Cabinet hears of market towns funding success

A £3.5m fund set up to provide a boost to Shropshire’s market towns is making good progress, with a number of projects having received funding and many other applications currently being considered. 

Shropshire Council’s Market Towns Revitalisation Programme was launched in September 2010.  Under the programme money is available to spend on capital schemes that will provide an immediate stimulus to the county’s market towns. 

Shropshire Councillors are working with local town and parish councillors and their local communities to identify and prioritise projects that will make the most effective contribution to the economic revitalisation of their town. 

Under the programme, £2.5 million is being made available to support the larger market towns of Bridgnorth, Church Stretton, Ludlow, Market Drayton, Oswestry and Whitchurch.  So far over £1.1 million has been awarded to a range of projects, including the Festival Drayton Centre, Ludlow College and the Oswestry Showground. 

A further £500,000 is available for the 11 other market towns throughout the county to bid into.  These are Shifnal, Wem, Albrighton, Broseley, Ellesmere, Highley, Cleobury Mortimer, Craven Arms, Much Wenlock, Bishop’s Castle, and Pontesbury and Minsterley. Funding has so far been awarded for tourism activities in Much Wenlock, the Red House Trust in Albrighton, the Birchmeadow Centre in Broseley, Bishop’s Castle Town Hall and Enterprise South West. 

In addition, £500,000 is available for initiatives that would benefit the country’s rural communities through the Rural Challenge Fund.  The first round of this funding will be supporting the development of new community facilities that demonstrated long-term sustainability and their contribution to the local economy.#

A second round of this fund will be established inviting expressions of interest to be submitted before the end of November 2011.  The purpose of the Market Towns Revitalisation Fund is to provide an economic boost to those areas affected by the economic downturn. 

A report presented to Shropshire Council’s Cabinet yesterday (Wednesday 14 September 2011) provided an update on the progress of the MTRP and the process by which applications for funding can be submitted and considered. 

Councillor Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for economy and waste, said:

“This programme aims to provide an immediate boost to those areas affected by the economic downturn and to contribute to the long-term economic revitalisation of our market towns.  It is providing local councillors and local people with an opportunity to say how they think this money could and should be spent, to provide a real and immediate benefit to their town.” 

For more information, go to shropshire.gov.uk/markettowns. 

Shropshire is also pleased to be playing host to the annual national Action for Market Towns Convention, which is taking place in Ludlow on Wednesday 12 October and Thursday 13 October 2011.  The convention provides an opportunity to showcase Shropshire initiatives around localism and enterprise, and to share at a national level how councillors are working at a local level with communities and businesses to revitalise their market towns.