Natural England

New Beacon Towns show the way for rural areas - 24 July 2003

Each town has been chosen to demonstrate how to tackle a particular issue or range of issues, such as access to affordable broadband internet services, encouraging sustainable tourism and local food production/distribution and the role of the private sector in market town regeneration.   The nine towns have been chosen, in consultation with local partners, from more than 200 market towns involved in the Agency’s Market Towns Initiative.

Richard Wakeford, Countryside Agency chief executive, said: “Our Market Towns Initiative has been very successful in getting key local partners to work together to identify the issues facing their town and rural hinterland and, working with regional development agencies, to develop a programme of action to take the town forward.   But they have also thrown up some issues of concern more widely, for example how market towns can become the centres for local foods enterprises, linking in with schools as well as business development, or how to meet the needs of young people in the locality in a more focussed way.   Demonstrating ways to tackle the problems rural communities face and learning from and sharing the results are the core of the Countryside Agency’s work.   These beacon towns will act as test beds and provide opportunities to try different approaches to problem solving and new ways of doing things. They will provide examples and experience that other towns can use, as well as informing national and regional policy makers about ways to regenerate our market towns.                                                                                                                     

First beacon towns 2/….

“The first group of beacon towns, announced today, have been selected because they are excellent examples of towns in which interesting developmental work is happening.   They have all taken part in our Market Towns Initiative and carried out a healthcheck and already have well established partnership groups.   Through the combination of both this work with beacon towns and the Market Towns Initiative we hope market towns will fulfil our vision of providing convenient access to retail and professional services, and to training and jobs, leisure and cultural opportunities both for their own residents and those who live in surrounding villages.”

The Rural White Paper 2000 recognised the critical role that market towns play in rural life and asked the Countryside Agency to develop and promote a market towns healthcheck, to identify good practice and identify and support a national beacon town network.   More beacon towns will be announced later this year.

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Notes to editors

The Countryside Agency’s Market Towns Initiative includes a market towns toolkit.   This contains practical guidance on how to do a market towns healthcheck and advice about community participation, funding, for projects, training, transport and business support. All towns can access the toolkit at: www.countryside.gov.uk/market-towns.

The Countryside Agency is the statutory body working to make the quality of life better for people in the countryside and the quality of the countryside better for everyone.

Beacon Towns - Project Outlines

Barnard Castle with Middleton, Durham

This Beacon Town project will demonstrate how a public/private sector partnership can maximise the potential of broadband technology in developing new businesses, increasing uptake of e-commerce amongst rural businesses and coordination of town promotion/ information through further development of the existing Town Portal. A fixed wireless broadband network is expected to be operational by April 2004, with a technical feasibility study due to be completed this month and bids to run the network to be submitted by December 2003. This will then enable a wider network to operate across the area including links to the local Village Hall Consortium. 

A recent investigation into the amount of vacant space in the town revealed that 37% was either vacant, in marginal use or underused in some way. The challenge is how to reuse this valuable but difficult to utilise asset, so the town becomes more vibrant and viable.   Belper has a strong active town partnership and new work will investigate by the end of this year the issues relating to reuse of space and from March 2004 initiate projects showing how reuse works.   Lessons from project delivery will be disseminated to other market towns.  

A thriving local food sector has developed in Bridport and the surrounding area.    The Centre for Local Food opened in April 2003 was developed by the West Dorset Food and Land Trust and offers business incubation and training for local food enterprises.   The centre works as a partnership and encourages new initiatives.   Businesses can get practical help and are able to access technical and training support, such as advice on business planning or health and safety.   The project to develop local food enterprises will run through to October 2004 covering: training at the Centre for Local Food, business incubation and provision of workspace, food and nutrition work with schools, new social enterprise to supply local food to school-based initiatives and micro-finance for food enterprises, culmination in a celebration of Bridport’s Food Heritage.

There is no general business support/advice currently available in the town creating an assumption amongst the agriculture community with its dependence on seasonal work and relatively low wages that business support services do not cater for their needs. This project will develop a new approach to the support of business in rural areas by setting up an enterprise gateway that will provide business advice, for both start-up business and those wishing to expand, over the next two years.   Business Links, community partnerships and others will be involved in demonstrating how an enterprise gateway in a market town can be used as a model for business support in rural areas.  

The Countryside Agency, in partnership with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, has helped Richmond to develop a strategic framework for the sustainable economic, social and environmental use of Richmond. The framework provides an ideal opportunity to demonstrate innovative work in a typical market town, and will provide good opportunity for replication in other towns.  This Beacon Town project will examine how heritage and environment can be used as a driver for economic revitalisation in a typical English market town setting and will cover, over the next two years: realising the potential of heritage assets, enhancing access for all and maximising economic, cultural and community development opportunities.

This project will address young people's services in Hexham and family services in Haltwhistle. LINKS Hexham Young People’s Centre is a one-stop shop for vulnerable young people, tackling homelessness in conjunction with the Princes’ Trust.   The Whistle Stop Children’s Centre provides a wide range of services including: ICT, skills training, housing, transport, victim support, crime prevention, youth services and Business Link. A Purple Partnership has been developed with education and health service   providers to work to adapt  mainstream services to the needs of the rural community. The centres in the two towns will be further developed by February 2004 to give full coverage of child and youth services throughout the Tynedale District.

The Beacon Town project in Whitby will help the town develop as a model for sustainable tourism, building upon the needs and opportunities identified in the Market Towns healthcheck and subsequent action plan. Sustainable tourism will be embedded into the heart of the town’s regeneration strategies, ensuring tourism is recognised as the major potential driver for economic change. Over the next eighteen months a number of demonstration projects, seminars and a conference will be organised to encourage new and diverse activity in the field.

The aim of this project is to demonstrate how small market towns acting as rural service centres can attract inward investment and private sector engagement, as a result of undertaking the Countryside Agency’s Market Towns healthcheck and developing an action plan.   How community led partnerships can deliver tangible and significant revitalisation in a market town will be explored building on the potential for the town to control its own development.   By December 2003, the action plan will be developed by partners into a development framework for the town, which will be used for negotiating public and private sector investment and for decision making by the planning authority.