This is a significant milestone for inyourarea, as it represents a jump from just 200,000 in March 2020.

It comes as Reach partners with DownYourHighStreet to launch #thinkwhereyoushop, a new campaign calling on people to support the UK’s independent retailers and think about where their purchasing power goes.

Speaking about the registered user growth, Mick Robins, director of InYourArea, said: “This is a fantastic achievement which shows how InYourArea is engaging customers on a community level in neighbourhoods right across the UK.

“I’m really excited about our future plans for InYourArea as we continue to evolve and grow over the coming months and years.”

Ed Walker, editor-in-chief of InYourArea, added: “We saw a rapid acceleration of our audience throughout the lockdown periods and we’ve been working hard during 2021 to ensure we’ve retained people’s attention.

“With the support of our newsrooms across Reach we continue to see InYourArea’s engaging tools, such as traffic and travel updates, weather alerts, food hygiene ratings and more become essential once again as people return to some sort of normality within their lives.”

InYourArea continues to evolve and in recent months has added several new features, including the ability for users to see the average price of gas and electricity in their neighbourhoods, plus a new-look things to do section.

To join InYourArea, and see how the site can connect your business with its growing userbase, simply visit the site and enter your postcode to get started.