Countryside Agency Archive
Breadcrumbs
Market Towns Need Partners for Life - 15 June 2000
The Countryside Agency is taking the lead to help reinvigorate England's market towns, according to Countryside Agency chief executive Richard Wakeford. Speaking to the International conference of the Association of Town Centre Managers in London today he said: We are looking to reinvent market towns as thriving 21st century service centres for the rural hinterlands. That require local and national partnerships.
"We aim to establish a national 'health check' to examine the
economic, social and environmental 'health' of market towns. This
will enable local authorities to identify danger signals. Beyond
that we envisage an intensive community planning process -
involving local people, local government, relevant agencies and
experts who can advise on the art of the possible. Implementation
to achieve the agreed vision would then be for all the relevant
agencies (regional development agencies and others), operating in
partnership to focus funding where it is most needed."This approach has three particular strengths:
it is 'joined-up' and cross-cutting. It encompasses regeneration, planning and the environment and community empowerment all of which reflect and reinforce one another.
it is not just about town centres. By focusing our resources on these centres of population we hope to bring benefits to the whole countryside and the people who live and work in it.
it is community-led, founded in the vision local communities have for themselves.
"The Countryside Agency is developing a range of tools which can bring communities together. One such is being developed in East Sussex by the Rural Community Council which provides a methodology for town partnerships in various stages of their lives to assess and improve their effectiveness. And we are drawing together a menu of approaches that can be applied in market towns to spark off regeneration.
"But all this requires a concerted effort from all involved: community organisations, local government, regional development agencies and all the bodies whose programmes can be bought to bear to reinvigorate markets towns for the 21st century."
