LANCASHIRE businesses came together love all things local.

The Love Local Expo, held at Impact Conferencing in Burnley, allows only businesses from the county to exhibit and make connections.

The expo, now in its fourth year, attracted 55 businesses, ranging from a home tyre service to a house-drawn gin bar, attracting 450 visitors.

And Rachel Kay, director of LoveLocal, said the event was a great success and gave chances of neighbouring businesses to talk and network.

She said: "Business owners often don't know what services are in their local area and they look further afield to get the things they need.

"I can't count the amount of times that people have got talking at one of these events and found out they can source what they need socially.

"And then it snowballs as people then discover they have more in common that they first thought and they discover new businesses they can talk to.

"Although we only allow people from Lancashire to exhibit at the expo, we get visitors from all over the country coming to see what we have going on.

"We also had the breakout sessions and talks that are very popular so it's a fantastic event.

"The knock on benefit is that any new business that is created helps local businesses, which helps local people and that helps the local economy."