In commercial terms the small shop keepers have gained and residents have a genuine alternative to the nearby larger towns. Last November a new private wet fish shop opened, with a product choice outstnpping anything available elsewhere. The proprietor reports excellent results, and we believe his presence will also draw in more people. SR Ward, Chairman, Environment Committee, Paddock Wood Town Council. Its first demonstration projects this year are to be in East Cambridgeshire and the New Forest, where the CTRU will develop district-wide policies for town centre management.
Most towns are well-versed in how to bid for regeneration, lottery or other funding.
The Market Towns' Programme will concentrate on adding value to existing commitment by, for example, preparing strategies and costed action plans to support funding bids, by leading programmes of policy development and partnership building with local stakeholders, or by developing projects so they become self-sustaining. Most small country towns are facing up to major economic change. They have a need for an integrated economic development strategy, partly to stem the exodus of daily commuters and to make them more sustainable in the long-term. In North Wiltshire several town centres have attracted new enterprises and computer businesses, the result, partly, of an attractive and peaceful working environment. Viable town centres.