watch scheme.

“It is hard to believe that SLT is 15 years old, and I am extremely proud of what we have achieved and look forward to going from strength to strength.”

One of the first traders to join was Tony Bogusz of Style Home Improvements.

He said: “It has been a vital building block for our company. It helps reassure customers that we are a reputable, trustworthy company, and with reviews and photos, customers can decide if we are the company for them before contacting us.”