News & Events

Report on Action for Market Towns Convention

AMT's Convention was held at Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire earlier this month.

Melton claims to be the third oldest Market Town in England and appeared in the Domesday Book! Population 23,000 with a large hinterland of villages but no other towns within the large Borough.

Here are some quotes and comments that I noted;

'Thriving towns require evidence, self-knowledge and the ability to act'. Catherine Hammant, Chair, AMT

Philip Dunne, Conservative MP for Ludlow and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Rural Services, gave a good speech focussing on the recession and how it is affecting rural communities differently to urban (inc lower vacancy rates on MT High Streets than urban ones).

Inevitably given the impending election he outlined the Tories proposals - changing the small business tax, helping farmers who have diversified with small workspace to keep them as workspace (apparently some vacant ones have been made unoccupiable so the farmers don't have to pay tax!).

Housing - a Tory Govt would get rid of RSS Housing Allocations and create local Housing Trusts (poss on the CLT model) so that local people can decide how much and where new housing goes. No details on how that would work though!

Economic Development - RDA's would be disbanded, except for the Northern ones. County or sub-regional groupings of LA's would deliver ED (like MAA's perhaps). Business Rate discounts promoted and a 'Business Bonus' scheme where LA's can set a levy on businesses to pay for local improvements (like BID's perhaps?).

Planning - simpler system, more flexibility regards rural policy. No details though.

Broadband - home working is transforming communities; new ADSL technology will increase range from exchange to 12 miles, reducing number of disadvantaged people and businesses.

In summary - 'we support the localism agenda'. Grant Shapps has also recently talked of devolving power to the local/neighbourhood level - lets hope this includes Market Town Partnerships in setting priorities!

Chris Wade, Chief Exec at AMT gave an interesting presentation which you can download from the AMT site. It touched on the current and future barriers to developing sustainable communities. And some positives/opportunities from the recession; reduced pressure for out-of-town shopping centres & chain stores; rural housing is slightly more affordable; the recession provides incentives for local trade growth.

He talked about an idea for a 'Community Call to Account' where MT's are failing against a set of indicators for thriving towns.

I went on a Study Tour of the town looking at the marketing and promotion of the town generally and the markets (4 days a week). We were shown the Xmas marketing they have developed, plus the work on making a distinctive offer - they promote the town as the Rural Capital of Food (home of EU-designated/protected Pork Pies and Stilton Cheese) and hold the East Midlands Food and Drink Festival there each year. They are planning a Food and Drink Visitor Centre on the edge of the town.

Empty Shops - the two Town Centre Managers showed us a simple scheme where local artists show their work in empty shops for 3 weeks - rent free, they just arrange insurance - this brightens up the street and creates footfall which attracts potential tenants. Scheme had just started with 2 shops but 15 planned.

At the Market Town Awards, late on the first afternoon, I was particularly impressed by Todmorden's Incredible Edible local food initiative. But it was Faringdon's EcoWeek that won out.

Leslie Watson of Sustainability South-West spoke on day 2 - view her pres here

I went to a workshop by AMTi's Mike King and Steve Wylie from Savvy, a loyalty card company, looking at what activities can increase trade in towns. These break down into;

- support for independent retailers (listings guides and websites, training)

- physical improvements (from hanging baskets to shopfronts and town gateways)

- investing in marketing & tourism

You can view some of the presentations and workshop content at the AMT site here.

Created on October 30th 2009

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